maggie33

Kdramas

The Great Queen Seondeok

Since I have to wait for more episodes of Through the Darkness I decided to check the role that made Kim Nam Gil famous – Bidam in sageuk The Great Queen Seondeok.

It’s a long drama – 62 one hour long episodes and he first appears in episode 21. Yes, I did start with that episode and fast-forwarded through the scenes he was not in. And that’s how I plan to watch the rest of the drama. I read a bit about the plot so I wouldn’t be completely lost and that is enough for me to enjoy Kim Nam Gil’s scenes.

I’m not surprised that this was his breakthrough role and that everybody fell in love with him. He’s so charismatic and charming and beautiful, and his acting is excellent.

He sees Seondeok (who is not yet queen) for the first time when she pretends to be a boy while she’s on the run from people who want to kill her (apparently almost everybody wants to kill her at that time, yes, it’s all very OTT and melodramatic :)). So he thinks she’s just a pretty young man and he still winks flirtatiously at her.

Here is one of Bidam’s first scenes where he saves the future queen’s life and shows what a badass he is.


This drama is on VIKI, but it’s not available in Poland. But I found the official version with English subtitles on YouTube, too, just bizarrely chopped into over 500 short vids, instead of 62 long episodes. But the quality is very good, so I don’t mind. I watch only Bidam’s scenes anyway. :) It’s here if someone would like to check it out.


The Veil

I finished it yesterday and to my pleasant surprise the last two episodes were pretty good. I even kinda want to re-watch it now, if not the entire drama then just the best Nam Goong Min’s scenes.

Nam Goong Min received Daesang (The Grand Award) for The Veil at MBC 2021 Drama Awards. At the same awards his Chief Kim costar Junho received Top Excellence Award (Actor in a Miniseries) for The Red Sleeve. And thanks to that we now have two super cute scenes between them.

First when Nam Goong Min was walking to the stage to receive the award Juhno got up from his chair and gave him a congratulatory hug. Then Juhno posted a vlog post when Nam Goon Min gives him a congratulatory kiss on the cheek.

You can see the hug in the beginning of this vid. And the kiss here.


And I have a few fanvid recs for The Veil:

Angel with the Shotgun


Play with fire


Animals


Reason



Cdramas

Reset

I loved this drama, I’m very satisfied with the ending and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

A bit more with spoilers below.

( Read more... )



BL dramas

Tinted With You

It was disappointing – boring and badly acted. I watched 5 episodes and got so bored that I never watched the rest despite the drama having only 8 short episodes.


Kissable Lips

It’s a Korean BL drama about a romance between a vampire who is about to die and a human, whose pure blood can save a vampire and turn him into a human, too. I watched the first episode and it’s ok, I guess, but for now nothing special.

I decided to check it out because I love vampires, and because of one of the main actors Kim Ji Woong. He plays a vampire here and he also played a vampire in The Sweet Blood – another short Kdrama, but not BL. I tried to watch The Sweet Blood and he was the only good thing about it. He was sexy and decadent and canonically bisexual, and he had very nice chemistry full of banter and flirting with a werewolf guy, but unfortunately this subtext didn’t get turned into text. Instead they inserted him into a boring het love triangle. VIKI tells me that I watched 10 episodes out of 15, but I really can’t remember anything about it apart from a few entertaining scenes with Kim Ji Woong. That’s how bad it was.


And I want to say that it's so nice that VIKI has so many BL dramas now, and that more is on the way. When I made an account 2 years ago they had maybe 10 of them, if I remember correctly.

I finished the first draft of my Chocolate Box fic, yay. I was thinking about one treat, but it probably won’t happen on account of me being pretty tired and having problems with my lower back lately. I spend too much time sitting at the desk unfortunately, at work and after work, so I have to cut it down a bit and start moving more. I started with going swimming again after two year pandemic break. Twice a week for now, because wow is it hard after such a long break. :)



When it comes to drama watching my infatuation with Kim Nam Gil is in a full bloom, that’s why I will talk about his newest drama first - Through the Darkness.

At first I wanted to wait until all the episodes aired, but Kim Nam Gil looked really good in all the previews and my infatuation won, and I started watching as soon as the first two episodes were available on VIKI with English subs. And now I’m sorry that I did. Because it’s very good and I love it, and Kim Nam Gil is fantastic and beautiful. And not only waiting a week for new episodes is hard, but after episodes 5 and 6 air this weekend there will be three weeks break because of SBS airing the Winter Olympics. Gah...

I love this drama, but I have to warn that it is dark – literally and figuratively. Most of the scenes take place in the evenings or at night, and the subject matter is pretty gruesome. It’s a Korean drama, so they don’t show a lot, and what they do show is blurred, but still the murders are brutal and it’s yet another drama when all the victims are women and children, so I had to fast-forward a little a few times.



After watching Through the Darkness I was looking for something relatively light and uncomplicated to watch, and I decided to start the Chinese drama Reset, since I’ve seen a few comments saying that it’s good.

For a Cdrama it’s very short – only 15 episodes. It’s about two young people (a student and a game designer) who are caught in a time loop as they try to stop a bus with passengers from exploding. It’s available on VIKI. As of now there are 10 episodes there with English subtitles, and I’ve already watched 6. And I agree, it is surprisingly good and I really enjoy it.



I still have the last two episodes of The Veil to watch, but I keep putting it off, since the 10th episode was rather boring. I will finish it – Nam Goong Min is good and beautiful, and I do want to finish it for him, but it will probably take some time.



I also managed to watch My Name on Netflix, since it’s so short (just 8 episodes). I don’t have any strong feelings about it, but it was enjoyable and very well acted, even if all the plot twists were rather predictable for me.



And the next I want to check Bulgasal: Immortal Souls on Netflix. Reincarnation is not my thing usually, but I’ve read that this drama had a good villain, and I’m always on the lookout for good villains. :)