Well well well, park our brains, our bodes at this particular waterfall time.
YamaPi as what he’s born to be, we are all sure, a stoic piece of very pretty wood in the form of a very pretty private jet owning/shrine heiring expressionless prince monk going all entitled of plucking any woman as wife off street and rubbing erm our sensibilities erm wrong because why does pretty needs social skills, or acting chops. This Piece of Monkhunk is also klutzy and awkwardly hormonal falling in lublub, or we call it genius casting in a shoujo heaven no one can pry nobody away.
I do not care for the manga, pretty monk is too MCP even with the pretty weighed in, and heroine turns 180 into the extreme spectrum of lame duck thus peeves me. I still can’t respect an I am told very driven quite successful career lady giving dreams, goals all up for LUBLUB, but humor me Satomi.
Confession: I haven’t finished a dorama by the ITgirl actress, her style irks me with OTT. I haven’t finished a thing even with bored tears for YamaPi since Nobuta. Lets change the ‘wrong’, shall we. There is also Mokomichi AND YukiIriekun as hot teach. Their English is very cute and everyone putting in some work in trying at authentic being English teachers. That should do. It promise me all the tried and true shoujo scenes, the ‘improper’ physical intimacy of perhaps a kiss, the princess hugs scooping off feet, half naked hunk of a monk. I saw gifs:
JK ha Yukionna
Snow girl and fox lymph fighting for sperms from the human boy heir of a holy shrine to continue their bloodline, so understandable in cuckoo J shoujo absurdities for the children. It is predictably ridiculous but so silly I laughed. I can’t bash it. Obviously, these days I have hots for monks and dudes who should not be enjoying carnal pleasures but ARE. This is not good, but in the middle of kungfu fighting with ice and fireballs, they one-upped it for some other catfighting a latenight dorama will go there. I wish the leadboy is better looking but all the young ladies are very cute. I doubt I will last till the end.
Gisou no Fuufu
I know, premise is tacky, fake marriage and the obvious CPs of slashy BS aka Bromance and Sistamance while faking it all. I do not like the writer, it will be pretentiously ‘evocative’ amounting to nothing….but FINALLY a grown woman is saying out loud what I wanna say to Amami Yuki sama’s face all these years and that girl is none other than Uchida Yuki, whom was the Goddess of all the boys I have dated in my teen years. And Amami Yuki is allowed to give all the snarky b8tchy comments to her heart’s delight and I got to watch along. And I can drink to how many times she rolled eyes in unison with me…winwinwin!
Okashi no le
❤
O Joe and Ono Machiko, House of (my) Sweets. I am not betting on it totally owning my heart with the slice of life, I was just checking it out to fangirl. BUT IT IS! This owns me at hello, right of the bat, the mood, the music, the understated unpretentious tone and OJoe playing a little guy, not the I can f w ur hormones weirding u all out, none of it. Simple, warm, fuzzy feelings spilling out the screen effortlessly…a dorama needs to be perfect to distract me from just droolzing at OJoe which I could barely do in an Shinya Shokudo 2 ep where I remembered nothing but him doing things to hard boiled eggs(?) and I totally saw my face on them eggs.. O Joe in sth, I will watch it however long after it starts crapping on me, can’t teach me no new tricks. This does not look anywhere near the possibility of crapping, look at everyone attached. Wow. I love everything about it. ❤ Pray, DO NO JINX IT Mook.
Lang Ya Bang
It is a very solid production. Not a component is missing. End of nice. But are all the components objectively as good as it could be?! And greatness is made as a result?! NO WAY.
Good actors, Glitz and mollah are sufficiently displayed and used…but by no means this deserves to be on any best list. The writing and pace is atrocious, it is the worst I have seen from ShanYing prod.co, stlll in shock I am not gonna recover fr. While everything looks expensive, can fake it as a lot of care put in in passing, but all the details are lazy…the imperial ladies each has an extravagant jeweled birdy on top of head, very tacky looking for my taste, yet…empress has been wearing the exact kelly green with matching same old peacock headpiece outfit for days, months and YEARS. How dare you costume peeps with supposedly bottomless budget. It saddens me, I am sooo terrifying myself how bored, underwhelmed or disconnected I am with the superbly draggy plot and storytelling. JiangWu (the ‘lakes and ponds’), is where the extraordinary of the normal folks can lost in, from attracting the attention of the imperial court, esp a very leery emperor who would kill them all in a coup he probably masterminded. IF there is a list, aka Lang Ya Bang, of the best of the best, and the seriously tooo obvious do we need paper and ink AND a silk keepsake hoopla for the secret If you get the #1, you get the world?! And HOW?! If the two lesser princes can get their hands on the info, I bet the King can, and from a lesser brain of mine, LYB would scream hit list.
