Finished
Race and liked the drama overall as a whole but it dint have much of impact other than YoonJo whome i loved being the unconventional self reliant female lead... who doesnt depend on male lead or second male lead for her life decisions.

watching
i started Something in the rain (cause i liked Encounter upon my rewatch so thought to pick it up too) and i am kind of liking it... its way too slow for my liking and i tend to stop a day or 2 in between and then start again... but i find it decent drama. just hoping it wont let me pull my hair by the end.

waiting for
King the land, See you in 19th life
but not sure if Netflix will show in my country but fingets crossed that it does.

and till then i am just staring at my Netflix homepage if King the land drops soon.

TALE OF THE NINE-TAILED 1938 was far better than I would have expected. My wife loved it. She is a big fan of nine-tailed foxes and mermaids so the writers definitely catered to her tastes with this one.

This week saw me hang in there and complete my watch of OH! YOUNG-SHIN. I am not quite sure why I did so other than that many other dramas simply did not appeal to me right now, which should change with the start of SEE YOU IN MY 19TH LIFE and KING THE LAND. Both start today! (that is worth at least a Yippee)

Fortunately, I have a weekender to watch as a continuing part of my drama life. Last week’s episodes of THE REAL HAS COME had some surprises. Whoever would have expected to see our FL and her older sister in law crying in each other’s arms? What a delight seeing our 2FL suddenly out of balance with the reappearance of the 2ML. This Weekender does not lack for intertwining plotlines- if anything there are so many that some of our potential side romances, like the story of Macknae and the Young Father, are getting only a little screen time right now. When tonight’s episode ends we will be at exactly the halfway point for this drama and it will be interesting to see where things stand then.

I have also been watching the daily APPLE OF MY EYE. So far it is a pleasant watch.

My wife completed her recovery from the Chinese Costume fantasy TILL THE END OF THE MOON by starting the Chinese Historical Costume drama RUYI’S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE. This is a serious undertaking in itself- it has 87 episodes. She has watched long costume dramas before so that does not necessarily faze her and so far, already twenty plus episodes in (in two days) she says it is really good. She was not quite ready to start a fantasy again so a historical drama is a good alternative. She is watching it on Amazon Prime, but it can also be found on Viki. It may be a struggle to tear her away to watch SEE YOU IN MY 19TH LIFE and KING THE LAND with me.

My Perfect Stranger This drama could have maintained the suspense until the end! The couple is super cute.

Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim 3 The last episode was very frustrating. The strike didn't make sense, so every character involved made me angry. Protecting their rights? He didn't make them overworked or something like this. He just gave one rule to follow. If they disagreed when he did, they could leave the Trauma Center and switch places with somebody.

Race It was a nice drama. I prefer She Would Never Know from the same PD because the characters had a better evolution but the office part was really interesting in Race.

The Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 It was entertaining and beautiful.

Waiting for King the Land and See You in My 19th Life!

KING THE LAND in one hour!!

The Good Bad Mother : Overall, it was quite decent for me. It wasn’t a heavy drama though it has some tears jerking moment and the ending was kinda okay too. The best part is the twins for me. They are the only accident that is beautiful ever happened to the lead couple.

Bloodhounds : Characters 8.5/10. I really like the brothers. Both have different personalities and fighting styles yet they complement and supporting each other. Sang Yi with his footwork and fast jab is more calculative and realistic as a person and Do Hwan with his powerful blow is so pure and an idealist but both are brave, selfless and strong they are willing to sacrifice for other people. I’d give the directing 7/10 because the action was good but sports car and ninja bike for tailing? Nah. Also, I think they should have present the 2 main lead stories equally instead of leaning heavier toward WDH’s character. They underplaying LSY’s. I think they could show us more about LSY’s character especially in the action scenes. I really like his style and want to see more of him. The writing? 2/10. Really, if not because the acting and action scenes the story is as holey as donuts. Rich guy with no alarm system in his house? Or gangster attacking cafe and no report to the police by neighbors? Wine after attacking enemy? Jeez. Also I hate the writer for killing half of the team in one episode. I can fully enjoy the drama only after episode 6. Last 2 episodes is the same drama with different genre which I can handle better because of the additional comedy and I know it’s winning time for the heroines. Up until 6 I was having a hard time binge watching because I have low tolerance to suspense and I know some good guys would die. I don’t mind season 2, but can we have different writer, please? Also, who else thinking the sashimi ahjussi is hhoott? He reminds me of Park Hee Soon in My Name.

