Drama Grab Bag

Yes, I’m still here and watching stuff too. I’ve even somehow managed to amass a full roster right now. 😀  It’s just that RL issues have not magically disappeared, soooo… still not much time nor energy to be dedicated to blog posts. Unfortunately this will be the state of things for quite some while yet, but at least I know there’s an end in sight… some time next year.

Egao no Hosoku
This is an older jdrama from my never ending List of Doom, that I watched a while back when nothing current caught my eye. Egao no Hosoku is certainly not a current drama, being from 2003 and even though the age shows, it’s nowhere near as dated as many kdramas from around the same era imho. Yes, the funny bits landed a bit too ott in places and the physical comedy was sometimes painted with a larger brush, but none of that was enough to be annoying. Despite of being labelled as a comedy, to me this was basically a workplace drama, though all the “action” happens in a traditional ryokan, where our main characters have holed up in to finish a project. Yumi, the FL is there to make sure that Reijiro, the ML keeps focused and gets the work done in time. But of course they also end up being involved in the lives of the ryokan owner and her staff. There are nice mini arcs, quite a bit of bonding and both leads learn some life lessions. Egao no Hosoku is not a romance though the drama at times tries to hint that. Yes, there is some chemistry going on between Yumi and Reijiro but it doesn’t really go anywhere. They part as friends. That doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be a different outcome sometime later on, we just ain’t gonna see it.

BITE SIZED ~ Currently Watching:
More subbed episodes have been released, so I can now set aside some time to continue with Under the Microscope. I really liked the first two episodes, which I actually watched twice, ha. I find the drama facinating and a bit strange with a great cast, lot of familiar faces from other historical dramas. Zhang Ruo Yun is fantastic as the math genius Shuai Jia Mo, who without doubt is “on the spectrum”. Drama is beautifully shot and I love the muted colour palette that fits perfectly with the story and it’s characters. It’s quite likely that UtM will get it’s own post once I’m done with the whole thing.

I’m also waching two other cdramas, Warm on a Cold Night and The Starry Love. Both are costume dramas but the first one is more of a wuxia-mystery-romance (HA!) and the second is a xianxia romance. Warm on a Cold Night is generally more to my taste and I like it’s humorous tone and the main couple. After Peach Blossoms I haven’t found one xianxia drama that I liked, so it was a bit of a surprise that I’m quite enjoying The Starry Love as well. Might be because it’s actually a comedy, so far anyway (fingers crossed!). I can’t usually stand the “goody two shoe” celestials but even they are quite palatable this time around. I’ve no idea how I ended up with not one but two romances in my roster! 😆

I don’t really have much to say about Our Blooming Youth. It’s a pretty solid drama, looks good and the cast is ok. I just don’t seem to be majorly invested in it. I keep forgetting it’s on and several days can go by before I get on with the episodes. 😀 The romance feels kinda tepid, not that I mind as I have no real interest in that part of the plot. I’d rather watch Yae Ji and Ga Ram kick ass and hunt down bad guys. Thankfully palace politics have been kept to a minimum.

Despite of it’s obvious flaws, The Heavenly Idol has been quite fun so far. Drama is at it’s best when it concentrates on Rembrary/Yeon Woo’s fish out of water high jinks and idol life/entertainment meta, lot of which has been pretty spot on. Where it falters is when the baddies come to the fore. Someone @ Dramabeans named the baddies Evil One and Evil Two and in a mostly fluffy drama like this, that’s one baddie two much. They take up too much room from all the more enjoyable bits, so I tend to FF through all of that nonsense. There’s also a local supernatural realm that looks like some sort of underworld. I have no idea why we needed that element in the mix as so far it hasn’t conributed much. Drama has also spent very little time on fleshing out the Wild Animal members and they mostly feel more like place holders than real characters. Definitely not enough music!

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