The premise is quite silly in, Mr MCS, our HuGe, was completely transformed, in hiding for 12 years, gathering his chips and minions yet aside from looking differently, which 12 years can do to many folks naturally, he flaunts himself in the spotlight screaming he is the Harry Potter/ lil Shu/ the One and peeps pick that info up some very soon and some aggravatingly late. Is there ANY decent transition in drama?! Suddenly a year or two has transpired and I could not tell from any cue from characters. Is that always replaying battle scene a disappointment, a devastating understatement, when they could not even get the first line of description of that fateful day…’the snow is pouring making the land white…’ and we got 80s reddish coloring of some fake flaming hell and a few closeups of the most heartbreaking battle on middle earth slaying thousands of the best soldiers?! Is this the best you can do?!
This is my go-to drama when I wanna do my own manipedi. Nothing is unexpected, nothing is out of sorts, nothing is holding me captive engaging either. I get all the little trickling of enticement, ‘scheming’ catching my attention because of nth but stupidity and the climax is always rushed or spoken through in fewest words. In much cruder words you do not go out all war drums about a few droplets of trickling of urine and do not really pee, or at least if one’s physical condition do not allow one to, it is no fun. It is torture and pain and very WTF. Are we truly shown any character growth?! Not really, everything was told and narrated like from the pages with NO dramatization. The supposedly brilliant imperial scheming always shock me with its stupidity, every dilemma got tackled so simply and in such juvenile mindgames, it reflects on all the parties involved as blockheads. I felt like these bunch of very good actors are told to read out that novel in their fancy duds and made it as anti-climatic as humanly possible. It was a most bizarre drama watch because every moment, screen cap, looks promising, could be so terrific, but I am getting nothing but dull and stupid in context.
I would concur this does make a good watch, if I can park my brain. Hu Ge has never shown me more meat (not the literal sort) than his take of as substantial a character, as tailored for him to shine as I can ever recall, but this is still not ground shattering great, because I am not welcomed along the ride to see him becoming great, and it should be. He has never looked better, his aura never as befitting character. There is some real fire and pain in his eyes, things he could finally channel out, of his own. But why is the writing and editing so dragging everything down?!?! Everyone is twirling around his hero in mad fan love, the delusional kind speaking from my rational side of mind yet I wanna be shown the how, make me fall in love with him like EVERY breathing soul in the drama, the 12 years in between of the making of this man, this most forbidable hero, do not just slur over in few words, then try to lure me in with all the lusting glazes everyone is lingering on him. Show me, seeing for myself is believing.