Delightfully Deceitful : I like how the FL sometimes (or most of the time) is so unpleasant and kinda hard to tolerate. The writer is staying true to the character she created which is a psycopath and don’t justifying or sugar coating the ugly traits the character have like narcissism and lack of emphaty. So far this is a fun ride though this show still not gripping me while it moving forward deeper into the story. As if the drama itself have a big picture of where the story will go or unfold, yet they don’t have clear destination yet. Something is missing.

I finally finished TILL THE END OF THE MOON and it was a gloriously beautiful ride. Without LYX I've wouldn't have liked it half as much, not even sure if I'd had finished it. He is absolutely magnetic and deserves award upon award for this performance. The FL was by far the biggest problem of the show and if it wasn't for Bai Lu, I'd hate her instead of rolling my eyes at her. But I loved how everything was connected.
Ah! The eyes rolls, the side eyes. The eyeliner. Great make-up artist, that.

THE LOVE YOU GIVE ME is cute and has the cutest little five-year-old spouting way too clever lines for someone his age. I couldn't care less about the side couples but the leads are great together.

CIRCLE OF LOVE: This is nonsensical and I'd never put up with it if it was a regular length drama but the leads have great chemistry.

GRANDMASTER OF DEMONIC CULTIVATION (audio drama): Gaah! The voice actors are incredible. It makes it all worth it having to get up at 5.30.

Waiting for KING THE LAND to be available in my region.

Maybe Disney has seen the light? Several unavailable dramas have popped up on Hulu. I’m finally watching Link and they even put Dr. Romantic 3 in progress there. Might even try Family. If Disney could just have a consistent policy about showing kdramas internationally, I would forgive them for buying up so much of the market.

Link is very watchable although it feels so last year to have so much murder and secrets. Pretty sure I have picked out the sister and the friend who told on his dad. Not that it’s hard when there are only so many characters. Not sure what is the point with the stalker’s sister (she seems to manic to really be his sister?) so I’m curious to see where that goes.

Finished: Bloodhounds: 7.5/10
The Heavenly idol: 8/10
Beyond Evil (Finally): 8/10

Ongoing: Sound Candy: Up to ep 4. eh
Love Tractor: Ep 4. fine
Bitch x Rich: Ep 6. fine
Battle for Happiness: Ep 6 Good
Delightfully Deceitful: ep 6 don't know what to think of this show...

Others:
I intend to finish Ugly Alert and What happens to my Family by next month no matter what it's been like two years. Halfway through both.
My fair lady: finished ep 1
Bad Prosecutor: Barely started.
Buisness Proposal: Last 3 eps left
Family: The unbreakable bond: On the second episode rn. Having fun.
Tale of the nine Tailed 2: Only finished first ep. My Rang hate feels so silly now.

Dropped:
I am not a Robot: This was boring sorry.
Chief Kim: Had to drop because of that darned...

I am rewatching BRAIN WORKS and loving it even more this time around.
Apart from the baddy whom I'm completely fast-forwarding, (his scenes are unfortunately very crucial to the story and Haru's storyline so I didn't ff any of it the first watch. But this time I know what is happening and I'm not tolerating that beast again) , most of the leads are so complete and alive that I want to rewind and rewatch every scene. Even the characters involved in the cases which are all deliberately unconventional feel very real. I truly love this show.

I also watched IL MARE after seeing some beanies mentioning it. The Lake House has always been a favorite movie of mine so I have been rather hesitant to watch the original. But I did and I'm so glad that I did!
Now I know why @javabeans is obsessed and smitten with Lee Jung-jae! I have seen him act many times but never fell for him like I did in IL MARE!
The actors, the characters, the sets, the relationships, the story telling, the timelines, nearly everything was so so SO better than the American remake, EXCEPT the ending.

