Beanie level: The Goblin’s underpants

Finished THE DAY OF BECOMING YOU (Cdrama). I think it’s a very good recommendation for anyone looking for a rom-com with little angst.
Fortunately, I wasn’t put off by the first episode. I kept watching because this drama was recommended to me. And I didn’t regret it.

I especially liked the mature couple communicating with each other. They have great chemistry. There were no silly misunderstandings, disagreements were quickly resolved. The secondary characters were not caricatures either, but mostly warm and supportive.
Not only do the two main characters behave like adults when communicating, even when they become a couple, they don’t turn into inexperienced teenagers who are suddenly afraid of physical contact. The kisses are definitely not dead fish kisses.

I was forewarned not to watch the last 10 minutes. Apparently the censorship of the Chinese state strikes here, having problems with the fantasy elements (body swap). The last 10 minutes probably won’t ruin it entirely, but this ending is probably not as satisfying as the earlier ending.

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    Ahh!! A favorite of mine 🥺

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      To add, yes when I first watched it I was disappointed by that fake out ending (I wasn’t expecting it)…on my second watch I completely avoided it and was much happier in the end ahah!! The drama works fine anyway.

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    Thanks for sharing your summary and reactions! I’ve been on the fence about this one, but now I think I’ll give it a try!

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    💙💙
    So glad you enjoyed it. Such a fine romcom isn’t it??!! I fell in love with Steven all over again (after ‘Skate into love’). The body swap hijinks had me in splits. Both the leads were so good in acting.
    Time for rewatch! Till date I laugh when I see a walnut 😂😂😂.

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      The walnuts will never fail to make me laugh 😂😂😂😂

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      Yes, it was definitely a good recommendation. If you have any other recommendations, I’m always open to them. With Chinese dramas, I find it difficult to find a reliable source. I can’t rely on the ratings on MDL as most of the audience is more into youth dramas. Reddit I find too confusing.

      I had to laugh the loudest at a scene between the co-worker and Jiang Yi in Yu Sheng Sheng’s body when the co-worker asks if there is food in the bag and the dry reply came, no, it’s clothes with blood.

      I looked into SKATE INTO LOVE yesterday, but quickly realised it wasn’t my thing. Too many contrived misunderstandings and annoying competitors. Too bad, it actually sounded quite good.

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        Yeah Skate into love had a bit of a lull and distraction with second leads towards the end but the leads are totally worth it. I quite liked their misunderstanding intially and it was hilarious watching a guy failing to bully and falling for Master Tang. I would still say give it a shot. By Ep 4 you should be hooked. (If my memory is right).

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          I think I already told you about ‘Find yourself’.
          A lot of beanies loved ‘Hi Venus’. Same FL as DOBY. A zero angst drama with leads who communicate. No unnecessary drama.
          Another drama I loved is ‘You are my hero’. Bai Jing Ting and Sandra Ma were awesome. It does have some angst and some action but still well done.
          For a good slice of life with a fantastic romance watch ‘Meet yourself’! It’s a slow pensive drama. So watch it when you are in the right mood. It’s almost like a travel show at time but the show has so much heart.

          I look forward to seeing your cdrama journey! I don’t watch costumes so may be other beanies can you give you recommendations for those.

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            Thank you for the additional tips.
            I had already stumbled across MEET YOURSELF elsewhere, as it was highly praised. Like the other recommendations, I have put it on my watch list.

            A little angst is perfectly okay (sometimes even desirable) as long as it doesn’t turn into melodrama.

            Costume dramas aren’t usually my thing either, so we’re totally on the same page here.

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    The ending definitely didn’t ruin the entire experience, but it was a little underwhelming indeed

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I took advantage of the rainy holiday and finished watching HIDDEN LOVE. On the whole I liked it, but a few points bugged me.

For example, I would have liked Duan Jiaxu to have hesitated longer before deciding to woo Sang Zhi and to have been less overconfident. Not because I had a problem with the age difference, but because everything happened a bit too quickly on his part and therefore lacked the emotional effect.
I also found it a bit irritating that they talked about marriage so quickly when they weren’t even a real couple at that point. Especially when you consider that Sang Zhi’s parents still treated their daughter like a child, made daily check calls and there was practically a curfew for her (I wonder if it was the same for her brother at the same age, but doubt it), even though she is already considered an adult in terms of age.

If Sang Yan would get his own drama, I would watch it immediately.

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    One of my biggest gripe was that the entire wooing-confession-dating-moving in-marriage proposal happened in such a short time frame. Here is one drama I would have used a time skip.

