KDrama Addicts Anonymous (part 5)

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the Kdrama-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, but there other sources, including Dramabus and AmazonPrime.

Previous Threads, with discussion of what we’ve enjoyed and what to avoid:

Thread 4 (previous threads linked from OP of this one)

Some suggestions for shows that we’ve enjoyed - those marked with an asterisk are more uniformly loved or admired:

Because This Is My First Life (Viki)*
Black (Netflix)*
Chicago Typewriter (Viki)*
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)*
Fight For My Way (Viki/Drama bus)*
Goblin (Viki)
Healer (Netflix)*
He is Psychometric (Viki)
Her Private Life (Viki)*
His Master’s Sun (Netflix)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki)
Just Between Lovers (Viki)*
Last Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)
Live (Netflix)
Love from a Star (netflix)*
My Strange Hero (Viki)
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Pride & Prejudice (Netflix)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*
Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)*
She Was Pretty (Dramabus/Netflix)*
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
Suspicious Partner (netflix)*
W (Viki & Netflix)*
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)*
While You Were Sleeping (viki)*
You are my Destiny (Netflix)

We have some lovely occasional posters who have lived in Korea, are Korean or have Korean partners/family members who pop in from time to time to provide the context for some of the more baffling cultural references.

If you want to know your oppas from your unnis try this helpful guide to Korean terms of address and honorifics.

We are generally fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean cookery, film and kpop when the mood takes us. To get to grips with the lingo, try dramaloveaddicts.proboards.com/thread/24/korean-word-day?page=1

We have a few frequently used acronyms:
FL/2FL = female lead/2nd female lead
ML/2ML = male lead/2nd male lead
SLS = Second Lead Syndrome (where the FL/MLis too thick to realise how much better the 2ML/2FL is)

We also abbreviate titles if they’re long, but usually only after using the full title & acronym together. Some of the regular favourite actors have been abbreviated too for speed/efficiency, although “him off Black” seems to have stuck for Song Seung-Heon. Don’t be afraid to ask for help/clues if we’re not making sense or have descended into acronym soup.

If you want to join us down the kdrama rabbit hole, welcome! Pull up a chair, say goodbye to early nights and get stuck in…

Glad tidings! Antique Bakery is just so on my home DVD player/TV. 😄

Bathe in the sugary bakeyness that is HH KJW! 😂 ❤️🔥

Ohhhhh I want to watch it again so badly with a decent stream 😂❤️ HH KJW is sooo...,,,,sigh

I’m also loving the hot white shirty ness of HH KJW 😍 (HPL)

That finale was great. One of the things I’ve most enjoyed about HPL is its warm-heartedness and this did not disappoint. It was great.

Oooo! The sweeping melodramatic music of School 2013!... It's a classic Teacher and Kids fighting the unfair results led system!... It's great! And... The bromance! 😭😭😂😂😂😍😍😍😍👍

HPL finale was great wasn’t it? No noble idiocy or faked separation, they went off to further their careers together like grownups!

Still a bit wtf about the paintings BUT the added context of all the children daubing paint on each other’s faces helped explain the style

Evil Diana in Absolute Boyfriend is still harshing my mellow.

boatyardblues 3 alphabets. Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are like our alphabet as in each character represents a sound, but no single consonants, either just a vowel or consonant+ vowel group. Whereas Kanji have a freestanding meaning (usually)

Hiragana is used for native Jp words
(futon ふとん) and certain grammar structures like verb and adjective endings or particles. You can write a sentence using just hiragana, but it looks a bit childish and it's strangely hard to read when you're used to having Kanji.

Katakana is for words of foreign origin (beddo べッド). Or for emphasising, a bit like bold or italics.

You can't write a sentence using just Katakana or Kanji.

Kanji are characters which have a meaning on their own unlike the previous two 布団- futon again.

Kanji are only for words of JP origin, but have two types of readings- kunyomi is the JP reading of the word and onyomi is the Chinese reading. Onyomi is used when you have two Kanji together usually.

布 has the Chinese reading Fu and has the general meaning of cloth, linen.
団- has the onyomi of Ton and refers to an association.
Together they're read futon.

Hope this makes sense!

jisho.org/search/%20%23kanji%20%E5%B8%83%E5%9B%A3

That's about the kanji for futon if anyone is curious.

Also, that's a lot longer than I realised, sorry!

It makes sense, Cheshire, but the complexity of their system just did this to my brain > 🤯 It looks really hard to learn!

Switching between alphabets is actually very, very easy. It makes perfect sense in practice.