Yes, Wang Kai is the sizzling IT hottie in Cdramaland atvm and he cries sooooo pretty it is blinding and this deserves great compliments of letting him do just that in red pretty period costumes like some wedding gowns the slashy fans will have glorious years of field days. He is very good too here, with what he is given, just can’t this character be less simple and predictable for him?! His Prince Jing was exactly the same old good a bit on the slow side boy the moment we met him and till the very end…save for sprinkling of tears and pouts. Other than being a harmless good man i doubt he could be good King material without eaten alive very soon on his own. There is very little character growth, none of them have much, everyone is a 2D caricature that will do smart things, or dumb things, out of character, played by some very good actors. I enjoyed their performance gladly, but it just pains me more why can’t this element of writing be perfect just for their sake and my sanity’s sake?!?!?! I have sat through this in entirety and I felt they copped out on EVERY crucial scenes, perhaps to save budget where they splashed excessively for show. This is a case of big head disease of a production company, first hint of which is All Quiet in Beijing, then this…to a lesser degree Disguiser AND Love Me, If You Dare as well, which all adds up to they need to get back to basics. This is like my experience at the very fancy resto in N Europe….where you feast on the freakish ton of tweezer fancy precision skills put into slicing a piece of fish into millions scales of perfect circles and putting them together back, every light piercing sliver, to a glob of very fresh fish, pile on another super gorgeous ton of flower petals made edible (a gastromiracle huh, if I was a not hungry gourmand grizzly I guess) IT is still a very tasty bite of the epitome of fish but does all the painstaking tweezering elevates…taste?! Am I given a gastronomy tardis on my plate to spiritually connect with a grizzly bear, and why? I joked if those flower petal thin slivers of fish will physically coat my entire GI tract as I eat it and physically let fancy fish swim in me, then that’s DRAMAZ. Gorgeous visuals costumes, sets… not a best brain teasing drama make, get back to the basics, the drawing boards and pick a very worthy and suitable for your sensibilities Internet Property (ie way more slice of life, family drama…none of chasing the shibboleth the babies are yelping and spend your money where it’s worth: writers, stop this dallying in insufficient novels you, now egomaniacal best production company in CN, can make even more mediocre. Which is the case of sth else I am watching…
Love Me, If You Dare
The book DRAGGED me to tears, I am still a bit furious about it, but Miss writer is not worthless a writer. She is likeable, from the pages, and I like the heroine, rare feat for a CN romance novella at the core… just please hire a mean editor. And if you are going to write romance with a mystery bend, tension and suspense are elements sorely nonexistent in your writing. It started out creeping me enough to tease with the murder investigation and gore but the horror lies mostly in how meandering author could be. My ebook version was 1500+ pages, for a romance novel that has a few not terribly complicated cases and a romance that does not convey to me the focus of book, way long.
I stopped at half way when my horrid time management skills could not allow me to continue the wasting. Kudos to Miss writer she does have footnotes end of chapter admitting she is not good with logic nor inventive with murder mystery and the cases were tweaked from news and not entirely her creation so bear with her…and I did. Drama is MUCH faster paced already, good job there, it breezes through 100pp easy of novel in 2 eps or so, WH is a good choice for this prettier shoujo Sherlock copycat. It is one thing for a fangirl to write an internet novel and plagiarizes as much as she wanna of Mr Holmes with no consequence, another of the tacky kind for the ‘most’ respectable production company enjoying ShanYing’s status and praises all these years to lift off BBC’s Sherlock’s music in entirety so shamelessly (and knight rider too… like my folks try to speak my slang when I was a teenager which was decades ago….NOW)….so redundant one need to be mental and deaf to not get WH’s Simon IS so ingeniously Sherlock. Again first was the beginning sequence of All Quiet in Peking totally frame by frame of True Detective, rubbing me so wrong right away as a first impression. ShanYing, 3 (or 4) counts, you have used up your good will.
WH is still very gorgeous, and I like he is a little less when close up, face front, that fragility, his eyes slightly closer set, odder than perfect, is what is working for this typical annoying smartass. But his wobbly posturing acting habit of whenever he has to be serious and impt is still prominent.
WangKai is in it, he should be a copycat Lestrade, not this flirty pants!
I hate actress bashing but Ma SiChun, while not bad at all, is just jarring as the calm, collected, studious, miser with words, more observant young lady than she knows it, more competent than she gives herself credit for in book, as least my read on it. Ma’s Jenny is tooo eager and bubbly and cutesy and would be stereotyped into the bimbo airheads by her looks, how she dresses herself (tight tank tops, daisy dukes underpants-length) to work, even for summer job in summer would bug someone like a very anti-human being dress shirts pants always Sherlock, or so I thought… and how her doe-eyed pure sunshine and puppies stares are oh so innocent but also convey nothing is going on much inside the pretty when yeah, novel is opposite and novel Jenny is snarkier and better: uses her head constantly weighing common sense but not stamping confidence everywhere for all to see.
Why do we need to smex and bimbo her up?! Then she will suddenly snaps into her own superSherlock mode and be marvelously observant and brilliant with no buildup, impressive, yes, congruent to character, hell no. I do not expect the detective work to be intense either and it is aggravating me, I am betting on she will regress to typical marysueland, these things I must nitpick. ShanYing Production Co, I wanna sit back and enjoy your dramas like I used to, stripped of all my snark, with all my unadulterated fangirl praises, let me enjoy me being sweet, I have all the rest of waking moments to be the B. PLEASE.
