Musings of the Obsessive Kind

I mean, ep 11 gives us baths of angst, starring Wu Zun and his marvelous arms:








Argh, evil cousin of Wu Zun's character, I hope you die in a fire. Seriously, wtf, psycho! Dude just manipulated the situation to take away not only the company but even the house and is now gloating in WZ's face for being too trusting - i.e. not thinking his family is a pack of two-faced hyenas. DIE! I mean, the rationale isn't that WZ ran the company badly or treated people awfully - nah, it's just that he trusted his family. WTF.

He was about to propose to Rainie, too, and you ruined it! On plus side, it did result in the above-mentioned bath, so it's not all bad.

( In case you need more convincing, two shippy scenes from ep 11 - one funny and one touching )

My current/asap twdrama roster is this, Love Keeps Going, Material Queen, Calling for Love, I Do, KO 3an Guo, The X-Family, That Love Comes, Marry Me, Because of You, Bump Off Lover, Roseate Love, In Time With You, Ring Ring Bell, and Material People (though I suppose the latter is a cdrama). Plus a few others. And I feel like rewatching Wish to See You Again. Good Lord.

The recently started twdrama Material Queen was, I confess, nowhere on my radar. Sure, the male lead was the scrumptuous Mousie favorite Vanness Wu, but nothing else about it (fashion theme! female lead I knew nothing about! confusing plot description!) sounded up my alley and hey, Vanness did Peach Girl, probably the worst twdrama I have ever seen, so I wasn't about to be swayed by his presence.

But then, ockoala liked it and I decided to give it a chance.

At the end of ep 1, I am in love. Chu Man (Lynn Xiong) is a popular model whose blood and flesh are made of ice - since childhood, ever since her mother dumped her at an orphanage in order to enjoy a better life of partying and sleeping around, Chu Man gave up on making meaningful human connections and concentrated on security, namely wealth. And now she is husband-hunting. She doesn't care if the man if hot, young, fun, whatever. All she wants is for him to be rich and good at buying her jewelry and brand-name goods. Through her hard work and manipulation, she finally landed one such target - she's now engaged to an old man worth a fortune, who loves spending it on her. Chu Man is miles from your typical drama heroine - she's Miri's nicer cousin, who only manipulates for gold-digging purposes, not felonies (but let's face it, in Miri's situation she'd do what Miri did). She is not ashamed of it, she's not doing it for sick sibling, and she has no false ideas of loving her husband. She's shallow, materialistic, greedy, proud of it woman.

And then her paths cross with a poor musician played by Vanness. Now, Vanness is hot and young, but that would not catch Chu Man's attention one bit. What does is that she misunderstands him to be an heir. And deciding to trade up (and not believing her luck - the guy is rich, young, and handsome), Chu Man sets her cylinders on stun.

MQ is gorgeously shot (do yourself a favor and don't watch it on viki, wait for Serendipity subs - streaming gives no justice to the visuals. Not that I have the patience to follow my own advice) but also sharp and cynical and unlike any twdrama I have seen. Any romance that will happen in it will be rather hard-won. I have no idea whether Chu Man will pick love over riches (which, in itself, is exciting enough) but I don't even care because she is such a fascinating character - not portrayed as a victim or soulless villain but a smart woman taking advantage of what she was given to better herself.

Have a trailer:



So very good.

The recently started twdrama Material Queen was, I confess, nowhere on my radar. Sure, the male lead was the scrumptuous Mousie favorite Vanness Wu, but nothing else about it (fashion theme! female lead I knew nothing about! confusing plot description!) sounded up my alley and hey, Vanness did Peach Girl, probably the worst twdrama I have ever seen, so I wasn't about to be swayed by his presence.

But then, ockoala liked it and I decided to give it a chance.

At the end of ep 1, I am in love. Chu Man (Lynn Xiong) is a popular model whose blood and flesh are made of ice - since childhood, ever since her mother dumped her at an orphanage in order to enjoy a better life of partying and sleeping around, Chu Man gave up on making meaningful human connections and concentrated on security, namely wealth. And now she is husband-hunting. She doesn't care if the man if hot, young, fun, whatever. All she wants is for him to be rich and good at buying her jewelry and brand-name goods. Through her hard work and manipulation, she finally landed one such target - she's now engaged to an old man worth a fortune, who loves spending it on her. Chu Man is miles from your typical drama heroine - she's Miri's nicer cousin, who only manipulates for gold-digging purposes, not felonies (but let's face it, in Miri's situation she'd do what Miri did). She is not ashamed of it, she's not doing it for sick sibling, and she has no false ideas of loving her husband. She's shallow, materialistic, greedy, proud of it woman.

And then her paths cross with a poor musician played by Vanness. Now, Vanness is hot and young, but that would not catch Chu Man's attention one bit. What does is that she misunderstands him to be an heir. And deciding to trade up (and not believing her luck - the guy is rich, young, and handsome), Chu Man sets her cylinders on stun.

MQ is gorgeously shot (do yourself a favor and don't watch it on viki, wait for Serendipity subs - streaming gives no justice to the visuals. Not that I have the patience to follow my own advice) but also sharp and cynical and unlike any twdrama I have seen. Any romance that will happen in it will be rather hard-won. I have no idea whether Chu Man will pick love over riches (which, in itself, is exciting enough) but I don't even care because she is such a fascinating character - not portrayed as a victim or soulless villain but a smart woman taking advantage of what she was given to better herself.

Have a trailer:



So very good.

Last week, two of my anticipated twdramas started - Material Queen and Hayate the Combat Butler. Viki is subbing them but I would prefer soft/hardsubs and not streaming. I know Doremii picked up Hayate but does anyone know if a subbing group picked up MQ?