Beanie level: Jang Geu-rae

Because of how much I loved The Matchmakers and am recently enjoying The Rise of Ning, I just need to make the connection lol.






11
2

    The first day was the 30th October 2023! The drama celebrates its first birthday!

    2
    0

    I love it when dramas aren’t lazy with the sets and props and actually fill the atmosphere with (culturally) appropriate props to give the scene the proper setup. Definitely a feast for the eyes! 😍

    2
    0

So I\’m currently in my kdrama slump era and have been bingewatching cdramas instead. I\’ve been watching Lost You Forever and jumped on to Are You the One straight after.

7
10

    Let’s just say that I’m completely captivated by Zhang Wanyi LOL. This man can act and he’s handsome to boot. Can’t wait to see more of him.

    4
    2

    In addition to these 2 recent ones, in the past few months, I’ve bingewatched Reset, The Double, The Princess Royal, New Life Begins, Scent of Time, Dashing Youth…I’m on a roll lol

    2
    1

      Reset is great! New Life Begins is very good too (even though I have some problems with it).
      I encourage you to watch The Legend of Shen Li, another great c-drama released this year.

      3
      1

        Oooh thank you for the recommendation! Will definitely check it out!

        2
        0

    Welcome to the land of Cdramas 😁
    Lost You Forever Season 1 is definitely better than Season 2 for sure, so make sure you just treat it as a single drama without multiple seasons and watch it all back-to-back without a pause in between seasons. Those of us who had to wait and went thru the break between seasons definitely felt a difference (dang censorship and editing woes 😢). I agree that the plot isn’t anything new, but the cast definitely made it work and they all shine and are really talented. LYF is my first ever drama with Zhang Wan Yi and Deng Wei, and both are 🤌🏻 I’ve read great things about Zhang Wan Yi in the C-drama remake of Korea’s The Good Doctor — the Chinese version titled, Fantastic Doctors (https://mydramalist.com/680293-extraordinary-medic) and I’m reading great things about him for Are You the One— he’s definitely one to watch in terms of up-and-coming C-actors (he’s also got a great voice to boot, and it’s no wonder, because before acting, he was a professional tenor). Likewise, LYF is also my first drama with Deng Wei, and I’ve also read great reviews about his performance in his prior dramas (most notably, Til the End of the Moon), it’s just sad that he’s never really gotten any support until now with his popularity rising from being in LYF that he’s really gotten the opportunity to put his name out there due to the drama.

    New Life Begins had it’s woes— but honestly, no drama is perfect, not even our most beloved ones— but it’s one of the nicer female-centric ones in a sea of neutral or patriarchal/male forward/focused dramas. I’m currently in the middle of another female-centric drama, Blossoms in Adversity, and I am absolutely in love with it, I dare even say that I like it more than NLB and that it is doing a better job than NLB in portraying women-centric characters, themes, empowerment, encouragement, etc.— ALL the things one would want in a female-centric drama in a sea of male-centric (or neutral) dramas, so I definitely recommend it! I’ve not had to use my FF button at all with this drama, that’s how good it is for me and how much I absolutely am loving it

    2
    1

      If you ever want or need more C-drama recommendations, don’t hesitate to ask! There’s quite few of us C-drama watching Beanies here 😊

      1
      0

So the whole revelation in Marry My Husband was hilarious and as an army, I welcome it. But reading how it actually went in the OG webtoon, I can\’t help but feel disappointed with the change.

5
8

    Apparently how they found out in the webtoon was way sweeter 🙁
    But they changed it into a sort of gag scene in the drama 😅

    3
    0

    Aw did not know this. Can you spoil it for me? I don’t want to look up the webtoon and accidentally read spoilers.

    1
    1

      I personally have not read the webtoon but someone who did told what actually happened.

      Since this could be a spoiler, a bit of a warning here for those who wants to avoid the webtoon spoiler, do skip.

      ____________________________________________________

      So anyways, what I was told is that the reveal didn’t happen this early in the webtoon. It happened at a later time.

      Apparently the male lead got into a coma (i didn’t get spoiled on how that happened tho) and she stopped by his place. While she’s there, she found a letter which his future self wrote talking about how much he regretted not approaching her when they were in uni and not telling her that he liked her. He also wrote that if he were given a chance to change anything, he would try his best to finally confess his love to her.

      So basically, that’s how she found out and understood why he went so far to help her out and be there for her.

      That is what the person told me. So the reveal in the original was supposed to be a bit more meaningful than this 😅

      1
      2

    It seemed like a drama only scene, I didn’t know they changed it from the webtoon.