    Even though she was a mature and thoughtful person and I don’t question their relationship it was kind of rushed.

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MY DEAREST, PART 2
Let the heartbreak continue.

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    Looks like she got married or she’s pulling an Aun-ae with her hair up.

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      I hope it’s the latter because in the trailer you posted she had her hair down. They are really playing with us, I remember they showed us her with the hair up in the ep.10 preview but actually she was showing the gisaengs how to use the hair pin.

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      Both is possible.
      It is also possible that she only put her hair up because a married woman is treated differently in captivity than an unmarried one. Which is, of course, just a wild theory of mine.

      In any case, misunderstandings and heartbreak are inevitable.

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        It would be nice if she’s pretending to be Jang Hyun’s wife.
        Your theory makes sense!

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          The idea that she could pretend to be JH’s wife didn’t even occur to me. But that would explain why they are staying in the same building.

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    I read some translations at Soomi.

    “It’s strange, isn’t it?” says Lee Jang Hyun. “On days like these where the moon shines bright, I’m always with you [in my mind]…”

    The star-crossed lovers then sit down on opposite sides of the unopened door, and Yoo Gil Chae sheds tears as she listens to the rest of what Lee Jang Hyun has to say.

    “I’m not sure at what point things started to go wrong,” he continues. “If, that time, I shouldn’t have left you behind and gone to Namhansanseong. Or if, that time, I shouldn’t have left you behind and come to Shenyang.” Choked up with emotion, he breaks off as he goes on, “Or if, that time, when you cast me aside…”

    https://www.soompi.com/article/1617070wpp/watch-namgoong-min-and-ahn-eun-jin-share-a-heartbreaking-reunion-in-part-2-of-my-dearest

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Finished YOU ARE MY GLORY. One of the few dramas that did not become boring after the two main characters became a couple. In fact, I liked the dynamics of them as a couple even better than during their flirting phase.

@mayhemf Thanks for the short nights and lack of sleep 😉

Would love to hear any other recommendations. Ideally with a mature couple, a little angst is okay too.

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    😂😂😂
    I am so glad you enjoyed this drama!! yeah, their relationship felt real even after they got together.

    Recently many of us loved ‘Fake it till you make it’. It’s a mature romance and handles some serious topics too. It is beautifully directed, acted and OST is top notch. It is not a light drama because the work life in the initial two episodes is intense and feels too real. But it settles down and things get much better. The leads have explosive chemistry.

    For a lighter drama I recommend – The Day of becoming you. Leads are mature and the plot is fun. Just skip the last 15 min of the drama (it was done to pass censorship).

    Find Yourself – Another drama I loved. It’s on Netflix US. It’s not by any means great. But overall it worked for me. It explores the complexities in dating someone younger than you. It goes by swiftly too.

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After three previous attempts, I have now for the first time found a Chinese drama that I did not drop after the first episodes, but watched to the end.

The plot of FIREWORKS OF MY HEART reminds me a bit of Jane Austen\’s Persuasion.
I skipped some scenes, especially at the beginning and end (a lot of pathos in the firefighters\’ missions), but I liked how comprehensibly the struggle and development of the two main characters was portrayed. Some might call FL weak at the beginning, but like Anne Elliot, she outgrows herself over time.

I was surprised at how steamy the drama was compared to many Korean series.

Yang Yang may not be the best actor, but he looks damn good.

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    Yay! Welcome.
    My first cdrama was also Yang Yang’s!! Lol. He does look damn fine.
    I liked FOMH and had similar opinion as yours. The show did great in showing the leads work on their own problems and make an effort to be better for each other. The chemistry was great. By the end I was convinced they were good for each other and truly will make themselves be happy.

    If you want another YY romcom reco I suggest ‘You are my glory’. He and Dilreba were great. Towards the end you might have to FF a bit when there is too much of space mission stuff.

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      I ‘second’ that recommendation to watch YAMG and I’ll also suggest The Day of Becoming You – I’ve rewatched both dramas twice.

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      Thanks, I’ve put it on my watchlist.

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    Welcome to C-Dramalandia!!! 😁
    I’m glad you’re finally able to find a Cdrama that has grasped you.

    I’m terms of Yang Yang, I always like wha to see of him in variety shows, but it’s been a struggle for me to find a drama of his that I stick to. Maybe I should try this one 🤔

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MY DEAREST, Part 1, deleted scene

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    👀 WHY wasn’t that in the show?!? It’s marvelous – so much exposition of relationships, feelings, and reconsideration of both in a few glances. Maybe it will appear as a flashback in Part 2.

