When we think of a “short form series,” we think of a drama series lasting 2 to 6 episodes. But the news this week puts that format on its head.

PulsePick, a streaming platform specializing in servicing short-form series which soft-launched last December, announced a series of upcoming originals during a media event in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. PulsePick series typically span 50-150 episodes, each episode a minute or two long. Viewers can access each episode for 500 won (34 cents). PulsePick’s chief business officer emphasized the advantages of short-form video in addressing modern consumer demands. “Short-form content is perfect for fulfilling consumers' needs, offering clear differentiators in production efficiency and viewer convenience. Platforms can produce more with lower investment, while consumers enjoy bite-sized entertainment that fits into busy schedules.”

PulsePick currently offers original content such as "The Code Name B" and "Single Men and Women" (direct translation). Upcoming 2025 releases include "He Returned" (direct translation), starring Cha Sun- woo (formerly Baro of B1A4), "No MZ for Old Men" (direct translation), created by SNL Korea writer Ahn Yong-jin and starring veteran actor Kim Ki-hyun, and "All or Nothing" featuring god’s Danny Ahn.

NOTES FROM 9TAILEDVIXEN'S LUNAR NEW YEAR WEEK

1. LIFE NOTES

Lunar New Year has been particularly stressful this year.

Generational trauma.

That is all I am going to say.

Fortunately, Aerial Yoga classes start again this Sunday and I am so very much looking forward to getting back on the silks!

2. KOREAN WOMEN'S NEWS

A) BBC documentary explores hidden world of female tattooists in Korea

<i?In Korea, tattoos have a history of being stigmatized and associated with criminality. Against this backdrop, a new documentary from BBC 100 Women series sheds light on the lives of female tattoo artists navigating this reality. Titled "Secret Ink," the film will premiere this weekend on the BBC News channel and later be available on the BBC News Korean YouTube channel.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2025/01/398_391234.html

B) 'Comfort Women of the Empire' Author Wins Legal Victory in Seoul Court

On January 22, the Seoul High Court in South Korea overturned a first-instance ruling against Park Yuha, professor emeritus at Sejong University. Park is the author of the book Comfort Women of the Empire.

According to the court, the content of the book was deemed "academic and objective." The court acknowledged that the plaintiffs may have experienced emotional distress. However, it concluded that "it is difficult to deem that their personal rights were infringed upon in light of the constitutional value of academic freedom."

https://japan-forward.com/comfort-women-of-the-empire-author-wins-legal-victory-in-seoul-court/

So... this is controversial or a hot button topic and this is a relatively safe space so believe me when I say I'm not trying to cause any drama but I just gotta get this out.

Earlier this week, there was a post about the South Korean president being indicted (or whatever) and as always, that somehow led to mention of Trump & American Politics. Trump supporters were called morons and willfully ignorant. A supporter said that it was moronic and ignorant to call them that when there's no evidence of Trump likely seeking a 3rd term, putting in puppet candidates or his family members to succeed him if he can't do it, undermining American instititions, etc

And I'm just like😵‍💫🫤🧐🫨😑😶🫥😩

It's honest to god, the most baffling ish in existence. There can be legit video and/or live recordings that people see and hear and by the time it filters and processes, they've completely changed the words, meanings, and actions.

Psychology is so fascinating.

There is some quote or phrase about how it's easier to fool people than to tell them they're being fooled. Like the more you argue or tell someone they're wrong (or stupid), the more they identify with that stance and stand by it. Even though I know that, in my head, I'm still constantly completely confused how people can be that way in these times. In the 21st century, with access to centuries of precedents and years of recorded footage, interviews, research papers, legal documents, etc.

It truly feels like being in some warped sense of reality. I wanna say the matrix but I can't tell which reality is better or worse in this scenario haha

Happy Friday and Year of the Snake, Beanies! This week of wrap ups, new beginnings and overall festivities I spent being sick while LYN, unsurprisingly, working. And giving more interviews than my math-hating brain can painlessly comprehend, but we'll get to that later^^

First, finally an official upload of “Run without care” stage from Network Audio Video Festival last week – actually, there's two (both from iQiyi and Youku who streamed the event simultaneously, but I went with the latter as it dropped first and has more views) – now in good quality!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4lACUkl-3g

Also, Yuning had 3 (!) of his songs covered by other artists there – if you're interested, I can search for full videos of each stage. Hilariously, fans didn't seem to like it much, so he had to – as usual – throw a fit during latest livestream, saying he's very happy and honored by such free promo lol. I kinda get both sides – no disrespect to guys, esp Ayunga, who's fantastic vocalist himself, but it's REALLY a tall order to outdo Ning-ge's emotional delivery.
https://x.com/fandoestrans/status/1883532228665500078