Time travel and similar tropes are my catnip but I always have reservations when the story ends with one of the leads already completely in love and the other one not remembering anything. I don't have a problem if this happens in the middle or beginning of the story (like in W, or Familiar Wife) where I can watch them tell the other one their past, and start a new story. My problem is when this is where the story ends. In some of the stories I can make myself believe that the other one will suddenly dream or remember their past. But I can't do that with IL MARE. Especially because at that particular time she was going through an emotional vulnerable time and I didn't like seeing him appearing in front of her home. So I very much prefer The Lake House's ending, where she tells him to meet her in 2 years. But still, the rest of the movie was BEAUTIFUL!

Finished DR CHA. It's a fantasy that a woman could simply pick up where she left off in medical training from 20 years earlier, so why not fantasize as well an ending that she could have romantic love as well as self-actualization and career? Kdrama's recent trend toward career as holy grail and cynicism about the possibility of romantic love does not appeal to me. If I wanted that, I could watch western shows and not have to bother with subtitles. Other than that, I liked DR CHA. I liked her husband's journey toward becoming a near-mensch and even liked his whiny selfish mother. The breakdown of Dr Cha's marriage was painfully realistic and moving. Uhm Jung-Hwa is wonderful in this.

ONCE AGAIN (2020) It starts off very well, but at ep 10 of 100, it's ff time. I'll stick with it for a while and see. The episodes are short and I like these actors a lot.

BLOODHOUNDS. Great Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi bromance.
For me the boxing display of both these guys was excellent. Tremendous physicality. Obviously they trained hard. The prominence of knife fighting in the drama was a detraction to me. Unnecessarily gory. There are weak points in the plot that @wise, Wise points out in comment #30. However up and down the cast the individual performances were terrific.
A few odd observations:
1 BLOOD HOUNDS seems to have been a PPl for the Ford Mustang. (I recall the prominence of the Chevy Camaro in LAWLESS LAWYER).
2. The ROKMC (Marines) had much better public relations in this drama than lets say the ROKA (Army) did in D.P. (2021).
3. I am smiling thing about Kim Min-jae’s cameo. (He is detective Jae-min here). He may have told the producers ‘I can give you one day’ and they took him up on it. All his part probably was filmed in half a day.
4. One good thing about BLOOD HOUNDS is that there was no love triangle. For some reason though and I am not really sure why but overall I think I would give Jang Dong-yoon’s OASIS (Viki US) the edge if I had to choose which was better between the two 2023 tough guy/action dramas that I have watched so far this year.

Finished Oh! Youngshim and Bloodhounds. One was considerably more entertaining than the other. And so many muscles! And so much blood! The fight sequences were awesome. Kim Sae-Ron was good in her reduced scenes. I hope she's able to make a comeback.

Movies: Seducing Mr. Perfect (2006), with an adorable Uhm Jung-Hwa and a very young Daniel Henney. Enjoyable fluff.

The Dude in Me (2019), with Park Sung-Woong as a considerably more redeemable gangster than in Bloodhounds. Best part was a fat-suited Jinyoung as his alter ego, taking care of the high school bullies with attitude and smarts.

This is Not What I Expected (2017, Chinese). Indeed, this was a delightful surprise. Classic romcom with delightful characters and an unusual setup. Great for foodies as well as romantics.

What I'm watching:

_ Shining inheritance (24 out of 28). I thought this was a rom-com but I quickly realized it was a makjang without almost any comedy element. Makjangs are not my favorite genre, in fact the only makjang I had watched (and liked) was King of Baking.
I have developed a bit of SMLS in Shining inheritance, by the way, and I'm someone who usually roots for the male leads in love triangles.

Western shows:

_ Queen Charlotte (3 episodes so far). Stunning production, but too many sex scenes, which I'm not a fan of. But it's not a surprise, having watched S1 and S2 of Bridgerton.

