Drama watching and fanfic writing

[maggie33]

I have one problem now. But it’s a good problem to have – there are too many things I want to watch. 😊 I’m so behind on so many dramas. My to-watch list keeps getting longer and longer.

GL dramas

Pluto

I watched the 1st episode a week ago right after it aired. I loved it. Namtan is wonderful and beautiful. Her and Film have great chemistry, and I’m intrigued by the main mystery. I do plan to watch that one every week as it airs.

The Loyal Pin

I finally got around to watching Freen and Becky’s new drama. I watched four episodes for now (it goes a bit slowly, because see above about my main problem now 😊), and I like it a lot. Freen and Becky are both great actresses, and their chemistry is burning up the screen. And they’re so good at kissing, seriously so good. Currently they are my favorite GL couple.


BL dramas

Perfect 10 Liners

The first episode will air later today, and I can’t wait. ForceBook my beloveds – I missed having them on my screen every week. I don’t even care if it is good, I just want it to be entertaining.

My Damn Business

It’s a very short Korean BL drama (just seven 10 minutes long episodes) about an office romance between team leader Han Yu Jin, whose sales team gets dissolved amidst the company’s management crisis, and Yun Su An (an assistant manager from another team). Yu Jin has to wrap up all the current projects and he gets assigned Yun Su An to help. There’s just two of them in the office, and even though their relationship is a bit cold and formal at first it soon starts to change.

It airs of Youtube. Here is the playlist. Four episodes aired for now and I like it a lot. It’s cute and funny, and manages to pack quite a lot into such short episodes.

And I have to say that Korean BL dramas keep surprising me nicely lately with wonderful, hot kisses. First The Time of Fever, and now this drama. Because that kiss in episode 3 was so, so hot. Here's the link to the beginning of that kiss, if you would like to see for yourself. 😊


Kdramas

Love in the Big City

I watched six episodes, still have the last two to watch. And it’s ok, I like it well enough. And of course I’m very glad it got made, and I love that Nam Yoon Su is so unbothered by all those hate comments they got. In one interview he said “I just laughed it off when I got malicious comments. Those people were actually 1 in a 100. I got a lot of messages of support.”

But I guess I expected it to hit me harder and make me very emotional, and I have to say it left me rather cold. There were a few scenes in the middle that were hard to watch for me because of personal baggage. But in general I am a bit underwhelmed.

Family by Choice

I’m so conflicted about this drama. On one hand I’m all heart eyes about OT3 subtext with our main trio. They are all great, and especially Hwang In Youp as my sweet, broken woobie Kim San Ha. But I love the three of them – they love each other so much, and care for each other. It’s so beautiful – the way San Ha always protects the other two, and the way both boys always drop everything to protect Ju Won. And the way Ju Won and Hae Jun always know what to do to drag San Ha out of one of his dark moods. It’s so heartwarming and lovely to watch. I mean, I know what the endgame pairing is, and I’m fine with it. But that’s canon. I just really hope there will be at least a few fics about my lovely OT3 later. And I ship the dads, too. They are really good at co-parenting their three kids. 😊

At the same time I have issues with how all the women in this series (except Ju Won) are portrayed. Even Ju Won I feel isn’t as developed for now as the two boys. It still can change, just six episode aired for now, but I am a bit disappointed now.

More here with spoilers.

All the mothers are horrible here. San Ha’s mother especially or course. And she is horrible, don’t get me wrong. But for me narrative here unfairly blames her and only her for the tragedy from their past. San Ha and her sister had two parents after all, so why is only a mother blamed for leaving the children alone for two days? Where was the dad then?

And then there is Hae Jun’s mother, who abandoned her son, and Hae Jun’s aunt to some extent. And if that’s not enough there is Dal’s mother, too, constantly putting her daughter down and making her cry, even in front of her friends.

And in the background there are all those gossipy aunties from the neighborhood, who are so unkind about our three kids coming from broken homes.