3 more galas to go, starting with biggest – CCTV Spring Festival one, the most viewed show on planet and the sweet dream of every artist in China. It was Yuning's second time there, once again in collaboration, but this time with far more people – 6, to be specific. Meet the freshly debuted 7 constellation actor boys in white group - Yuning, Ding Yuxi, Bai Yu, Zhu Yawen, Jiang Qiming, Xu Kai and Wang Anyu – performing “The spring comes when Big Dipper points to east”. Apparently it took them great pains to rehearse formations etc, so pls be nice to these rookies)))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkXBXGLjoj4

Along with the stage we also got few livestreams and interviews (one lasting 18 minutes total! where he spilled so much except the state of his abs – and bank account – those are intimate matters, you know) and plenty of Yuning x BY and DYX interactions, so wait a bit, those are being subbed and lots of fun overall. Next was JiangsuTV Spring Festival recorded on his birthday – the flower suit one – with yet another version of “YOLO”. I love how he just given up original “flat vocals” style and sings it normally these days, that made me actually like the track quite a bit. No official upload yet, so pls tell me if link perishes too early:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbEMY74rDdk

Official fancam with unedited sound, where you can hear biggest upside of this song, imo – his lower register:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXN22uliuU

Sometimes it pays to read the food labels. I have a bag of chocolate chips that says "Made without milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, sesame fish and crustacean shellfish"

Are those last bits really necessary? Have any of you ever accidentally bought salmon-flavored chocolate chips?

--------------------------

I got a snail-mail invite to a meal and seminar for a company that does cremations. Do they know something I don't? Given all the ways big companies track you and gather/resell information.... 😨😱

Alternate Endings Game, Stars Gossip Edition: show undergoes Rapid Unscheduled Cancellation after ep 7 due to suborbital ratings and astronomical expenses. Most of the astronauts are evacuated but the two highest-paid cast are Lost In Space to save money. Conspiracy theories about the convenient timing of the space debris cloud give survivors lots to Gossip about.

Person who decided to pre-produce the show is thrown into a volcano.

And I go insane from frustration because I'm typing this Sunday morning and want to post it right away but because of the impending Wallpocalypse I have to wait several days to put this somewhere less here-today-gone-tomorrow.

Still thinking about using Bluesky as a fan-wall substitute for my screenies, so I am reading their terms to see if there is anything I should object to. This might take a while because:
- There's a lot of stuff
- My eyes glaze over at the Wall-Of-Legalese and my brain shuts off
- I don't want to miss anything
- There are so many other things I'd rather be doing.

I have bookmarked their Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Copyright Policy and Community Guidelines, into a new folder which will also contain bookmarks for any Bluesky users I want to keep track of. I have abbreviated that folder "BS", because why not?

Since the Fan Wall is going to go poof! soon, I thought I’d re-post this from my own Fan Wall, because if nothing else, THIS is the post I want to keep and have immortalized ♥️ This one is special and significant—to him as an artist, and to me as his fan 😊

A performance 10 years –probably more like 15– in the making, because of an everlasting passion and unrelenting dream:

Eight years ago (9 years in September 2025), he changed careers at 25 years old (going from well paid graphic designer and professional photographer) to stepping into the unknown and entering showbiz (via a singing competition show), overcoming many, many, MANY challenges—simply because of his love for music and the craft of singing.
From being discriminated by his own former CEO, not receiving support from the company he debuted with so he’s had to look & audition to get his own work and shift from singing to acting (starting out in really minor roles and making his way up to ML status all on his own), being taken advantage of by his own family, being cyber-bullied by the fans of a close colleague/friend/co-star (and then getting soft-cancelled for a year because of it when it wasn’t even his fault), being used by other former colleagues/costars… the list goes on.
But NOW, not even 10 years into his career change into entertainment/showbiz, by his own grit, strong work ethic, everlasting passion, unchanged principles in treating all with kindness, dignity, and respect (which wasn’t always what HE got in return), he’s now at the top of his game and many who have encountered him—rookies and veterans in the industry alike— agree that he’s the one to look out for. Yes, in part because of the good work he’s put out as an actor-singer (mostly, his filmography), but most importantly, it’s because of the person that he is, his character as a human being— kind, respectful, humble, hardworking.

Not even 10 years into his career change, he’s managed to hone his craft, and come back to where it all started:
His love for music and singing ♥️
He’s able to come back to music all by his own efforts—literally, the credits to his music album list his own agency as the producer and not an external production company — and perform on stage doing the thing that his heart has always wanted to do and has always loved to do:
Sing & perform his own songs, and not sing the cover of another artist’s song (as him his favourite, though, and he’ll list out a grocery list 😂)

He’s a walking CD, if I may say so 🎶🎵🎤
(Chinese slang term to describe how a person sounds the same singing live versus on their studio album— that there’s basically no difference, because the singer is just THAT GOOD and has that much control and has honed their craft and their vocals in every aspect).

https://youtu.be/GUJy4QTe2_k?si=AAfxGkRVofybEF7u

@seeker @claire2009, @midnight, @minniegupta1, @bebeswtz, @Reply1988, @23new2kdramaw

(if I’m missing anyone, please help me tag 😅 I...