The Bletchley Circle
So, I do not get my steely, wise, quiet presence of a young lady Watson in Love Me, If You Dare and here are Four (extra)ordinary ladies each with specific very good espionage skills during WWII, now back home being ordinary housewives after. But a ripper-esque serial murderer is killing young ladies, and you know how Scotland Yard, the boys club, would be portrayed here…so mission arises and they are the only precious ones who could tackle case by a reunion. Girl Power Feel Good Show. This is nothing new, nor I think terribly brilliant but I do not feel dumb watching. I am not enjoying Downton many seasons ago, but my Dad and DiL, the remote owning high priests are absolutely addicted, I can either roll my eyes out of sockets, or watch this delightful British thing to keep calm and let them carry on.
How to Get Away with Murder
Night time soap. I have a massive crush on Viola Davis. If she were a defense lawyer/ law professor anywhere near me, I would never be 10 ft away from fangirling her, that’s the name of her class and rightfully so, I would only trust her on earth to teach me how to get away with murder, she will make the best CourtTV ever, as a fictional character, and murder for her without a blink as still the very paranoid wimp inside. I am in the mood of strong ladies in particular when I have to suffer through mindless jokes from otherwise very sweet coworkers on my sex. When you hear the sweetest grandpa superior who has been teaching you the ropes so kindly these months I wanna give him bear hugs constantly, but held myself back in fear of harrassment lawsuit slapped on me, spills out he wanna break in a very annoying female patient’s home, dousing her dildo with chili oil, as a joke, I need me some drama therapy.
She was Beautiful
This is my guiltiest of guilty silly pleasures on list. I gobbled up 8 eps after sensing wind of crazy shrieking unrest fr fans on my social media thus I need to be nosy. That and the Siwon gifs that I could not look away after spitting tea. Lol how could his good looks morph into such. This will rub nerves wrong and I still wanna shriek at HJE to tone the wayyyy down with her shrilliness. She is not bad, perhaps never was, but she somehow makes shouty her business to be expressive. I have not grasp the spell this is casting on me, perhaps because HJE’s character is Kim HeeJin and this gives another slightly interesting if not by much take on the obsession on physical beauty (the fugged up duckling seems more feeding the beast than the ‘pretteh’ ones) and i am slightly falling for PSJ like i did for HB in MNIKSS and i have been trying to squeeze HJE’s take on a Samsoon v2015 into Kim SunA’s awesome and somehow i can tolerate her squeaky moments. Girl2 is GJH and i liked her (what’s up fox anyone?!) new nose still lamenting my end, but she is a sweeter much mellower kdrama girl2 one can wish for. I see them all as likeable enough, good folks. I cant wrap fingers around it but somehow this is the only Kdrama clicking for me in ages.
Mahabharat
My first serious Indian drama watch that a few of my weibo artsy buddies who had long been too speechless with rage at the FUG in Cdrama periods for years, being designers in the garment industry, have been crazily spazzing with her friends about this mostly for the ornate costume p0rn and hot Indian long mane godlike actors in gold and flesh last entire year and I swore no way I would join your crazy and be in a mood to be begging for subs for hundreds of episodes on end. It now has 200+ episodes of very good CN subs, lured by their tune, I am diving it.
I sat through enthralled with an ep, very entertained in a fresh shock, kid in a very gold and jeweled candy store of what what what lavish blingbling extravagance and bizarrely hilarious (no offense to all deities) things are going on screen. Episode one of 2 million starts out with a King and Queen out on a sailing boat date, a very gorgeous queen, born a fisherman’s daughter, then starts battling a golden godzilla carp sudden surfacing, claiming because she is a fisherman’s daughter, she can handle the gigantic fishie, all bloodied hands, and King stands and watches on the show as fascinated as you and me, and their fancy ride, somehow just with the two of them on board, about to hit a boulder, and one would think King’s life is above all, but not for a fisherman’s daughter Queen, who could not let any obstacle stop proving she can handle any fish.
