Thoughts on: Warm on a Cold Night

Anyone who’s been around this blog for a while has probably noticed that I’m not too hot on romance. 😀 It’s not that I don’t watch any but that I don’t actively go searching for romance themed dramas. I do watch a few every now then, if I happen to come across one that appeals to me. Warm on a Cold Night is one such drama. I did like it from the start but it was only after I got to the end that I realised how much. Which was quite a lot. 🙂 I’ve caught myself thinking about the storylines at odd moments and recalling certain scenes makes me genuinely happy. Even hearing the first few bars of the ending song always puts a smile on my face. I’ve now even skimmed through all the episodes again to take screencaps, ha. That’s generally a sure sign that a show is truly to my liking.

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.

Drama Year 2022

I could probably copypaste most of last year’s end of the year post here as nothing much seems to have changed. Well, save for the dramas I did manage to watch. quirkycase @dramabeans pretty much said it in her post – “There were some dramas I enjoyed, but not many stuck with me afterward or made a strong impression.” Which is one reason I struggled with trying to write something, anything about most of those I watched. So I didn’t. The dramas I enjoyed the most were Under the Skin, Kikazaru Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte and New Life Begins. No surprieses there as those are the ones I was compelled to make a proper post about. All three were excellent in their own way and gave me planty of happy drama hours.

Thoughts On: New Life Begins – Up till ep 19

I am not a huge fan of romcoms or romantic dramas in general but that does not mean I don’t watch any. Every now and then I come across one that draws me in, almost against all odds. 😀 New Life Begins is one of those. It’s unabashedly romantic fluff and I appreciate that it doesn’t try to pretend to be anything else. Which is what so many kdramas don’t seem to grasp these days. Drama has 40 episodes, which might sound a lot but I haven’t felt like it, so far anyway. Every epi has something to offer, some are slower and some are busier but I’ve enjoyed them all. And I haven’t done much FFing either! 😲

Drama Grab Bag

Another post! I’m on a roll! 😎 Or something. I’ve actually been watching stuff this month and for some odd reason they all happen to be cdramas. Drama Gods work in a mysterious way.

Thoughts On: Kikazaru Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte

Kikazaru Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte (There’s a Reason for Dressing Up Love) is a drama I watched quite a while ago but never managed to write about then, despite of how much I liked it. And I did like it a lot! There’s something about slice-of-life jdramas that just seem tailormade for me. 🙂 No high drama just for drama’s sake or convoluted plots, relatable characters who feel like real people with real jobs they actually go to and not one uber rich asshat in sight (yey!). I’ve also come to appreciate characters that are generally really nice, even when they are supposed to be e.g love rivals. Thumbs up for loving, supporting parents as well. It’s all so refreshing after, say… kdramas with all these nasty, borderline basket cases. 😀 Besides ticking off all the right boxes, Kikazaru Koi put a big grin on my face and that is something I love in dramas these days. If you are looking for a heartwarming, “healing” drama, this might just be it.

Under the Skin – Final Thoughts

Under the Skin will probably end up being one of my fave shows of this year. I’m still trying to process my thoughts about it, so I’m sort of struggling to find the right words to convey what I actually want to say, ha. This isn’t one of those “thrill a minute” shows that often resort to cheap gimmics to paste over the otherwise flimsy plot and gaping plot holes. Some of them can be quite watchable if all you want is easy to diggest entertainment, especially if the actors and director are are putting their best foot forward. If you want a well made crime show that isn’t too dark or harrowing, this may fit the bill. I really liked Into the Darkness too but one such show per season is quite enough, thank you. 🙂

Drama Grab Bag

I sometimes wonder how some long time drama watchers like kfangurl have been able to keep their interest in dramas intact. Many of those who were around when I got into dramas myself have disappeared from the internets, some probably moving on to other things. My own interest has sadly been slowly but steadily waning as the years go and the current RL situation with work has put another nail in the coffin. Apart from the very early years, when I watched just about anything I was able to get my hands on, I’ve always been kinda picky with my choices. But in the past couple of years it’s been uncommonly hard to find stuff to watch and even when I liked a drama enough to finish it, I often didn’t really have any deeper feelings for the story or it’s characters. In many cases I’d be hard pressed to recount what the drama in question was actually about. I watched it but wasn’t able to truly connect or care. I’ve also realised something while pondering upon why I’m enjoying Sword Snow Stirde. It’s sort of like a familiar, warm blanket I can wrap around me and feel content. The past year and a half have been mentally exhausting and I don’t have the capacity to process anything too complex or intellectually demanding. Comfort food is what mainly feels good right now.

Drama Year 2021

This has been a strange year. In a way it’s just like kfangurl wrote in her year end post – seems like the year went by fast but also it feels like I was stuck in time. It also feels like 2021 has been a continuation of 2020, only worse in some ways.

At the beginning of the year I decided to take a break from dramas and blogging but as the months went by, I realised it was actually more of a break from blogging. I’ve been battling exhaustion all year from ever increasing workload that usually leaves me totally drained. Weekends are mostly spent recovering from the previous week. The saddest part is that I don’t think next year will be any different. Sigh. Writing a blog post takes time, effort and some brainpower, none of which I have in excess and it shows. I made all of 4, yes frour, posts in 2021 and two of them were about GOT7, ha. I also seem to have developed an attention span of a gnat. I tend to “wander off” from dramas I’m watching after couple of episodes, never to retun. Even if it is something I was mostly enjoying. I did manage to stick to few dramas long enough to finish them and there are couple I do intend to continue with (Move to Heaven, Hospital Playlist 2, Luoyang). I’m also currently watching Sword Snow Stride 雪中悍刀行, which is quite entertaining and the cast is grrrreat.

Here’s what I watched this year (as far as I can remember^^):
Korea
Awaken, Forest of Secrets/Stranger (re-watch), Imitation, Navillera, Run On, Sell Your Haunted House/Daebak Real Estate, The Silent Sea (pretty good for a Korean SciFi drama – watched it from behind a pillow 😂 ), The Veil/Black Sun

China
Be Yourself (a nice college/coming of age drama), Definitely Not Today (darkly quirky and fun), The Imperial Coroner (bit of a hidden gem), Nirvana In Fire

Taiwan
Some Day or One Day

Drama Grab Bag

Well, I’m back. Sort of. I still don’t have much time for blogging nor all that much incentive either, but I’m watching stuff and I actually found it in me to write one of these again. 😄 So, I guess things are moving to the right direction…