    0
    0

    I actually liked it better in the drama, in the webtoon it came out too late for me to care and there was no need for it imo.

    1
    1

      Just thought it could’ve been done in a better way though instead of a gag scene. Kinda threw me off a little bit because it felt randomly inserted. Maybe the writer is just a huge bts fan lol

      0
      0

Can we bring back these type of angsty bromances in kdramas? I’m really missing it 😔
17
7

    The bromances were the best thing in both shows (Pinocchio and Hello Monster).
    I support your petition!

    4
    0

    But it was so painful that the brothers became murderers because they weren’t protected as kids.

    5
    0

    That scene from Pinocchio is one of the first things that jumps to my mind if ever anyone askes me what do you like about kdramas…

    4
    0

    I also support your petition! And I’ll add “Come and Hug Me” to the list. Not quite as bromantic, but definitely still there to a degree and breaks my heart in many ways.

    2
    1

      ^^ +1 Come and Hug Me.

      1
      1

        That drama has serious rewatch value for me haha I just loved the character for the male lead especially and I’m a sucker for serial killer dramas lol

        1
        1

          Just reading the synopsis I never thought I would see it, but watching the drama on the basis of a Beanie recommendation it became one of my favorite-ist drama. 😀

          0
          0

Apparently we could have had a cute epilogue on The Matchmakers 😭

https://x.com/syrlovuu/status/1745468831747957087?s=20

8
3

I guess one minor disappointing thing about The Matchmakers is that they didn’t make full use of Rowoon‘s crying skills hahaha
4
17

    But to be fair, can’t really imagine Jung Woo actually crying because he’s such a lighthearted, uptight, and comical character lol

    6
    0

    The scene when he left crying and hidding behind his sleeve was so funny!

    But yeah, he did well in his other roles.

    5
    1

      That was hilarious hahaha. One of my favourite comical scenes from the show

      5
      0

    this was one of the best scenes in DwY – he’s a good crier!!

    6
    2

      Yes! He was so good in that scene. That scene itself deserves an award

      3
      0

      He looked so devasted and then relieved in the hospital scenes.

      2
      1

        You guys have inspired me….I think I already have sufficient images for a “What Jung-woo does when he’s really, actually sad” post…and you’re right. It’s not actual crying with tears…

        5
        0

    He was also very good in Tomorrow. I was somewhat skeptical if he could pull off the emotional scenes but he was awesome. And that scene where he hugs Kim Hee-sun was awesome.

    3
    1

      I want a Rowoon’s hug too!

      There are so many nice ones :
      – In She Would Never Know, he hugged the FL to let her cry ;
      – In Extraordinary You, Dan-Oh was afraid to die and she hugged him and he hugged her back tightly ;
      – In Tomorrow, he hugged the woman who was bullied and thanked her ;
      – In The King’s Affection, he hugged Park Eun-Bin who was crying after her father scolded her.

      2
      1

    These are lovely GIFs. You can make them autoplay if you do the following:

    Copy each of the links below and paste it in between a set of square brackets and quotation marks (the marks must be straight down) and the fixed part img src=

    https://i.imgur.com/cfunYJ6.gif

    https://i.imgur.com/O5r0jqF.gif

    https://i.imgur.com/SDqjSYF.gif

    https://i.imgur.com/vkWhdGE.gif

    https://i.imgur.com/hMwrZ8p.gif

    then you would have something that looks as below

    You copy the whole text body and paste it in your post or in your comment, and hit POST/SEND, then all the GIFs will autoplay.

    2
    1

      Here it is

      4
      2

        Omo … I didn’t realise these were gifs. So much more hard hitting. When did he become so good. Sigh, though not sure I want to see Rowoon cry.

        Claire, you’re the best-est as always. Sprinkling your tech-savviness over Beans like fairy dust, freely and generously.

        1
        1

          I didn’t realise all of them are GIFs but was curious if any one was, so I looked more closely and found the last one a bit grainy for a static pic, so I clicked all of them and it turned out all are GIF!!

          1
          1

        Ah thank you so much!