I don’t know, like I’ve said it could still change, there are ten more episodes to go. I’m not disappointed enough to stop watching for now. But we’ll see.

As for fanfic writing - I posted a little SCI ficlet two weeks ago for Fandom Gift Basket 2024.

All I need is your sweet kiss (1027 words)
Fandom: S.C.I.谜案集 | S.C.I. Mystery (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao, Bái Chí/Zhào Zhēn
Characters: Zhan Yao, Bai Yutong, Bai Chi, Zhào Zhēn
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Banter, Teasing, Kissing
Summary: Just a little scene from their post-canon life, with banter and laughter, and kissing. :)


And I finished my second Meet You at the Blossom fic and posted it yesterday.

The sweet sound of you (3086 words)
Fandom: 花开有时颓靡无声 | Meet You at the Blossom (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jin Xiaobao/Zongzheng Huai'en
Characters: Zongzheng Huai'en, Jin Xiaobao
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Porn with Feelings, Manhandling, Possessive Behavior, Jewelry, Jin Xiaobao Jingles During Sex
Summary: At first that sweet jingling sound was an innocent sign of love and warmth, of safety and belonging. But now it will be associated with something different in Huaien’s mind, too. Because that sweet and soft ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong is heard with every slow, sensuous movement of Xiaobao’s body on top of Huaien’s.

Now I can focus fully on my Yuletide assignment, which I love a lot. And on possible treats, because there are so many great requests that I would love to write something for.

Comments

[trobadora]

there are too many things I want to watch

Haha, the eternal problem!

And yay for more fic! I really need to get around to Meet You at the Blossom at some point ...

[maggie33]

Heh, it's always like this, isn't it? Either nothing currently airing is to my taste or too many dramas are. Where is golden middle I ask. :DDD And I hope you'll like MYATB when you watch it.

[profiterole_reads]

When I read the Love in the Big City novel, I was a bit underwhelmed, because romance is more my thing than contemporary fiction, but I feel like they've increased the level of romance in the drama, so I'm enjoying it so far (I'm at episode 3 and I'll watch episode 4 tomorrow, as the book club discussions are on Tuesdays).

[maggie33]

Yes, there is quite a lot of romance in the drama. It's interesting to hear that the novel is a bit different in that regard. I hope I'll find some time soon to read it.

[corvidology]

Thank you for the info!

I've bookmarked My Damn Business.

[maggie33]

I hope you'll like it. It really is surprisingly good for such a short drama.

[china_shop]

I resubscribed to VIKI last night and watched an episode and a half of Love in the Big City (before seeing this post), and I know what you mean. It's like the novel, I think. The novel is literary fiction; I didn't really connect with it on an emotional level, and I felt a bit adrift when I finished. But the translator's note helped me appreciate it a lot.

The first section of the translator's note

The traffic began getting bad at Hannam-dong. I hopped out in front of the CJ Building and ran the rest of the way to G--.

I screamed when I first read those two sentences, in pure delight of recognition. What club-going gay in Seoul hasn't done this: ridden a taxi into Itaewon, abandoned the taxi at this exact bottleneck in Hannam-dong, and ran the rest of the way to G--? As a Korean gay man in Seoul just a little bit older than Sang Young himself, I can even tell you the letters obscured by the em-dash in G--. The club has a different name now; in fact, I think G-- was several names ago.

Of all the sentences in this book, some were relatively easy to translate, while many presented a plethora of conundrums and points of discussion that could easily fill the limit I've been given for this note. But the sentences I most wanted to discuss were these two. They took hardly any time to translate, but I spent a few minutes fretting that no one would know how thrilling it was to see them in a novel, this wink to All the Gays of Seoul.

Because until I read these sentences--nay, until I read Sang Young Park--I had no idea how much I'd subconsciously craved for someone to put my experience of my world in my time into print, to give my brief life here and now the sacred consecration of literature.

