Damn it, work. Couldn’t you stay peaceful and quiet for this month at least? I will be so swamped with work for the next two weeks, gah. Thankfully I finished the first draft of my RMSE assignment already. It’s a very rough first draft and it needs a lot more work, but it’s done. But that treat I was thinking about – not happening.
Also thankfully I found the good drama to watch in the evenings after work – details below.
My kdramas watching is more miss than hit lately. I enjoyed Bring It On, Ghost a lot. But every drama I started later was disappointing one way or the other.
The biggest disappointment was Doctor Prisoner. I managed three episodes and I couldn’t watch more even for Nam Goong Min. Objectively it’s not a bad drama, but it is so, so boring to me. I’m completely uninterested in any other character but Nam Goong Min’s Na Yi Je, and even he isn’t that compelling to me.
Then I tried The Bad Guys – the crime drama about a detective who forms a team of three criminals, who are currently in prison, and who are let out to work on cases and hunt down other more violent criminals.
I started watching it mostly because I wanted to see Ma Dong Seok, who was fantastic in Train to Busan, in something else, and also because it’s short (just 11 episodes). And I really enjoyed the first 7 episodes, and then they dropped the case of the week formula (which I liked) completely and focused on explaining the mystery from that past that connects the three bad guys (which I didn’t like). Also because of this – when I’m getting a young and pretty guy being a super intelligent psychopathic serial killer I want him to stay a psychopathic serial killer to the end, you know. And not find out that oops he was set up and he is not a serial killer after all. So, yes, I got very bored and stopped watching after the 8th episode.
Then I started Dream High for Taecyeon and it’s fine, I guess. I watched 7 episodes and Taecyeon is very cute, but it’s just brainless mind candy and I don’t really know if I want to continue watching it.
And then![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sakana17 wrote the enthusiastic post about Zhu Yilong’s new drama The Rebel, so I decided to give it a try in hope of finding a drama with Zhu Yilong other than Guardian that I could enjoy. And it’s a success, because I do enjoy it a lot. I watched the first three episodes on Sunday, and the next two yesterday. :)
The drama takes place in 1936 in Shanghai in the middle of The Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (the nationalists) and the Chinese Communist Party. Zhu Yilong’s character Lin Nansheng is a gifted military academy student, who gets recruited by the nationalists’ secret service to spy on the communists. Yes, it’s propaganda from the 1st scene. But it’s not really blatant propaganda, at least for now. The nationalists aren’t cartoonishly evil, and most of the characters are complex and interesting. But it’s there, and for me personally – I just don’t really mind that much. I admit I find it more amusing than disturbing or irritating. It reminds me of watching some movies and shows made in communist Poland. :)
And The Rebel being propaganda doesn’t preclude it from being a good drama. And it is a good drama – well written, well-acted and beautifully filmed. It already made me very interested in the historical events it portrays. After I finished the 1st episode I instantly went and read a few articles, and I ordered a book about it, too.
Zhu Yilong is beautiful and very good. And those expressive eyes of his, wow... But what made me watch the first three episodes in one day was Wang Yang as Chen Moqun – Lin Nansheng’s superior and mentor. Chen Moqun is such a fantastic and fascinating character. He’s handsome and cool and intelligent and ruthless, and manipulative, with that calm, quiet voice. And Lin Nansheng is so idealistic and obedient and eager to please. I admit my mind went places, dirtybadwrong places. :) I hope there will be at least a few fics when I’m done watching. And it will take me a while to finish it. Three episodes a day is not the norm for me, and that drama has 43 episodes.
The first four episodes with English subtitles are on Youtube here. The whole drama with subs is on iQiyi here.
You know, I like this drama so much that I’m seriously considering paying for iQiyi subscription just to watch it without commercials and in better quality. :)
Also thankfully I found the good drama to watch in the evenings after work – details below.
My kdramas watching is more miss than hit lately. I enjoyed Bring It On, Ghost a lot. But every drama I started later was disappointing one way or the other.
The biggest disappointment was Doctor Prisoner. I managed three episodes and I couldn’t watch more even for Nam Goong Min. Objectively it’s not a bad drama, but it is so, so boring to me. I’m completely uninterested in any other character but Nam Goong Min’s Na Yi Je, and even he isn’t that compelling to me.
Then I tried The Bad Guys – the crime drama about a detective who forms a team of three criminals, who are currently in prison, and who are let out to work on cases and hunt down other more violent criminals.
I started watching it mostly because I wanted to see Ma Dong Seok, who was fantastic in Train to Busan, in something else, and also because it’s short (just 11 episodes). And I really enjoyed the first 7 episodes, and then they dropped the case of the week formula (which I liked) completely and focused on explaining the mystery from that past that connects the three bad guys (which I didn’t like). Also because of this – when I’m getting a young and pretty guy being a super intelligent psychopathic serial killer I want him to stay a psychopathic serial killer to the end, you know. And not find out that oops he was set up and he is not a serial killer after all. So, yes, I got very bored and stopped watching after the 8th episode.
Then I started Dream High for Taecyeon and it’s fine, I guess. I watched 7 episodes and Taecyeon is very cute, but it’s just brainless mind candy and I don’t really know if I want to continue watching it.
And then
sakana17 wrote the enthusiastic post about Zhu Yilong’s new drama The Rebel, so I decided to give it a try in hope of finding a drama with Zhu Yilong other than Guardian that I could enjoy. And it’s a success, because I do enjoy it a lot. I watched the first three episodes on Sunday, and the next two yesterday. :)The drama takes place in 1936 in Shanghai in the middle of The Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (the nationalists) and the Chinese Communist Party. Zhu Yilong’s character Lin Nansheng is a gifted military academy student, who gets recruited by the nationalists’ secret service to spy on the communists. Yes, it’s propaganda from the 1st scene. But it’s not really blatant propaganda, at least for now. The nationalists aren’t cartoonishly evil, and most of the characters are complex and interesting. But it’s there, and for me personally – I just don’t really mind that much. I admit I find it more amusing than disturbing or irritating. It reminds me of watching some movies and shows made in communist Poland. :)
And The Rebel being propaganda doesn’t preclude it from being a good drama. And it is a good drama – well written, well-acted and beautifully filmed. It already made me very interested in the historical events it portrays. After I finished the 1st episode I instantly went and read a few articles, and I ordered a book about it, too.
Zhu Yilong is beautiful and very good. And those expressive eyes of his, wow... But what made me watch the first three episodes in one day was Wang Yang as Chen Moqun – Lin Nansheng’s superior and mentor. Chen Moqun is such a fantastic and fascinating character. He’s handsome and cool and intelligent and ruthless, and manipulative, with that calm, quiet voice. And Lin Nansheng is so idealistic and obedient and eager to please. I admit my mind went places, dirtybadwrong places. :) I hope there will be at least a few fics when I’m done watching. And it will take me a while to finish it. Three episodes a day is not the norm for me, and that drama has 43 episodes.
The first four episodes with English subtitles are on Youtube here. The whole drama with subs is on iQiyi here.
You know, I like this drama so much that I’m seriously considering paying for iQiyi subscription just to watch it without commercials and in better quality. :)
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