Waiting for King The Land and See you in my 19th Life, but I don't know what to do: live watch or waiting yo binge-watch? That is the question 🤔

We are still watching Sell your haunted house but the storyline is becoming slow and bland. I do not care for the construction-corruption scheme. And though it is nice to have a respectful ML, this one is much more a follower.
We have started One spring night. One ep is too short, so I'm not into it for now. (even if I'm into Jung Hae In)
I found myself watching parts of cdrama A date with the future for the bright smile and dimple of William Chan. But this seemingly light drama is very toxic. In so more as it is the main characters behaviours that are problematic, and not the one of an identified bad person. She is a stalker, and pursue/harass him until he falls for her. Despite her telling him that she only loved him for 10y, he is jealous. And he asks her to tell him everything that she does. Also, he encourage 2ML to go on pursuing 2FL after she repeatedly said she was not interested. Such "romance" shows worse behaviours than police drama explaining crimes...
I might have a different view on morality, since I enjoy at lot the twisted and twisting Police Unit 38 (who is not the police but a criminals team working with a tax agent). This drama is a delight. Acting and script are stellar. Seo In Guk is excellent as a swindler, and does not overdoes it like in Minamdang.
Somehow it correlates with a sentiment from Numbers, King the land and Can you feel my heartbeats trailers that the current humour is not well aligned with mine... Well I still have a lot of dramas on my watchlist, so I'll have time to see how these turn.

I had no interest in watching King the Land (the leads look like siblings to me, I'm not interested in romance, etc) but then I saw the first episode got a lot of criticism which piqued my interest considering I was JUST talking about "bad scripts" which is apparently the criticism of the first episode: the writer didn't do a good job and it seemed like a cliched problematic '00 drama (which I don't understand what that means). Does that mean a male lead being a jerk to the female but the woman interested in him anyway? Would all that happen in a 1st episode?

I must not know what subversion means because it often seems like people shows to subvert tropes but then they also want the tropes. You *want* the "tortured, emotionally empty guy who comes alive because of the bright eyed, optimistic guy" but then you don't want it that way.

I have no idea what the show is about but I took a guess haha
How off base am I with that description?

King the Land has finally landed! Can't wait for thread or recap. My hotel kdrama classic is The Hotelier, the Bae Yong Joon (BYJ) starrer. Has anyone seen it resurrected in any legal platform?

Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 FINALLY an ending to a drama that deserves the name (i.e. no cliffhangers - yes, I am looking at you, Poong the Joseon Psychiatrist and Vagabond!). Except for an unnecessary venture into Zombie territory in eps 9 and 10, this drama was perfect in every way.

Bloodhounds I did not expect to like this as much as I did. The bromance kept me (binge) watching. Heo Joon-ho was my favourite actor in the "Missing 1 and 2", and Park Sung-woong is one of my favourite villains (although he was super funny in "The Dude in Me" and "Yes, Madam", too).

See you in my 19th life Shin Hye-sun is one of my favourite actresses. Thankfully, this drama really looks promising. The child actors were just so sassy and cute!

*******Spoiler alert*******

The ending of ep. 1 had me in stitches: "If you do not want to give me the job, why not date me?" Man, I wish I had that chutzpah.

*Fight For My Way*: After the long winded discussions on Seo Joon's dramas last week, decided to take a plunge to watch this one. Right off the bat, Choi Woo Shik is giving me all kinds of tickles hahaha! I see both of them (Seo-Joon and Woo -Shik) in the frame and get reminded of the rib tickling real life chemistry of these two best friends in 'Friendcation' and start smiling like an idiot. I hope they have lots of scenes because I have a feeling I will sit with a popcorn pack just to see these two rib each other.

*The Empress*: Started this German series. It's impressive in its scale and textured presentation. But its characters and their body language feel too modern, a pet peeve I have with almost all modern actors who don't get the body language of the people living in bygone era right.

*Suits*: My son is big into original Suits and is mighty curious on its Korean take (I suffered through Season 1 of original Suits and didn't like it). I felt Korean suits did a lot of things right. So that's on the plate this weekend as well (yay for long weekend).

