Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give short thoughts on dramas I’m watching but not recapping.
Still going slow so far this year. I haven’t done any long recaps of Bad Buddy and Love Between Fairy and Devil this week, but I hope to get back to them soon.
I also plan to start doing shorter recaps of shows so keep an eye out for them. I’m still watching Between Us and to see my general thoughts, which haven’t changed, you can read my post from December 10th.
My favorite of what I’m watching is:
I Will Knock You – Thailand 2022
A currently airing Thai BL drama and I’m caught up to 9 of 12 episodes.
Noey and Thi have had my heart from the beginning with their slow burn, adorable and earnest interactions. Tutor Thi is a spaz with a heart of gold who wants to help everyone while delinquent Noey is living on his own planet where he is boss.
Watching their very different personalities grow through their interactions has been immensely satisfying. While initially Thi was dragged around at Noey’s whim, in the past few episodes seeing Noey become more considerate and aware and Thi coming into his own power has been great. That plus the change in their feelings towards each other has made it so I haven’t wanted the last two episodes to end.
I’m still watching:
Under the Queen’s Umbrella – Korea 2022
A recently aired South Korean historical comedy-drama, I’m at 5 out of 16 episodes.
With a historical drama, it’s not surprising to me that I’m still sometimes at a loss as to what’s going on – except that everyone is out to get everyone else. But with each episode I get a better understanding of the different Crown Princes, the Queen, the King, the Queen Dowager, the various Ministers, and the truth of all their relationships and schemes, and goals. While the first three episodes had me lost but curious, episodes 4 & 5 have really hooked me into wanting to see what any of them do next.
One thing that’s standing out to me with this show is how un-romantic and business-like the relationships are in this show – particularly between family members. For example, there’s no visible affection between the Queen and King and so far she hasn’t tried to appeal to him emotionally in any big way. This not only tracks with how the show depicts them, but what I suspect historical families and unions may have been like, especially at this level of society. I don’t watch a lot of historicals so maybe this isn’t unique, but I find it interesting to see.
I just started:
Hi Venus – China 2022 (Pictured)
A recently aired Chinese modern comedy-drama, I’m at 3 out of 24 episodes.
In this show, the new hospital director and outcast pediatrician meet during torrential rains in a remote village. Stuck together for several days, there are various misunderstandings and complications setting them up for future romance. So far the humor, which involves the FL’s obstinate belief in her own righteousness about the ML lying to her, isn’t connecting with me. But I’ve enjoyed dramas with worse starts and enough people have liked this show that I’ll keep watching.
I’m also watching:
Boyfriend Kourin! – Japan 2022
A recently aired Japanese modern rom-com, I’m at 2 out of 9.
In this show, a young man loses his memory and is coincidentally connected with two older women with their own history together. The plot so far is pretty standard, with our FL lying to the disadvantaged ML because of her own desperate situation. In real life this would be horrible, but this is a comedy and he was horrible to her before he lost his memory so it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Since I’m watching this in Japanese without subtitles for practice with the language, the standard plot is helpful in that it makes understanding the show easier.
The ML is played by Takahashi Kaito, who I saw in Neechan no Koibito, and is pulling off the character well, seeming like a huge jerk at first and then a helpless sweet young man later. Because of this, the mystery of who he really is is more about his personality than his name, job, address, etc. The FL is played by Sakurai Yuki, who I’ve seen in a few things, and it’s interesting to see her manic intensity brought to this more standard rom-com character, a down-on-her-luck woman with dreams.