What can I say?

Frankly Speaking will not win awards for writing and storytelling, but it might win over your heart. It is more that a Comedy Romance, it is a Comedy. I found myself laughing hard at the silly jokes. Frankly Speaking is a lot of fun. The running “dad jokes” type situations may remind some of home.

Frankly Speaking is the story of an announcer who has lost his ability to filter his words. It stars accomplished Korean drama and film star Go Kyung-pyo (Marriage in Contract). What can I say about the story? It is stupid. However, I am laughing my rear end off. How do you rate this? I don’t plan to drop it. Frankly Speaking is a great laugh. When you think about it, Go Kyung-pyo was in the great Dark Comedy Decision to Leave. He was the funniest person in this comedy. Do you know how hard it is to act in a dark comedy. You have to pretend that it is not funny when it is funny. Go Kyung-pyo knows the comedy landscape.

Juxtaposition the comedy from Go Kyung-pyo with dramatic dramas Go Kyung-pyo has appeared in like Connect, Chicago Typewriter, and DP. This tells me that he is a great actor.

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The Adam’s Family Meets The Hallyu Wave (Everything Korean)

All the up front synopsis for the new Korean Drama Atypical Family that I read on the Internet seems to be wrong. The story is not outlined as projected by news sources. Atypical Family did not meet my 15 min “love it or leave it criteria”. However, there certainly was enough hidden back story revealed to let me know that there was enough paint on the canvas to make me stick around. This story is so very complex.

Revealed in the first episode, therefore, these are no spoilers.

1. The male lead has superpowers which he feels are a curse.
2. The male lead was married to his wife, who gave birth to their first child.
3. She died in a car accident, which appears to have been caused by her.
4. He could not use his superpowers to save his wife.
5. His mother forewarned him of this pending doom.
6. The death of his wife caused his depression, which caused him to loose his superpowers.
7. The whole family has superpowers, but they all have lost them, because of modern medical diseases.
8. The female lead is actually a grifter. She has been planted into this family by a thievery gang, because the family is rich. Her sole purpose is to steal money from this rich family and to give it to the thievery gang for which she works. She thinks that the information about the family is nonsense.
9. This drama is so weird. It is so atypical from the typical Korean Drama.
10. I see the paint on the canvas and it looks like an evolving masterwork.

Mind sufficiently blown. I can’t even figure this one out. Left very intrigued. I am so excited. Episodes post Saturdays and Sundays.

@ Edit: This is such a brilliant drama, from the mind of someone who got in a perfect lane of thought. I am going to drop spoiler explanations in the comment section below, to help those who might be puzzled. Look for them.

What is a spoiler? It is when the drama is bicycling in one direction and then makes a significant turn to another direction and you reveal this. It is very rare that the first episode will contain spoilers, because the drama has not had a chance to progress forward.

Leia Mais

Uniquely satisfying Fantasy Chinese drama with a huge twist (a twist which I won’t reveal)

Costume & Period, Romance, Time Travel Fusion, Gaming Drama

Unique Lady is about a young lady whose life amounts to only playing video games and studying. She is distraught over her pathetic love life, and gets trapped in a video game about “finding your person” in the Sheng-Yuan Dynasty. She has to cosplay play this video game all the way through, before she can exist. She is surrounded by gorgeous men all over the place, falling in love with her. So I thought that this would be a perfect brainless down-time Chinese Drama, with the emphasis on brainless. However, surprise! Unique Lady actual has an extremely engaging and intelligent storyline, which is well written and acted. I should have known that this drama was not run-of-the-mill when I saw the Chinese actors’ firepower lined up for this drama. To add to this viewing pleasure, Unique Lady also has a Season 2. In the 24 episodes for seasons one and two, there is a fan viewing commitment time of less than 18 hours. The same goes for season 2. Therefore, the Chinese Drama Unique Lady is Korean Drama Fan Friendly.

This Drama is taken from Lascivious Lady by Orange Light Game: Adapted from the novel Haose Qianjin by Qing Lanlan

You will get massive Dual Lead Syndrome with these main suitors. I could not choose.


Actors’ Corner


The heroine of Unique Lady is Lin Lou Jing (Played by Zheng Qiu Hong or Jade from Fairyland Lovers). She has four suitors in this dating video game, all four with totally different personalities. There is a digital System Conductor, which helps guide her through her game choices. Lin Lou Jing has only five attempts at finding Mr. Right and she must find someone whom she loves and who loves her, before she can exist the game.

The main suitors for Lin Lou Jing are Zhong Wu Mei (Played by Gong Jun or Simon from Begin Again) and Liu Xiu Wen/[Prince of Qiyu] (Played by Fang Yilun or Alen, who is dead ringer for Hyun Bin and appeared in The Long Ballard).

Gong Jun has an interesting backstory. His first day at University, his teachers took one look at him and told him he should be in Chinese dramas, because of his look. He was able to change majors and was sent to acting school. And the rest is history.

You can include in the mix of people with whom to fall in love, the Third and Fourth Leads.

Jiang Xuan Yu (Played by Yu Kai Ning from Cute Programer) and Hua Ying Chi (Played by Li Hao from Douluo Continent)

Have fun.

Leia Mais

Okay, let’s just try something new. So far a real blast

Great OST. You are 29 and still unmarried. What to do? This Japanese Drama is so unusual and the premise is so far out, I want to say as little as possible, otherwise this drama may be spoiled. The drama challenges the boundaries of marriage and reality and our Plans of Life. Only the first episode is out as of 6 August 2023, but it may be worth your time to check out the first episode to see if this Japanese drama is something you want added to your list for future binging or you find that this is a crash and burn. For me, I am going to view this one real-time. I am interested to see what comes next.

