Musings of the Obsessive Kind

I have tried out the first two episodes of Horse Healer, driven by curiosity and the fact that I had nothing else to watch on the plane. Other than the fact that it was awesome to see Daddy Damsari pop up for a brief role, SKIP SKIP SKIP!!! It's well-made and competently acted, but very much not my thing. I was about as involved as I would be studying merits of rival brands of cardboard. Traditional sageuk about medicine with ample time devoted to childhood *yawn* portions - no thank you. Especially since I saw the trailer for The Great Seer and it looked amazing:



Boring medical stuff with actors I have zero interest in or Ji Sung as a mystic, french kissing, Kim So Yeon, and Ji Jin Hee in skulls and war paint? It's a no-brainer. Oh, and for my fellow Faith fanatics - the sexy sexy warrior played by Ji Jin Hee is the one who eventually kills Choi Young, according to history.

I've also watched the second ep of Oohlala Couple and it was hilarious like nobody's business. The wife is AWESOME and the swap is going to be great. Also, did I get it right that one of the two Fates was responsible for the husband falling for Not-Rie? Hmmm. Not that she was responsible for him being a selfish bastard. Oh, and past life stuff is officially awesome:






I want to watch the past life drama!

Oh, and Glass Mask is finally getting subbed (on viki). I normally don't do dailies, but I am going to check it out due to my love of Seo Woo who is an amazing, underrated actress. I need her to come back to normal-length, primetime, non-weekend dramas. Please?

Finally, I finished To the Beautiful You. It wasn't anything groundbreaking, or anything I will even remember much into next week, but it was fluffy, as cute as it was brainless and, I managed to finish it, which is more than I can say for any other version of that story.

(Plus, the ending was so darn cute!) (   )

I have tried out the first two episodes of Horse Healer, driven by curiosity and the fact that I had nothing else to watch on the plane. Other than the fact that it was awesome to see Daddy Damsari pop up for a brief role, SKIP SKIP SKIP!!! It's well-made and competently acted, but very much not my thing. I was about as involved as I would be studying merits of rival brands of cardboard. Traditional sageuk about medicine with ample time devoted to childhood *yawn* portions - no thank you. Especially since I saw the trailer for The Great Seer and it looked amazing:



Boring medical stuff with actors I have zero interest in or Ji Sung as a mystic, french kissing, Kim So Yeon, and Ji Jin Hee in skulls and war paint? It's a no-brainer. Oh, and for my fellow Faith fanatics - the sexy sexy warrior played by Ji Jin Hee is the one who eventually kills Choi Young, according to history.

I've also watched the second ep of Oohlala Couple and it was hilarious like nobody's business. The wife is AWESOME and the swap is going to be great. Also, did I get it right that one of the two Fates was responsible for the husband falling for Not-Rie? Hmmm. Not that she was responsible for him being a selfish bastard. Oh, and past life stuff is officially awesome:






I want to watch the past life drama!

Oh, and Glass Mask is finally getting subbed (on viki). I normally don't do dailies, but I am going to check it out due to my love of Seo Woo who is an amazing, underrated actress. I need her to come back to normal-length, primetime, non-weekend dramas. Please?

Finally, I finished To the Beautiful You. It wasn't anything groundbreaking, or anything I will even remember much into next week, but it was fluffy, as cute as it was brainless and, I managed to finish it, which is more than I can say for any other version of that story.

(Plus, the ending was so darn cute!) (   )

( Just some shippy caps because metaing this is like trying to read water )

Did I mention that somehow she still thinks he thinks she's a boy? LOL.

I believe in working my way up, so let's start with the bad. WTF, eps 11-12 of TTBY? How is it possible for my cute fluffy drama to go so boring? The fact that these eps focused mainly on the secondaries is a big big problem. I just don't find Eun Gyul either cute or compelling (I know, I know, minority of one) and why they thought spending a lot of time on Hana or Tae Joon/Hana would be of interest to anyone is one of the world's big mysteries. On the plus side, all that fast-forwarding saved me a lot of time so yay?