        1
        0

Now that The Matchmakers is done, what are some of your favourite scenes from the show?
7
5

    Mine would be Jung Woo’s written proposal. I think it’s even more beautiful if you understand the Korean language. Because at that point of time, he didn’t know that Soon Deok is a noblewoman. So he started off his letter in informal language. But he ended the letter in honorifics and asked her to think of him well and hope that she’ll accept him. I thought that was so beautiful especially since he’s someone of a really high status and for him to switch to honorifics (despite believing at that point that she’s just a low status peddler) to ask her to accept him as her spouse is just so….🥹

    Another scene I love is the one in the last episode where they were locked in the room and Jung Woo told her that he will never regret loving her while placing her hand on his chest. And the way they hugged each other and tightened their hug when the guards came into the room to arrest Jung Woo. 🥹

    I love them so much.

    11
    1

    All of them. Every last one of them.

    7
    0

    My favorite scenes is in ep. 5 “What Happened at Sunhwa Temple”. That shot of the pilgrims circling the temple it makes me smile whenever it’s shown in the opening credits. The use of light and shadows to emphasize SD’s face during JW’s mini heart attack, the lighting provided by the beautiful lanterns in the bachelor’s wall, when SD and JW released the sky lanterns.

    5
    0

    I loved almost everything and every scene in this drama, I can’t pick!
    But overall I think that my favorite scenes were all which gave main focus to the secondary couples. (Special mentions to episodes 10 and 11).

    And Jung Woo learning to swim 😅

    2
    0

I just want to bring up something which I think was brilliantly written and directed in The Matchmakers. It has something to do with Jung Woo and the Princess storyline & the rumors surrounding it.

9
2

    I remembered that when it was first revealed that Jung Woo has actual feelings for the Princess, people were confused. Some were speculating if he’s just faking it to empathize with Soon Deok’s dilemma and make her feel better and some were questioning if it was a last minute added story line.

    I completely disagree and don’t think that it was a randomly added storyline. Seeing as how the show has consistently potrayed Jung Woo to be a man who is enveloped with unfortunate rumors and secrecy, I think that THAT is the whole point of episode 1 and what the show wants US to believe as well when we were first introduced to him.

    What we see in episode 1 is basically the rumours about him being played out for us. While what happened were mostly true, a fraction of it were also based off rumors. The point is that he is an isolated figure and people outside of his close circle would only know him through the rumours they’ve heard about him. Which was why it was directed in a way that us, viewers, would also only know him through those rumours. What we were given were only quick snippets of the events that happened with Jung Woo which doesn’t show the full story. What solidifies the director’s intention for me was that after we were shown the sequence of time passing while Jung Woo was left to live in isolation after the princess’ death, the scene cuts to a group of men outside the gates of Gyeongwoonjae (Jung Woo’s house) openly gossiping about him.

    6
    1

      Now, what was the purpose of this scene if not to show that the scenes that were played out before this were based on the unreliable gossip made by outsiders? I think this scene prefectly illustrates that idea and most viewers might have overlooked this, including myself haha. It only clicked for me when I decided to rewatch episode 1. & now I’m smacking myself on the forehead for not realising lol.

      The Jung Woo we were introduced to in episode 1 is basically the Jung Woo from the rumors and it was directed with those intentions.

      & as the episodes go by, we, the viewers, who has only known him based on the rumors and snippets shown in episode 1 and made to believe that the rumours were true, begin to learn more and more about the real him alongside Soon Deok. The director and writer wants the viewers to be a part of the story and journey as well. I guess we can say that we are those people who believed in the rumours about Jung Woo too easily LOL.

      I just find this so clever! ‘Rumours’, in itself, plays a huge part in the story & it also goes along with the running theme within the drama about novels being based on true stories but they can also be turned into rumours because they are not written to tell the exact full story. The show also consistently incorporates the idea of misunderstandings to show that ‘not everything is as it seems’ and that things are not always what they appear to be on the surface. Like Soon Gu’s misunderstanding in regard to Soon Deok’s marriage. Jung Woo’s misunderstanding of Soon Deok’s identity. Lady Park’s misunderstanding of what happened with her son. The misunderstanding of the Maeng sisters based off gossip. Soon Gu’s initial misunderstanding of Hwarok. Everyone’s misunderstanding of Jung Woo, as a whole.

      Bravo to the writer and director of this show!

      6
      0

I might have discovered a spoiler when it comes to Hana. In a recent bts photo of the actress, I can’t help but to notice her hairstyle. It’s a hairstyle worn by palace maids!
8
1

    It’s like bingo! Why didn’t I think of it? Of course she would enter the palace. She’d be considered as one of the king’s women so she wouldn’t have to get married. Duh! She’ll be able to contribute to the Royal family and protect the crown prince.

    1
    0

Currently RecapPing

back to top
Follow @dramabeans: