Beanie level: Rooftop room dweller

Ahn Eun-ji (Min-ha in HP) is becoming my new Kim Seul-gi: an actress who makes me pay attention when she’s in a drama because her characters are always awesome! Evidence: Possessed, My Fellow Citizens, Prosecutor’s Diary and now Hospital Playlist
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    She has a very lovable face. Like a friend you can be comfortable with. She looks warm if that makes sense lol.

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    I LOVED her in MFC. Unpopular opinion here, although MFC is one of my favorite shows but I never got the beanies’ love for Park Hoo Ja. To me she was incredibly dumb and gullible. Everything she acheived was because of her little sister, who was smart, educated and fantastically quick-witted. I sometimes think what would the show be like if SHE was the villain! Probably much much darker!

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The Aunt and the Butcher scenes in Once Again make me laugh so much! This drama is exactly what I needed!!😂😂😂
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    OMG this screencap alone is enough to make me burst into laughter 😂

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    I had thought about watching this when it first started as the premise sounded interesting, but then I thought the initial Beanie reaction was lukewarm.

    But you are liking it?

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      It took a few episodes to get going but by the end of ep 4 (counting in half-hour episodes) it became clear that the show wasn’t going along the normal stereotypical plot-lines & character tropes, now I’m really loving it.

      In the beginning, some of the arguing seems irritating and annoying but you soon find out a) what the arguing is really about and b) that the siblings & parents look out for each other, and suddenly you end up caring for all of them (apart from the mother-in-law).

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Just saw Hyena ep 8 and after ep7 lulled me into a false sense of security, ep 8 just ripped my heart out, stuck it through the shredder and handed me a little bit of sticky tape to make it all better

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    oh no, i haven’t started on this week’s episodes and now i’m like both nervous and excited?

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    But it was soooooo goooooood!

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    Episodes 7 and 8 were the best so far! I haven’t been this satisfied with a drama in a while.

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    Man Guem Ja was so strong even as a teenager. It takes an enormous amount to strength to even consider stabbing yourself. Also the low five in episode 7 was so adorable. I feel so sorry for Hee Jae. Poor guy is carrying a wounded heart and no matter how much Guem Ja tells him to go for someone else, he can’t

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      The reason why it hit me so hard, is because it showed that no matter how strong you are, you carry the childhood damage with you. Especially the contrast between how she could stand up against the gangsters, but was afraid of her father.

      That she actually told Hee Jae was huge.

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        I agree. Even if she decided to embrace that moment of vulnerability, it was a huge deal that she trusted him enough to the him about her childhood. I think she realises that smart though he may be, Hee Jae is a pretty straight forward guy

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I got 6 episodes of Kingdom Season 2 this morning!

I can\’t think of anything better to watch than a drama about a zombie apocalypse…

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I had no interest whatsoever in Find me in your memory until I saw that Kim Seul-Gi is going to be in it!
She’s in the fourth picture of the IG post

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Whatever you want to say about Que Sera Sera, I loved this track from the OST. They used it so often (hint: whenever something exciting was about to happen) that I expected RL life-changing moments every time this came up on shuffle play. You know – something throwing their employee badge in the bin. That kind of thing…

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    March Music #2

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    Call me crazy but I love “Que Sera Sera” and I don’t care if I’m the only one lol.

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      I love it too. It’s a love that’s wrong – which is pretty much in keeping with the drama lol

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    Didn’t know this one, but the 80’s cheesy feel is totally up my lane 😋

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Music March
I love the OST from Heart to Heart. It’s as if you’re drinking a cup of hot chocolate on a winter’s evening. Perfect for this drama.

(apologies for not finding a better video)

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My new favourite chaebol girl – UEE in High Society.

I’m continuing to love dramas that other people hate. I watched High Society and think it’s a brilliantly written exploration of class and privilege that the (admittedly young) cast just about carry off. What’s so great about it, is that the writer actually makes the viewer implicit in how we judge people from a certain background, by having two couples who are the mirror opposites of each other (always a good writers trick).

On the one hand, we have the rich chaebol guy and the candy part-time worker. They are the second couple. They’re cute. They are what we’ve seen a gazillion times before and well, you know what you’re going to get.

But on the other hand, we have the rich chaebol girl and the smart guy from a poor background looking to marry his way up.

And what the drama is asking all the way through is: why are we okay with scenario one, but get Mr Ripley vibes from scenario two. Oh, and to make it all more interesting, chaebol girl’s family is considerably richer than chaebol guy’s family. The drama makes this clear because the girl’s family own a private jet and the guy’s family doesn’t.

The drama starts off with the two chaebols on an arranged date. The guy is pretty clear that he wants to marry her for her money and power. So, when then poor guy dates her, and gets called out by the chaebol for that, he asks the question: why is it okay for you to marry for money, but not for me.

It’s really cleverly done and asks these kinds of questions of the viewer all the time. Why do we think it’s okay for the chaebol girl to lie about her wealth (she pretends to be poor) to her best friend for two years, but it’s not okay for the poor guy to pretend he doesn’t know she’s lying. By having the different characters ask those questions of each other, it really makes you think.

On top of that, I absolutely adored the FL. She’s been physically and emotionally abused by her mother all her life and just wants out. The way the drama deals with the damage that family can do (or the strength that you can get from a supportive family) is also great. She doesn’t want to have her background – but of course still uses it. Her self-awareness is utterly satisfying, especially when she realises that even when she was a part-timer, she was only holding onto that job because of her connections – getting her brother to bail her out of tough situations. Again, these are moments that are really fun for the viewer (because nasty customers get their come-uppance) but that later on take meaning. Also, I was looking forward to the angst episodes (not a feeling I have very often) because I knew that she was strong enough to deal with it.

Anyway, I thought it was great. Probably better to binge-watch than to watch when it was airing live, as some of the annoying bits (like the plot line with the brother) pass really quickly.



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    UEE was great as chaebol in Ojakgyo Brothers too 😊

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    Wow, I like how you found the deep meaning for everything. I was on the boat of not really caring for this drama when it came out, so to hear your opinion… It intrigues me now..🤔

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      I sometimes wonder if the deep meaning is only just in my head, but with this one I’m pretty sure that the writer meant it ☺

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These are my new cats. They love each other. I’m dreading the heart-breaking moment when they find out they’re siblings

#lifeisonebigkdrama
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    Poor cats. Tell them now cloggie. Before they grow too attached. Imagine the cat-angst 😢.

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      I’m hoping that the fact that they look identical might give them a hint…

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    Maybe they’re not real siblings? Who knows what family secrets might still be revealed? (*music intensifies)

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    Oh, two cute panthers you have…

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OMG that epilogue of Diary of a Prosecutor ep 15! I haven\’t been so excited for a final episode of a drama in ages!!!!!

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    And if that was what I think it was, I’m going to be exceedingly smug.

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      Okay, so it wasn’t. I was trolled and totally fell for it.

      Still thought it was good because the show absolutely knew what it was doing.

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Woo hoo! I finally figured out what Forest is about. The stills on Soompi made it utterly clear: it’s about people disappearing. Compare the two images on the righthand side: the woman with the clipboard is still there but EVERYBODY ELSE HAS GONE

Especially the two guys really close to Park Hae-jin. Oh wow, that’s some special skill he’s got

*Alternative interpretation: they got airbrushed out. Not as much fun*
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Cloggie watches a kdrama: oh look, their fingertips touch. They must be the OTP…
Cloggie watches a jdrama: oh look, they have sex. I wonder if they\’re the OTP…

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    😂😂😂

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    True story.

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    Korean movies more than make up for their chaste dramas! Zoinks! I had to reprogram myself after watching High Society.

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      Oh yeah, well, Korean movies are a completely different kettle of fish. I mean, they smoke and have non-pixelated knives!

      And I saw The Handmaiden in the cinema. All anatomical details on an extra large screen.

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    I Guess because movie industry do not have the same restriction as dramas on public broadcasting they can do almost whatever they want.
    Funn fact was reading interview with Kim ha neul talking about movie Misbehavior. she talked about how in the script s… scenes where very graphic, but she manage to talk to director about toning them down because she thought those scenes would ruin the message in the movie. first time hearing actress being so frank about this even to director about what she was feeling.

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Rewatching 30 but 17 made me appreciate once more what an amazing actress Shin Hye-Sun is. Even remembering how much I’ll love the romance in the later episodes, I’m back on that fence in the beginning, because the body language is totally that of a seventeen year-old in a thirty year-old’s body. So ridiculously good.

And, I think, I’m even more impressed because she’s so different from the feisty ballerina she plays in Angel’s Last Mission.



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    There is a reason she was a presenter at this year’s awards show.

    Shin Hye-sun is my very favorite actor or actress and your comment really shows why- her extraordinary talent combined with a superb dedication to her craft. She is always great- and seems to always be better than before. She even makes her co-stars better- and they continue to be better after having been around her- she literally teaches them the right attitudes to take to their work. By the end of ANGEL’S LAST MISSION M had actually become a pretty good actor (to the universal shock of all of us). She is actually very beautiful (a fact which was carefully kept hidden until ANGEL’S LAST MISSION) but there are many beautiful actresses. It is in her talent and dedication that she rises above the others.