Worth checking out solely for this:



( More plot-relevant caps )

Now, on to the mediocre, namely May Queen. I am in with this for the long haul (once again, with plentiful strategic fastforwarding) because I love the actors of the main trio and their chemistry and interactions are compelling, but my impression that this drama is written by brain-dead hamsters on a tight deadline has not lessened (why is this getting better ratings than the vastly superior Five Fingers again?) The way the whole 'is she my daughter? nope, probably not' thing is handled in this ep would have made my eyes fall out of my sockets if I felt invested enough in the ludicrous birthplot to care. I am beginning to believe pretty much every character in this except for the trio, In Hwa, and the uncle and aunt have cement for brains. This said, HJH is a darling, Jae Hee is doing his best in a role that is not making me ship him with HJH (grow a spine, dude! Go Oedipal on Daddy!) and the whole thing is worth watching for the marvelous faces Kim Jae Won makes. Why so darling, KJW! The drama gets about 50x better any time he is on-screen and he and HHJ have lovely chemistry. Can we ditch the rest of the waterlogged plot and just concentrate on them shipbuilding and enacting the most adorable revenge on everyone? Or something. I mean, who could say no to this face:



( Some caps )

And now on to the good - episode 4 of Nice Guy. Even cranky and sick me was not immune to how good this was. One of the things I love about this drama is that scenes are given room to breathe, characters (incredibly complex and fascinating) are given room to develop and process...



( More thoughts and a ton of caps )

And that's it for today, folks!

I believe in working my way up, so let's start with the bad. WTF, eps 11-12 of TTBY? How is it possible for my cute fluffy drama to go so boring? The fact that these eps focused mainly on the secondaries is a big big problem. I just don't find Eun Gyul either cute or compelling (I know, I know, minority of one) and why they thought spending a lot of time on Hana or Tae Joon/Hana would be of interest to anyone is one of the world's big mysteries. On the plus side, all that fast-forwarding saved me a lot of time so yay?

Worth checking out solely for this:



( More plot-relevant caps )

Now, on to the mediocre, namely May Queen. I am in with this for the long haul (once again, with plentiful strategic fastforwarding) because I love the actors of the main trio and their chemistry and interactions are compelling, but my impression that this drama is written by brain-dead hamsters on a tight deadline has not lessened (why is this getting better ratings than the vastly superior Five Fingers again?) The way the whole 'is she my daughter? nope, probably not' thing is handled in this ep would have made my eyes fall out of my sockets if I felt invested enough in the ludicrous birthplot to care. I am beginning to believe pretty much every character in this except for the trio, In Hwa, and the uncle and aunt have cement for brains. This said, HJH is a darling, Jae Hee is doing his best in a role that is not making me ship him with HJH (grow a spine, dude! Go Oedipal on Daddy!) and the whole thing is worth watching for the marvelous faces Kim Jae Won makes. Why so darling, KJW! The drama gets about 50x better any time he is on-screen and he and HHJ have lovely chemistry. Can we ditch the rest of the waterlogged plot and just concentrate on them shipbuilding and enacting the most adorable revenge on everyone? Or something. I mean, who could say no to this face:



( Some caps )

And now on to the good - episode 4 of Nice Guy. Even cranky and sick me was not immune to how good this was. One of the things I love about this drama is that scenes are given room to breathe, characters (incredibly complex and fascinating) are given room to develop and process...



( More thoughts and a ton of caps )

And that's it for today, folks!

This drama continues to be adorable (even though I should not watch it soon after Nice Guy, because it's giving me emotional disassociation). I continue to be bored by everything but Tae Joon/Joon Hee, but luckily they are so perfect together, it doesn't matter. The arrival of potential romantic rival (hello there, Dong Hyub from Gentleman's Dignity!) totally makes Tae Joon realize his feelings. Of course, secondary girl is being her evil self but this time her plan makes no sense and for Tae Joon to follow along makes no sense - if he will pretend to date evil girl so JH won't be revealed as a girl and thus he can keep her by her and not hurt her, he is insane because it WILL hurt Jae Hee and it won't keep her much by his side either.

Oh, and there are totally random Minho shirtlessness and modeling sequences which are blatantly catering to fangirls but make me squee. :P

( Some caps of adorableness )

I know that TTBY has drawn a short straw when brains or any pretense to a plot were handed out and it pretty much is designed to appeal to teen fangirls into the bargain by giving them 'my heroic idol oppa' scenes by the cartload but somehow I adore it to bits. Out of the 6 airing kdramas I am following (7, if you count just ended Gaksital), TTBY is the odd kid out if you compare my preferences and my dramas. I mean, Faith and Arang and Gaksital are fusion period dramas, my favorite genre ever (and star some of my favorite actors and actresses to boot). Five Fingers and May Queen are those sprawling, revenge and damage-driven family sagas I love (not to mention, once again, full of actors I slavishly follow). And Answer Me 1997 has the same slice of life/indie vibe as Shut Up. All true to pattern.