I've taken an impromptu break from kdramas this month - needed to recalibrate for 2025 and didn't have the mental space for 16-hr shows. So I've been watching movies instead, and I've seen some good ones. Here's a few interesting ones:

Blood and Sand (1945): a matador's meteoric rise and fall. So gorgeous and visually whole that it holds up despite being pretty bad haha. If you can get on its wavelength of ultra-sombre religious imagery & semi-existential dread tied up in class & exploitation, then I think you'll get something out of it. Rita Hayworth's in it and she has a really sensual dance number with Anthony Quinn. If the movie had just been about him & Rita's characters, it would've been great.

Marty: Marty, now in his 30s, has given up on finding The One, but finds unexpected love over one long night. I spent most of this film on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the film to declare Marty's right to women's affections, like many other films about lonely older men. But that never happened, and it instead paints a pretty nuanced portrait of Marty and his Italian-American community. It's a film with a lot of understanding towards women - Marty's love interest isn't a "catch", but a regular lonely woman in the same way he's a regular lonely man. Great performances here, and really (sadly) ahead of its time.

Daisy Kenyon: it's kinda hard to describe this film. It's like if you took a melodrama and filmed it with the intensity and foreboding of a noir crime film. It's a love triangle between 3 deeply emotional people, who are simply too Adult & Professional to play it out passionately. It feels very calculated, because these characters are constantly calculating, constantly weighing up their lives. Joan Crawford is AMAZING here. Like, just a totally effortless, clear performance.

Cure: Daisy Kenyon is a romantic melo filmed like a noir. Cure is a horror film wearing the paranoid skin of a crime procedural. Again, one of these ones thats hard to describe, except that it'll make you see horrors in fire, in water, in shadows. It'll make you paranoid about the empty patches of wall in your apartment. It's all about suggestion - nothing is 100% clear, except the violent crimes and the desires that trigger them. It's not especially gruesome or jump-scary, but I did dream about it after seeing it, which NEVER happens to me.

Round About Midnight: Two individuals from very different walks of life (a jazz player, a bargirl) witness a murder and go on the run, but they have to solve the case before midnight. Hiroyuki Sanada is insanely charismatic as the jazz player, so if anyone wants to see young hot Sanada playing smooth jazz, then this is for you lol. It's set in Tokyo at night, so it's got those lovely vintage neon lighting and that sense of uneasy urban sleepiness. And you can never go wrong with a jazz soundtrack. lt's on YouTube so you can put it on and just vibe.

I cannot believe it but I finally found a drama with Lee Se Young that I like. So far. And I like her in it also. What's wrong with me? Or maybe I should have waited until the end of Motel California but by now I didn't resist more than a few episodesin other of her dramas.

I know that it's nothing wrong with me when it comes to WTSG. Hate it! So boring! How can someone write JI and this disaster? Thank God there is Study Group which it is turning to be one great show. That is entertainment, I love everythig about it.

Started Six Flying Dragons. Because of The queen who crowns. I don't know what the writers wanted to achieve by brainwashing and changing the history but it made me like Bang Won even more, so finally I made myself to start a 50 episode drama to also learn more about him.

In other news, how does a country like Romania have the election cancelled by UE ilegaly called a democracy and Trump gets so much hate? Or how did the SK president get so much support from the Bidens and pull that nonsense? In both cases, they used the same Rusia/ North Korea hoax. Thank God South Koreans still have some of their ancestors fighting spirit and stopped the madness. Fighting!

I am currently following a lot of kdrama threads on "X". I would like to get off of "X", and would like to know what other choices I have for kdrama information accessible from the US? Free if possible? (And, clearly, I am aware of Dramabeans.. a total favorite!)

I'm still in my LUCY phase~ they'll have their first gig of 2025 today (1 Feb 25). Can't wait to see fan pics and videos. The brightside of following a kband compared to kmusical (ehem Shin Sung Rok-ssi) is fans can film band performances, musicals can't be filmed. Fans film in high definition, many in 4k and share on social media platforms = I can watch the performance from the confines of my home in a different country. Thank you LUCY kfans! Hahaha 😆

My drama update is I finished Trauma Center and Mr Plankton. For k-variety, I'm still following Rented in Finland. I also watched Song Geon Hee's (Lovely Runner's Taesung-ie) ELLE variety show, it's so cute. Some of my favourite eps is him making an idol group with his real life friends and perfoming live on the street 😂, the other would be the ep where he sells Turkish icecream 🍦.

Does anybody know which drama the banner picture is from? 🤓