Then enters on screen our lead God Krishna doing a lavish narration as narrator of teaching of the day, which in all honesty is enlightening, even though all the gold and peacock feathers and live doves set in the backdrop of a fancy rain forest, all too visually enticing to not stare and lost my eyes into. Am I ever going to learn read the millions word epic poem?! Fat chance, so I am putting it on you, drama, to be authentic and no sacrilege business going on.
CN fans made a fanvid:
mookie 
So, what are your recommendations for other dramas about “monks and dudes who should not be enjoying carnal pleasures but ARE”? That would make a funny YouTube playlist.
Well, i dont think i have watched anything worthy/titillating enough to recall drama wise… is the v old Journey to the West fits criteria?! Lol … the sudden mood is i am reading a trashy smut novel which was good for what it is worth at half pt of bk1 but gut is saying it has jumped shark. Couple has several more lifetimes/books to go i doubt i haz patience. Novella is 獨愛僧人，not a rec, it has 19+ stuff, be warned.
The WallaceH/TangYan arc in Chinese Paladin is gd enough for me. There r also bits of it in JinYung characters (eg DemiGods SemiDevil). Again WH’s BaiZH should be another example, but u can guess my opinion of the drama.
Movies though there r some like Green Snake and 誘僧，both original creations by 李碧華Lilian Lee. She likes to write about taboos, twists on the spiritual supernatural in myths and folklores. I am an obsessed fangirl.
Mookie!!! *waves excitedly* Glad to know you’re still alive (of course!!!) and doing well – and still watching shows! I’ve been in a terrible on/off drama-watching period, now mostly just gobbling oldies (but doing a poor job at staying with them) – aside from Because It’s The First Time, which – watchhhhh if you’ve the mood and time for coming-of-age! Comes from PD-writer of Discovery of Romance, which always brings back fuzzy memories of camping here in your space :)))) Miss you and hope you’re having fun with the monk hahah (let me know if it’s worth watching?) – take care okies ^_^
Squeeze Sweetie! How come everytime i read your writing, a lovely hello it fills me with i am not worthy for knowing this sweetness?! Miss you too! Fun times watching DoR with you.
I will give Because It’s First Time another try. I did stay for half an episode, i miss some Eric + Yumi in the equation. I hope i would love it too… these days i am quite desperate wanting to enjoy a drama, whatever it is, just so i would not be occupied w nth but work.
Monkhunk YamaPi is not worthy, lol. I have guilt to bottle and sell for my silly pleasures. Okashi no le though, GEM!
Hehehe ^_____^
“Monkhunk” hahahahha omg, dying at the description. D’awww guess I’m gonna pass the show then :p but I will try Okashi if indeed like you said it is worth it!+
(Funny you mention being desperate cos I am too – feels like I’m unable to hold and keep my attention on dramas ! 😦 )
i think you read my mind about NIF haha (i agree with you on every point, every word). I think i would have minded the overly simplified characterisation plots and politics (and yeah all those confrontations with the ‘villains’ were so…anticlimatic and devoid of any emotional punches or catharsis) less if the characters had at least more of their own agenda and inner life ( instead of either falling in love with MCS, fawning over MCS or determined to defeat MCS) and Hu Ge played MCS more dangerously alluring/charming/ mysterious so that al least I could understand why he was so worthy of such cult-like devotion when to me MCS felt like a really angsty, brooding, self righteous teenager lashing out (but that’s partially the writing’s fault). IDK, i keep falling back to LZH, BBJX or even Hua Xu Yin and even though the story, the plots and the characters were unrealistic and simplified, the actors (and the writers) were able to make us understand why their characters did what they did and what for. In NIF, the king was cold because he was cold, the other princes just wanted to be king to be king and they were corrupt because they were corrupt and MCS could amass such loyalty and adoration (and outmanoeuvre everybody and anyone and is right in doing so) with his sad, sad, bitter eyes because he could. I didn’t really hope or expect complex, nuanced political situations and motivations with dynamic, living, breathing characters having conflicting, clashing relationships with with each others within a complex, dark bleak world, ( with really pretty people, pretty clothes and pretty/realistic settings) so , i’m a bit perplexed why I’m as disappointed as i’m –‘. oh well. At least, it looks wayyyyyy better than let’s say Yu Zheng’s drama’s. And lots of Wang Kai ^^
High5 and take my bow. So eloquently written putting what’s on my mind in wiser words I still can’t because I am still so aggravated by my watch.