So I wonder how much the thing with the drama (and the novel) is that they're more real than we expect from our fiction... and therefore not as emotionally popcorny, if you know what I mean? I feel like most of the m/m stuff I read and watch is aimed at a predominantly female audience, but maybe this was written/made more for the people it's about. Idk.

Thanks for your thoughts about Family of Choice, and for the link to My Damn Business (ooh!). So much to watch!!

*cheers on your Yuletiding* <3

[maggie33]

Thanks for that translator's note, I love reading things like that. I still do want to read the novel one day, but it probably won't be soon. I don't have time to watch anything I want right now, I definitely don't have time and energy to read a book as serious as that one. Maybe it will be even better to read it later when I have more distance from the drama.

So I wonder how much the thing with the drama (and the novel) is that they're more real than we expect from our fiction... and therefore not as emotionally popcorny, if you know what I mean?

That's part of it, at least for me. Right now I definitely prefer to watch lighter stuff, or heavy stuff that is not as realistic. And ok, I didn't expect Love in the Big City to be like all those BL dramas I usually watch. I knew it was... for the lack of better word, more realistic drama. I think I just didn't expect this kind of mundane every day realism about life and relationships and loneliness. And because of personal reasons it was very hard for me to watch the subplot with Go Yeong's mother.

But I am glad I watched it (well, almost watched it, I still have the last episode to watch :)). And I'm very curious if it will influence portrayals of queer people in other Korean dramas in some way.

[china_shop]

That's part of it, at least for me. Right now I definitely prefer to watch lighter stuff, or heavy stuff that is not as realistic.

*nodnod* Me too. I'm not sure I'm going to manage to finish the drama, but I'll see. I saw profiterole_reads saying that it's like Korea's Queer as Folk, and that feels pretty accurate to me, too, and I was never much into QAF (UK). (I don't think it matters if I don't finish it; I'm still glad it got made, even if I'm not really the intended audience.)

Jsyk, there's a lot of stuff about the mother and her illness in the novel. *hugs*

And I'm very curious if it will influence portrayals of queer people in other Korean dramas in some way.

Ooh, that's a good point. It would be nice if heralded a new era of More Queer Characters in mainstream dramas. *fingers crossed*

[maggie33]

I haven't thought about it, but I agree, it's accurate to compare this drama to UK QAF. And I loved UK QAF, I have it on DVD and I watched it at least ten times. But I don't know if I would be able to re-watch it now, it deals with some heavy stuff, too. And IMO Love in the Big City is even more depressing than QAF.

Jsyk, there's a lot of stuff about the mother and her illness in the novel.

Good to know. And now after watching the drama at least I know that stuff is there and I am prepared. It kinda blindsided me in the drama. I haven't read many reviews before watching, and mainly those non-spoilery ones, so I didn't know about that subplot.

[china_shop]

I've just come back to read all your reactions to Family by Choice now I've finished it, and yes, omg, whyyy did all the women have to be so terrible? And I agree, even Ju Won is a little short-changed. (But still, I loved it so much overall! I kept snatching a few minutes here and there to watch a scene or two. ♥___♥)

[maggie33]

But still, I loved it so much overall!

Oh, me, too. Absolutely. It was a wonderful drama with so many great characters. And for me it did help that all of it was well written. And beautifully acted, too. I hated San Ha's mother, she was a horrible, hateful woman. But I get why she was the way she was, and how that trauma from the past could make her they way she was. She was very realistically horrible. And, yes, that made it even harder for me to watch. Like again, I read a few reviews comparing Korean drama to the Chinese original, and in the cdrama apparently that character was just cartoonishly OTT evil with no realism and nuance at all.

And yay, I'm glad you finished it and that you liked it. :)

[china_shop]

I hated San Ha's mother, she was a horrible, hateful woman. But I get why she was the way she was, and how that trauma from the past could make her they way she was. She was very realistically horrible. And, yes, that made it even harder for me to watch.

Yes, I felt so sorry for San-ha's little sister, growing up with such a miserably self-involved mother. I kind of wish they'd rescued her at the end. But everything else was perfection! <3 <3 <3