Kanji are hard work as you have to memorise everything and some have loads of readings both Onyomi and Kunyomi. This particularly annoying trait is only for Jp, Chinese use a lot more Hanzi as no Hiragana or Katakana equivalent, but they only have one bastarding reading so much easier in that regard.

JP have about 2000 basic Kanji.

Just catching up on One Spring Night. Yes, its slow and FL is not particularly likeable but, man, the writers and cast have nailed that sense of acute longing and clinging to a lifeline/hope of something better. It’s compelling because there is a weight to it.

Jung Hae In is lovely in it.

Managed to finish Witch, it was really good! Bit slow at times, but very engrossing and the acting was impressive.

I looked for Witch on Netflix Cheshire & couldn't find it, but came across something called The sIXTH finger, which looks spooky.

I have temporarily abandoned One Spring Night, jury is out whether I go back to it. Jung Hae-in so far was the only good thing about it.

Am rather enjoying The Secret Life of My Secretary , don't think I've seen the ML in anything before but he's quite nice.

The ML robot from Absolute Boyfriend is already filming something else so maybe it's a short run, but that is proving fun also.

I will be catching up on The Guest this weekend if not too hungover as an HPL substitute - did you watch Antique in all it's HH KJW sugary bakeyness yet boatyard?

Will be waiting for BTS vicarious updates from Bea!

Yes, I watched Antique Bakery. Aside from the HH KJW bounty (wonderful), it’s quite a slight story which seemed to end abruptly, leaving me slightly scratching my head. Is the implication his friend had always liked him and is coming round to him, that they’ll eventually get together? He becomes more tolerant of being hugged by KJW. Abruptness/slightness concerns aside, there was a lot to enjoy. The bodyguard’s back story and his reaction to KJW being assaulted by his partner was interesting, that domestic violence hurts the people around you too. It was interesting from the point of view of being a joyful and playful gay love story, because homosexuality is rarely discussed or portrayed in mainstream kdrama. It also tackled male vulnerability head-on, in that each of the men had had difficult life experiences that left them feeling powerless, challenged their masculinity and sense of themselves. The male friendship and caring aspect was lovely. Plot aside, the cakes and baking made me hungry - they were amazing.

There’s a short intro by the director on the DVD. He is quite humble and seems touched that there is sufficient interest for his film to be distributed in “England”/abroad. He also mentioned that “antiques” and “bakery” are both unfamiliar concepts in Korea, or not common, so that makes it stand out as being different.

I now want to see more of KJW’s films, including the Japanese ones. I think he’s got good range and is an interesting actor, as well as being beautiful to watch.

One Spring Night looks like it will kick off in earnest next week. The first four episodes have been about them coming to terms with their feelings. I agree its slow and quite mundane, but I have high hopes the pace will pick up. A lot of plot foundation has been laid in the first 4 episodes. The sister/abusive BIL in particular - that storyline has serious legs.

It's kicking off in the Bea Household... ds and dd sick with a bug! I'm mildly panicking that i'll get it and BTS will be in danger!!!! (and that's just not the song!)

ML in Secretary was in Pinnochio Bettys... he was the rich guy who had the horrible rich mother who was the big bad!
He was also in The gUardians which i thoroughly enjoyed and blubbed over... it's really nice to see him in a comedy sweet role...

BTS .... 1 more sleep!!!!!!

Praying for you Bea, that the bug will pass you by. If not, there’s always Tenalady pants and a carrier bag for the vom so you can see the boys. 😩

🤣🤣🤣🤣 at MsBeaLatte In Tenalady pants due to unswerving army devotion 💜💜

Love the analysis of Antique, boatyard. I think the ML had always liked HH KJW but not known it, & eventually their friendship would grow into something else. The story was slight, and the thriller subplot ended with a question as to whether it was one abductor or two - two different ones I assumed in the end. I enjoyed the frankness ‘ it was just after sex so I couldn’t say no’ 😂

Pinocchio - of course he was in that too! Nice to see him in this. Crossing fingers for a good outcome for you Bea 🤞

I'm thinking of checking into a teavelodge down the road!
MsBeaLatte!... I like it! ☺

Bea - fighting!!✊

I can PM a link to witch if you like bettys.

The actual plot line isn't fabulous per say and has been done to death in Korea/ JP (think Elfen Lied), but the acting was really good so it added a lot of dimension, I think both the FL and the supporting actress got awards for their parts. However, it should also be awarded prizes for worst synopsis(es) .

Started Mahou Saiban (Witch's trial) which is a lot less gritty than it first sounded so I'm seeing if I can get into it.

Also, I remember reading about a Medieval Korean Walking Dead that's apparently really good, anyone here watched it?