It is funny that this drama picked me. I just tried to watch a trailer and Episode 1 started playing. So I just watched the first episode and it seemed interesting enough to watch the whole series. The series is on VIKI. Each episode is 30 minutes.

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Love Springs From Youth

I guess we all have done it, pined over this boy or girl that we first saw when we were tweenies and maybe carried that crush into adulthood. Hidden Love is about a girl who meets a good friend of her much older brother. When she first sees him as a tweny, her heart drops. The expression on this little tweeny’s face when she first sees him is beyond classic. The little girl (Zhang Xiwei) who plays the tweeny is definitely someone to lookout for in Chinese Dramas in the future. She is a star and I am a fan already. The male lead at first meeting is near his twenties.

Note: While ML Chen Zhenyuan’s character does not approach the tweeny or acknowledges any crush ideas of the youth, there is a profound age difference between the two in the younger years of the story. This is handled discretely. He treats her like a little sister. A relationship does not start till she is in College.

The female and male leads of this endearing romantic drama about everlasting crushes are actress Zhao Lusi (Love Like the Galaxy) and singer/actor Chen Zheyuan (Handsome Siblings).

Hidden Love has a lot of extras in the drama that makes this Chinese Drama work; the open mental contemplations, the set design notations placed discretely about, and the wonderfully handled flashbacks all help bring insight into the thoughts and motivations of this young girl. Hidden Love will be a trip down memory lane for the many of us. I am willing to take this ride. The drama Hidden Love is a go for me.

Leia Mais

Watch this one for date night.

OMG! What did I fall into? This drama is exotic, provocative, and alluring. I really like this short drama. The Chinese put out short vignettes of 6-12 episodes of 12-30 minutes each. This is the testing ground for potential stars to make an acting drama statement. The drama is 8 episodes of about 30 minutes each. Does the premise make sense? Not really, but the plot-line is tied into such a neat knot, you may be willing to forgive certain shortcomings. One star of ‘A Familiar Stranger’ is Ryan Cheng. He got snatched up in a quick Chinese drama minute to more meatier parts after this good showing. Ryan Cheng also went on to star in the Chinese drama hit ’My Journey to You’ (2023). There is a wonderful posse of drama characters, which adds depth to A Familiar Stranger’. Ryan Cheng leaves Super Star dust behind him as he walks past you.

The time commitment is so short, you might enjoy this short drama detour.

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Attitude is everything

There are hard hitting subjects sewn into the fabric of this entertaining High School drama, about the kids of the rich and super rich. The drama is Boys Over Flowers meets Weak Hero Class 1. Personally, I loved it. This school is other worldly in design. The Korean Drama has a high class flashy look and an attitude to match. This was a high octane ride.

Off the bat, there is an Assembly to introduce the new scholarship student, the odd man out in the school for the super rich. These students are so rich that they have car Valets. The drama has smoking music, interesting script, and fantastic cinematography. Young talent showed off their acting skills. All the dots of the story were connected in the end, to set-up things for Season 2.

For those who were waiting for the highly anticipated Korean Drama Hierarchy, it just hit NetFlix. There is a death covered in this Korean Drama.

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What type of time travel drama is Marry My Husband? How good is this Korean drama?

Marry My Husband is a time slip (Time Travel) drama.

This is a story about a woman in her forties. Her husband in Marry My Husband is a real loser, a real piece of work. Her best friend is having an affair with her husband and she is dying of cancer. The heroine of the story then is killed by her husband. Right before her death, she time slips into the past, back ten years. This information is not a spoiler, because all this action takes place in the first 15 minute. (Time Slip: Having no apparent means of traveling through time).

Quote: “The living should go on living. You are going to die anyway”. Best girlfriend explaining why she cheated with her with the husband of the heroine.

Marry My Husband is a great time slip Korean Drama, which is from a web novel and serialized Webtoon by the same name. In this drama, the Time Slip (Time Travel) is not just used as a cab ride to the past. Marry My Husband is trying to observe present assumptions about time slip (time travel). Our heroine is thrust back in time. While in the past, she attempts to change small details about her future miserable life that leads to an untimely death. However, she is not succeeding at making even very small changes. Her course for the future seems fixed and doomed to repeat itself. The heroine appears to have entered the crack of a parallel universe where changes to the future is not possible. The events keep readjusting itself to preserve the original outcome to preserve the past. This eliminates paradoxes. Changes to the future is assumed only possible when entering the open time loop section of the past or the open time loop of the wormhole. When changes are made, this sets up an alternative universe in the future which is different from before (A wormhole is a shortcut through time).

Even though the heroine may not be able to change her future, she reckons that she might be able to get someone else to substitute into her misfortune. Maybe she could get someone else to marry her no good husband, before it is time for her to do so. That way she will change her own time vector, because hers is now occupied by someone else. WOW! Whether the idea follows the science or not, this unique idea tries to address what to do if you don’t fall into the correct wormhole.

This substitution concept idea of Time Slip (Time Travel) is uniquely different from any time slip (time travel) ideas which I have explored thus far. As the Korean drama Marry My Husband progresses, we will see if she is successful with the time substitution idea. I am surely good for the ride though. It is a go for me for the Korean Drama Marry My Husband. Our heroine gets a second chance at second chances.

I think that Marry My Husband is going to be a major hit.

Cast
Multiple Baeksang Arts Award winner Park Min-young (Marriage in Contract), Na In Woo (River Where the Moon Rises), and Lee Yi-kyung (Welcome to Waikiki).

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