COMPLETED:-

*Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938* (12/12) - What a thrilling ride from beginning to end! Funny yet heart-felt, macho yet full of kickass women! I hope Season 3 comes soon. 10/10 Stars

*Star Struck* (8/8) - The most disappointing KBL of the year till now. Started so well but ended so badly. 4/10 Stars

WATCHING:-

*Delightfully Deceitful* (6/16) - This one has the most unpredictable Kdrama FL ever. Not that our staid ML is as predictable as he looks either! It's a bit too fast paced at times and also seems to be deliberately confusing the audience, as a result of which the characters don't seem as real as they should. But the show is definitely engaging and I'm in for the ride.

*Bitch x Rich* (6/10) - A high school bullying drama where the good FL is as unlikable as the bad FL. Hope the upcoming clashes are more interesting than the story set-up till now.

*Battle For Happiness* (6/16) - This makjang-style murder mystery is all tensions and undercurrents and shocking revelations. I'm loving it!

*Queenmaker* (7/11) - How is it that every Kdrama I'm watching these days has strong, badass women? This is another one where the men stand around quietly while the women run the world. The political backdrop is a bit dry and the nasty chaebols are as cliche as they come. The show isn't anything outstanding as yet, but the actresses are too compelling and I'm gonna watch till the end.

*Love Tractor* (2/8) - Cute beginning though nothing very exciting till now. The rural backdrop is a sight for sore eyes though.

Three different dramas in a week! Maybe kdramaland is trying to get back my love!

The Real Has Come 01-08 A weekender! And it's kind of decent! I don't even remember why I gave this a chance probably the contract marriage trope and somebody's recommendation. The main couple is likable, it's not draggy and some of the misunderstandings were actually funny. I'm surprisingly addicted to it and curious if it will keep me interested for the long run.

King the Land The title itself is absurd so I should have known the drama would be silly. It's not offensive in the craziness but this kind of absurd comedy is not my style, the crazy just takes you away from the drama. Well it got a chance for the entire first episode which is more than most previous dramas from this year.

See you in my 19th Life This was one of the best first episodes in a very long while. Maybe the secret is to go in with low expectations! I like the cast but was waiting for the crazy to begin and instead caught myself very emotionally invested on the kids and the older niece. I didn't even remember the adult actors and wish they had been only after this first episode. The premise was fantastical enough that drama seems interested in exploring it instead of throwing some killer just to spice it up, at least in the beginning. The reincarnation trope is a better too. That silly idea of past lives with the same face? Not here. Superficial encounters between children that lead to obsessed adults? Far from it. It was so natural and nicely done that I didn't even mind when the girl turned into a stalker. Keep up the good work drama!

My 19th Life - an absolute stunner giving you so many feels!!!!

I can’t help but tearing up throughout once the story is set up - which is clear and clean storytelling with all the reincarnation rules conveyed succinctly and back story told charmingly and sensuously. Love, love it - will rewatch today before Ep 2 comes tonight.

What an intense 12 hours drama watching! Finished Dr Kim S3 Finale which is as great as it can get. Will there be a S4 now that the WHOLE team is back at Doldam? I will watch it for sure.

Then I started King The Land but, unfortunately, Ep 1 is pretty ordinary. I think the trailer has all the best bits making this premier less than lackluster. It looks like a long road to catch up.

My 19th Life is on the other hand so winning that it might be the best drama this year. And, how lovely to see the reunion of our Queen and her Court Lady! I almost screamed when their scene came up even though I know they are both cast here.

I watched all of Bloodhounds this week. I don't like violence but I do love a good bromance, and this was definitely one! I also got caught up on the weekender The Real Has Come!
I went to see a friend who asked me to recommend K-dramas! It was amazing. I showed her a couple I really like on Netflix, but she was sold immediately on Because This is My First Life. So that was neat!

I just finished episode 1 of King the Land . Loved it! It's a classic romcom. I like the pair of Junho and Yoona. Looking forward to Ep 2.