But I did and I thought we had no choice but to expect nothing less. This is promoted exactly as such and PD Producer HHL whom I followed since BoC, someone I was gonna kiss every spec of dirt he stepped on until he sold BoC DearMissWriter short on credits and such and in such deplorable ugly poor taste I stopped any crazyloving for him, and should have a premonition he is so full of it now I should be weary of anything he is attached henceforth…I digress. He is still posting stuff on how historically accurate/ mindblowingly intelligent intriguing, the best Cdrama periods have to offer ever meshind idol period and serious historical blablabla.
I have picked my brain and concluded it is 80% the writer’s fault and 20% ShanYing/producers blinded by their own hype, the pedestal they forgot whom put them on, sitting too comfortably, soo sure this is greatness. This writer is so ridiculously limited in her tools the narrative is spoken out like a high school production of characters spilling beans chitchatting in the middle of stage with all the characters who should be last to listen on such ‘intriguing’ plotpoints in laziest conversations at the most inapropriate setting because she can’t weave any story into a proper arc/ scene portraying the story like any decent drama should.
This makes me cherish HXY even more, the actors attached are working with questionable aesthetics and so many production woes… earned more respect from me for picking a script like any actor should: characters written with full inner emotions and human complexities. Yes some actors did not make the best out of it, there could be a few better casting…but so does NiF. ShanYing is rubbing me wrong with casting way too young actresses as mothers, a generation older of actors their same age, looking way older as their sons. A WallaceHuo should be in JinDong’s shoes, YuanHong would have worked exponentially better either as PrinceYu or CrownPrince and not peeve me in the casting bigotry…not saying any NiF actor is horrible, but that goes with my gripe ShanYing has such a horrible read at what this drama should be, they made a pompous idolperiod under the loose veil of any decent period production we were used to a dime a dozen a decade ago, calling it the second coming of Jesus in drama form we should all kneel to, with even the fluffy addictive components inadequate. My frustration is this is neither here nor there, nothing fluffy addictive to be a guilty pleasure, nothing withstanding ANY processing to be remotely intelligent… yet SY is lying through their teeth still so much they must have truly fooled themselves and most of the loving audience this is THE real deal. I furiously refuse to accept that. At least Yumeh’s stuff is where one should expect jumping in, he is honest in giving us telltale signs like casting an MC as XLN. He has the reputation of mastercrapper where he deserves, nothing is prompting me or you to not stay a world away.
h5 back and please take a bow back ^^, you were the first blogger I’ve come across who shared my opinions and frustrations abt NIF, definitely agree with you though, the whole production seemed to be very smug with themselves.
on HXY: I was one of those viewers who was like, omg this looks soooo cheesy and cheap and messy and decided not to watch it. Then i accidentally caught a episode of it while on vacation and found myself addicted to it. I think it’s universally acknowledged that the main couple were horrible cast but to me it was very clear that the production team and the cast were very serious about getting the stories and the characters right. I mean the passion, emotions and chemistry were flying off the charts :O. HXY is definitely a fantasy shoujo done right. ^^
Finally took a look at NIF last night to see what the fuss is about. Am I the only one to think Hu Ge channelling Chow Yun Fat but with a layer or two less?
The serendipity my very first impression of CYF was in a super old TVB LouisCha, as Linghu Chong, ever since he is my visual of my sentimental fav wuxia hero and his more seminal iconic roles henceforth are versions of a LHC to me.
When i first saw HG in Chinese Paladin, i actually had the idea he would be a better LHC than anyone else in his gen, perhaps subliminally he gave me some vibes of a young CYF i was not concious of.
CYF will never be a thespian like a Tony Leung but he has the effervescent charisma making everything else trivial. HG… not so much. He has hints of it 10+ years ago, but since then there was some inferiority complex showing in his acting, he is trying too hard to prove he has the grander qualities he actually lost sparks of. Not his fault, it was the accident, it was trajectory in his acting career not allowing him to develop much.