I usually don't comment on dramas in progress, but WHAT IS UP with the most recent journey in Japan? It's the first act of a horror film. We have the young woman out of her element being essentially stalked by this weird, older scammer lady and the whole thing gives me the willies. What a weird plotline for a healing drama.

Yes! It was funny, the leads were both adorable and compelling (I love the male lead's younger actor, to be fair), and the cinematography and 1990s aesthetic were distinctive and visually pleasing. Can I get that drama, please? Lol. The thing giving me hope is that the younger actors are listed as leads, not cameo roles.

And @mazarin

Legend of Zang Hai
That’s okay!! This is a complex one, but one that is also done well, imho. Many C-dramas that are complex often end up falling flat for me after a certain point, because the complexity often starts to become confusing just for the sake of trying to appear—unnecessarily—complex (*ahem* Luoyang) but suffers from no substance, just bark and no bite.
This drama, even though the premise isn’t new—revenge drama—the delivery of it IS something new—a ML on a revenge mission, but isn’t a martial arts type of revenge mission, like many are. Even the director, himself— Zheng Xiao Long— says the same thing. I like and appreciate that this one is a revenge drama that makes the viewer think and question and wonder about things and is also a story that takes the viewer alongside the ML on this revenge mission/journey because of how it is done— the thinking, questioning, the wondering— and doesn’t simply show the viewer things as it happens nor gives the answer (like who are his enemies), then makes the viewer sit and wait until something happens as a result of that answer. The viewers are given info the same time it comes to the ML or the same time that the ML finds out for himself.

Oooooh the “Reply” button for comments in the threads are back!! Whoohoo!! Thank you @db-staff

Okay, whew!! I agree @isagc
Miles Wei did a really good job of teetering on the edge of trying to stay good— away from corruption and nepotism, as you aptly put it— and trying to not lose his marbles from all the pushing his family did. I would like to say that the pushing the Princess did and the pressure from Prince Ning wasn’t even as influential to his character’s decision making until the day of the 2 weddings. Finally seeing that Mu Dan would be marrying someone else and moving on without him truly pushed him to the edge. With that said, I don’t think what he had—his feelings—for Mu Da were ever even of love. I think it was more like he didn’t like that something—someone— would and could walk away from him and it turned into a “if I can’t have her, then no one can” type of situation, which, I also think is the same mindset that the Princess had over Liu Chang (Miles Wei’s character), but the Princess’ way of dealing with it was much more volatile

@mazarin

The Tang Dynasty itself was a dynasty that many regard as the one that really opened the nation up to the world into many different advancements and other influences from other parts of the world, especially in the arts, culture, religion, etc., especially later-Tang, since the Tang Dynasty was broken up into early-Tang vs. late-Tang (with the Wu Zhou Dynasty—or just Zhou Dynasty— sandwiched in between, the Zhou dynasty, ruled by China’s one and only female emperor, Wu Zetian).

Context/ history:
The Tang Dynasty itself as a whole was one of the few dynasties wherein a “golden age” of culture (music, the arts, literature, education) was flourishing and was king. Education was highly regarded and it’s why we see in the drama that the families with a scholar as a husband or a son were highly regarded and basically the ones who influenced the court (politics) the most. My guess is that this drama takes place in the later Tang Dynasty, because of how this drama is one of female empowerment and female agency, things which Emperor Wu Zetian brought forth in her reign as a female emperor.

Symbolism of the peony:

The flower itself symbolizes wealth, honour, and royal beauty— often regarded as the “king of flowers”, actually. Because of this, it was a flower often favoured by the aristocracy (the highest social class and status in society, only one level below royalty, and those who often hold hereditary positions in office (politics) or are legacy families in office (those who don’t necessarily have hereditary positions but their families are known to produce offspring who will hold office eventually, either by merit or by nepotism).

Beauty
In the arts, the flower was often used as the metaphor for beautiful women, especially those in high social standing (like how white porcelain skin is the standard for beauty of women of high social standing in Korea).

Arts
Do to the former ^, the flower was often used in poetry and in paintings. In the prevalent religions of the time (Taoism & Buddhism), the flower represented the ephemeral beauty of nature

He had less screen time in the second part, unfortunately. It was an interesting character. He wasn't a good person by any means, but in the first part, I liked that he had at least tried to stay away from corruption and nepotism. But he really didn't have any freedom.

I would say an obsessive person who goes beyond boundaries but uses "I am a nice guy" to try to convince his target he is not a stalker is actually conveying the opposite. His actions speak louder than words. She is clearly terrorized by his presence. He pushed through the door (trespassing).

Recently, k-dramas are using the stalker trope as an easy way to drum up a level of "danger" to try to evoke an emotional hook to a character or story. This dropped with no context so I classify it as throwaway filler.

That would be good.

Spoiler alert (Episode 1):

According to this episode, the FL and ML did not see each other again after that first meeting, but I don't know if there will be any surprises. Because if they never saw each other again, it's strange that she dedicated the award to him, right?

@isagc Miles Wei in this role grew on me! I’d never seen him in a villain role, so it was new and needed some adjusting, but I think he did a good job, and the drama’s editing definitely did him dirty by underutilizing him 😤

Yes, I am guessing there will be a lot if back-and-firth between past and present time frames.

Hmmm. I have a thought that some of the more regular watchers of weekenders can help me with! What happens if the stalker is not actually a stalker? He said he was a "nice guy"---could he be the person the rich mom is hiding (if I remember, she was hiding someone?)? Could he have access to whatever secret is out there? And as for endgame for all the lovers, the writer of this drama wrote 49 Days which has one of the more controversial endings ever for kdramas...so I wouldn't be surprised if it is surprising.

"Not in my region" ... so. More waiting and now with less interest because dubbing. Shoulda known Disney+ would go along with that.

I swear, these top cdrama performers should absolutely demand in their contracts that they dub their own voice. They are limiting their potential audience and ultimately hurting themselves.

For God's sake, why would they dub Xu Kai in MR? That is low.

I really liked Miles Wei in this role. I had seen him in other dramas but the characters were completely different, of course.
I think he did very well as this (nuanced?) villain.

I also much preferred the scenes from 1999. The episode started off really well, honestly. I found everything that happened at the police station quite endearing and funny. But when we jumped to 2025, the episode was significantly worse in every way.

I have just noticed that we can see the latest comments again! 🥳🥳

Thank you!

I've been checking Viki for days to see if they've aired the first episodes of When Destiny Brings the Demon or Moonlit Reunion, or if they've at least given an indication of how many days until they air, but they haven't said anything. Both shows still are in Coming Soon.

Chain Replying still doesn't work properly for me... but... thank you for the Recent Comments page back! ❤️

@zindigo, @cliosservant1846, @hopefulromantic, @isagc, @miso2019 pls tell me if I forgot anyone! First 3 episodes of MOONLIT REUNION are subbed on YT here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq5gjpTxROk