And then we have TTBY - it a kdrama adaptation of a shoujo manga, something I have not liked since enjoying the trainwreck that was Boys Over Flowers back in 2008/9. Not only that, but unlike BOF, it's (a) not based on one of my favorite mangas ever but on one I am indifferent to and (b) doesn't star actors but largely idols with little to no acting experience.

I don't like even the well-loved poppy teen fantasy dramas like You're Beautiful and am notoriously curmudgeonly about them. But here, this little silly fluffy darling - I am hopeless before it. I don't know what it is - perhaps it's the fact that it doesn't try to be more than it is. Perhaps it's the camerawork. Perhaps it's the leads, who are immensely likeable, have great chemistry, need each other as characters (and the idols are actually doing a good job). Perhaps it's my inner teen girl screaming free. But whatever it is, I adore TTBY. I guess we all have our 'odd one out' dramas now and then :)

Anyway, enough blabbing, some adorableness by TJ/JH.

( Here here here here here here here here here )

Bring on the cuteness of next week!

I know that TTBY has drawn a short straw when brains or any pretense to a plot were handed out and it pretty much is designed to appeal to teen fangirls into the bargain by giving them 'my heroic idol oppa' scenes by the cartload but somehow I adore it to bits. Out of the 6 airing kdramas I am following (7, if you count just ended Gaksital), TTBY is the odd kid out if you compare my preferences and my dramas. I mean, Faith and Arang and Gaksital are fusion period dramas, my favorite genre ever (and star some of my favorite actors and actresses to boot). Five Fingers and May Queen are those sprawling, revenge and damage-driven family sagas I love (not to mention, once again, full of actors I slavishly follow). And Answer Me 1997 has the same slice of life/indie vibe as Shut Up. All true to pattern.



And then we have TTBY - it a kdrama adaptation of a shoujo manga, something I have not liked since enjoying the trainwreck that was Boys Over Flowers back in 2008/9. Not only that, but unlike BOF, it's (a) not based on one of my favorite mangas ever but on one I am indifferent to and (b) doesn't star actors but largely idols with little to no acting experience.

I don't like even the well-loved poppy teen fantasy dramas like You're Beautiful and am notoriously curmudgeonly about them. But here, this little silly fluffy darling - I am hopeless before it. I don't know what it is - perhaps it's the fact that it doesn't try to be more than it is. Perhaps it's the camerawork. Perhaps it's the leads, who are immensely likeable, have great chemistry, need each other as characters (and the idols are actually doing a good job). Perhaps it's my inner teen girl screaming free. But whatever it is, I adore TTBY. I guess we all have our 'odd one out' dramas now and then :)

Anyway, enough blabbing, some adorableness by TJ/JH.

( Here here here here here here here here here )

Bring on the cuteness of next week!

Awww, my fluffy drama, you made me cry a bit today.

I confess the first half of the episode wasn't my favorite - it was heavily Eun Gyul-centric and I have never been interested in any incarnation of Nakatsu in the slightest. Sure, Tae Joon's jealousy was cute, but that is about it.



But then we got the second half. Sure, Jae Hee in trouble and Tae Joon rescues her is an utter cliche (and one this drama adores to use) but hey - I am easy, it works for me beautifully every time. And I love the way she runs into his arms and the way he hesitates for a second and then his hand holds her and he keeps stroking her hair. And then he sees she is still terrified, so he takes her hand. I know Jae Hee has the common sense of a house plant but how she is not wondering either whether (a) Tae Joon has figured out she is a girl; or (b) Tae Joon is the most openly gay student in the school, is beyond me. Does she think straight dudes normally hug other dudes, stroke their hair, hold their hand, and kneel to fix their shoes? And let them hold them? Must have been some city in America she lived in!

I do love what a good guy Tae Joon is - he is that rarest of kdrama rarities - a kdrama hero it would be good to date in real life. And we get more of his backstory with his mother and I confess I teared up. No wonder he has trauma but I love how he is trying to work through it and how contained he is (even at his lowest, he just became surly and detached, he never lashed out at others). And I loved that Jae Hee held him and also that they ended up watching that movie he never finished with his mother, together.

( Caps of the above )

Bring on ep 8!

OK, it's official, TTBY must be mixing something into celluloid - how else can I explain the giddy feeling ep 6 of this unpretentious shoujo slice-of-heaven evoked in me. I adore Tae Joon and Jae Hee so so so much and I root for them so much (I like the rest of the characters too but I am all about them). This drama is pretty much two hours of happiness a week.

( Some caps of my favorite moments )