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30 but 17 showed up on Netflix and I randomly watched the first episode again.

Urgh. It brought back all the fils. Now I feel super nostalgic for when I lived-watched that show. All the great moments came flooding back: Call-Me-Jennifer, Baby chick, Don’t Think Fil!, being on the finse about this show for so long (and the short-lived f.i.n.s.e community) and the always-excluded fourth rower.

Right, I’m off to rewatch Ep 2.



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I’ve still failed to find a Melona – I really did try @sicarius – in a shop but … I did find this recipe for how to make them yourself!

All I need now is an ice lolly mould.






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Wow – Netflix are adding a whole bunch of new dramas over the next two weeks. I’ve seen most of these but still…

*I’m in the non-North American English speaking region*
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    Omg! I see The Last Empress! Yassss. Come to my region please. So I can continue my TLE rewatch on a bigger screen 😆

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    Of course the one I really want is Kingdom season 2…

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    Should I try Secret Life or Live Up to Your Name?

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      Your call:
      LUTYN has one of my favourite OTPs of last year.
      Secret Life has a great second Female Lead and excellent fish.

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Inspired by @missvictrix\’s post, I wanted to show that if you watch a lot of kdramas, you see kdrama plots everywhere. Here\’s one with penguins.

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My year in drama: in praise of friendship

I was away and therefore too late to submit this for Theme of the Month, but for me this year has been all about (female) friendship. If I think about the dramas I watched, and what’s stuck in my mind, it’s been the friendships shown on my screen. Two of my favourite dramas this year had female friendships at the centre. The three long-term friends in Be Melodramatic were fantastic. This was such a realistic friendship. Search WWW went one step further and showed both the power of friendship, making new friends, but also how much it hurts when you break up with a friend.

A less-beanie-watched drama, Spring into Spring had two women as the OTP. It’s a body-swap drama (I love body-swap dramas) where two women keep ending up in each other’s body and basically destroy the other’s life. Their journey from adversaries to friends is really fun. Even more than Search: WWW it uses OTP tropes to show the friendship growth – including dragging someone away from their wedding. To be honest, I thought they would actually go one step further and make them a romantic pairing too, but for K-drama that would probably have been a step too far. Still, I loved the frenemies-to-friends journey a great deal.

I love these depictions of female friendships and even in dramas where friendship has been less at the centre, it’s played an important part, like the friendship between Dong-baek and Hyang-mi in When the Camellia blooms and as the besties in Love with Flaws , Kim Seul-gi and Oh Yeon-seo are just awesome

Even in Real Life, kdrama has stood in the theme of friendship, as this has been the year where I’ve been meeting Beanies in RL. It’s been so much fun! Beanies are the best and it’s strengthened my belief that the only thing better than watching dramas is to talk about dramas. It’s made me very happy to make friends across that great divide – yes the age-gap. All the beanies I met (and their sisters) are at least a decade younger than me (and maybe two, or two-and-a-half *gulp*). It makes hanging out even more fun. And thanks for allowing the ahjumma to join you!

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    Thanks for allowing this younger than a decade or two girl to hang out and squee with the ahjummas and unnies whereas in real life I will just be a younger one meddling uselessly in their experiences. That doesn’t say that your experiences don’t matter to me. No. Not at all. I will come to my DB friends more if I have an issue because your experiences help me and you treat me as an equal. Cheers to all DB friends (female or male).
    Also this year, kdramas were definitely about strong women and women friendships, such a treat to see women being recognized more than a love interest.

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    Wonderfully said! I also enjoyed Spring into Spring – another under appreciated gem this year.

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    Speaking of really life meetings, let’s meet up in 2020 for sure, Cloggie! I’ll come to you!

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      Hurray!

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      @saya do we have a meet-up coming up? Now that Frabby has promised to come to London we should schedule in another Korean meal…

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        Early warning: I’m a seriously fussy eater, I’ll piss everyone off! 😂

        I’m in Canterbury these days, so I can get to London much easier than I used to be able to, this could happen.

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          We should certainly schedule something soon! Perhaps after the holidays when everyone’s gone back to their normal schedules.

          Don’t worry about fussy, frabby – I have a boatload of allergies and things I don’t/can’t eat (or drink) so eating Korean is always a bit of a trial/adventure. Plus I have zero dexterity so I’m also a chopstick failure, and I also have many needs in general…so yeah. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, especially with five unnis to look out for you XD

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I love Kim Seul-gi but my love apparently has limits. I didn\’t make it to the end of ep 1 of Love with Flaws.

If it gets any better, let me know.

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@leetennant, I thought I’d show you some of my holiday photos
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Currently RecapPing

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