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    That brief scene showed so much! Why did this tiny ~1 min part get cut. Argh.

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    So unfortunate that this was deleted!

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“My Dearest” production team confirmed that there would be “My Dearest – Rewind Film” (8th September) and “My Dearest – TV Movie” (15th + 16th September) with 1-2 parts in addition to episode 10.

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My Dearest, episode 1 (dream) vs. episode 7

Gil-chae still has a long way to go.
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My Dearest, BTS, Episodes 5+6

This video answers my question about how exhausting it was for Namkoong Min to carry the women across the river.

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Hong-jo’s biggest competition for Shin-yu might not be his girlfriend, but the creature with the red hand, hehe.
(I need to get my mind out of the gutter)
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    Yeah, but the hand might be hers from her past life! The shaman mentioned that he had killed her, so it seems like one of the more likely explanations for the curse taking this form. And also the level of intimacy there makes more sense if it is/was someone he was close with in a past life.

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Startet watching Psychopath Diary for more Park Sung-hoon.
Now I’m drooling over a serial killer.



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    It’s been ‘next’ on my list for a while for both him and Yoon Shi-yoon, but with 6 current dramas I don’t know when I’ll ever get to it. 😂 I’d love to hear what you think of it.

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      I’m glad you’re enjoying it, @nefret! I watched this recently (within the last couple of months), and I LOVED it. This is all the more surprising for me, because dark, murdery plots, are just not for me. Yoon Shi Yoon was fabulous, as was Park Sung Hoon. As other Beanies warned me, and which I found to be true, the first 2-3 episodes are not the same tone as the rest of the drama. From episodes 3-4, each episode gets progressively better. It’s one of the most well-written dramas I’ve ever seen. I even wrote a reflective review on my fanwall because I liked it so much!! Do give it a try sometime, @elinor!! (*Caveat: as is my style, I used FF through the violence. It was less violent than Moving, though*)

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        “Each episode gets progressively better”.

        So so true.
        And that’s not something common in Dramaland.
        And they nailed the ending.

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        Yes, I’m having fun so far.
        I like to watch series with dark murder plots (Dexter, Hannibal, …), so this one is absolutely harmless in comparison.
        That’s why I always have to grin when Yook Dong-sik quotes notorious murderers from films and thus cements his reputation as a psychopath.

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      FWIW, I not only truly disliked it, I dropped it after trying to like it for 10-12 hours. Really distasteful characters to me—and I do NOT mean Park Sung-hoon. That’s right. The psychopath was the clearest character.

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      I just finished episode 5. So far it’s ideal to watch when you’re sick on the sofa: entertaining, sometimes wacky and you don’t have to think too much.

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That’s me, who can hardly wait to be the next to be carried across the river.



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Grumpy bear’s first laugh



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    Looking at the turtle speed of this couple, I don’t expect much. Still I enjoy their relationship.

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      I know!! Crying!!!
      It’s been a tease. Sigh. I am prepared for no kiss till the end.

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      As long as I see small progress, I am satisfied. And I love slow burn.
      The preview for next week looks promising.

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Now I know why the snow was always cleared before shooting the previous scenes (seen in the BTS videos). So that Jin-hee and Jae-won can see the first snow together in episode 10.



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Baby steps, but I take anything I can get
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NOT OTHERS, episode 8.
The end of a scene was cut short. I feel robbed.

https://www.hancinema.net/korean_Not_Others-picture_1699218.html

And why am I too stupid to upload and post a photo?

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    Oh, @nefret. Please, let’s not give into negative self-talk. We are Beanies, we are strong!!!

    When the image is already on the internet, you’ll just need a link to the image file itself. In this case, you can right-click (or long-press) on the image, open it in a new window or tab, copy that new url and put it in the following code (replacing all the square brackets with equivalent angle brackets).

    [img src=“ https://photos.hancinema.net/photos/fullsizephoto1699218.jpg” /]

    I’ll do it here below with the angle brackets, to show it works…then once you try and have done it once, you’ll be able to do it again and again.

    Here’s a place to test out your HTML before posting to a comment to make sure that you’ve typed everything OK. Just put what you want to test on the left (Between the “body” tags) and press “run” to see if it worked!

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      Comment was deleted

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      Two errors:

      1. The actual link to the HTML testing site would have been nice: w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_basic

      2. There should be no spaces between the quotation marks and the image url.

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Overall I enjoyed KTL, though I liked the first half better, a little tension can\’t hurt.
But if I had drunk a tequila shot for every PPL in the last episode, I would be in a coma now.

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Currently RecapPing

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