maggie33

Crash Landing On You – I finished it on Monday. And I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s romantic and heart-warming and funny – a well-balanced mix of romcom, action and suspense. The main couple is wonderful and has great chemistry. There is the secondary couple that I also grew to love despite not really liking the two people in it at first. There is a lot of fantastic supporting characters. I especially loved the four North Korean soldiers – Captain Ri Jeong-hyuk’s subordinates.

I wrote earlier about the drama’s... hmm, how can I call it, gentle approach to showing realities of life in North Korea. I did mind it a little at first, but the more I got involved in the plot and the romance, the less I minded.

The one thing that surprised me was the ending.

( Major spoilers here )


The Untamed - episode 15

It was good and I liked it. There was no Lan Zhan’s beautiful face for me to look at in awe, but there were so many interesting things that I barely missed him. :)

( Read more... )


Other happy things:

My new Guardian fic is finished, and will be posted when I find time for editing, probably Friday or Saturday. Now I’m making a decision about what to write next – should I try to finish one of the Guardian fics in my WIP folder, or maybe start something new?

I’m working from home today. I don’t have access here to all the files and programs I need for the full time work, and I’m going to the office on Monday. So right now I don’t really have to do much more than checking my business e-mail in case my boss needs something from me.

So let’s talk about other, more pleasurable things.

Fanvid recs:

Shen Wei vid “Traitor, Our Doom” by extrapenguin

This is a wonderful vid which shows Shen Wei from the POV of someone who thinks that Black Cloaked Envoy is a traitor betraying Dixing.

It introduced me to Sirenia. I never heard of that band before and I already love it. I have listened to the full version of Fifth Column at least 5 times since yesterday.


The Witcher fanvid by voordeel - the devil and the huntsman

They are an amazing artist. I loved a lot of their other vids, especially Black Sails ones. And this one is fantastic, too.


What I’m watching:

Crash Landing On You – it’s a Korean drama about a South Korean heiress crash landing in North Korea due to a paragliding accident during the storm. She meets a North Korean captain, who after some initial resistance starts to help her. And of course they fall in love.

Main female character is played by Son Ye-jin, whom I loved in Something in the Rain. The main actor is good, too and they have nice chemistry.

I’m up to episode 4 and for now I really enjoy it. It has a right mix of comedy and drama and action. I have one reservation. For now it doesn’t spoil the fun for me, but it means that at times I just have to turn off thinking for a scene or two. And my reservation is this - I’m not saying that the drama glamorizes North Korea exactly, but it mostly shows that country as this peaceful place populated by nice and friendly people (with only some bad apples in the mix), who sometimes have to deal with some inconveniences, like for instance the light getting turned off in the evening, without warning and without knowing when it will be turn on again. After all people can just light some candles and isn’t it so charmingly old fashioned? From someone who lived under the communist regime and had to deal with things like that – no, no, it isn’t. It’s just pain in the ass.


You Are The Miracle – a new drama with Ji Xiaobing. I watched the first two episodes, but I don’t know if I will watch more. It’s boring, main female character is rather bland and even Ji Xiaobing’s character doesn’t interest me much.


The Untamed – I’m up to episode 12. I enjoy it and it’s always a pleasure to look at Lan Zhan’s beautiful face. But I admit I’m not really interested in the plot, so I watch only one or two episodes a week.


Guardian – I re-watch some episodes in preparation for writing my Chu Shuzhi post for sid_guardian


Legends of Tomorrow – I can always count on that show to make me laugh. ( Spoilers for the 8th episode here )


Other things:

I write quite a lot, which is great. And I plan to post a few more Guo Changcheng/Chu Shuzhi recs in merit_brush_recs.

And I got my last Make Our Days Count fic from my beta-reader, so I edited it and posted it today.

And then he owns you (1773 words)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lu Zhi Gang/Sun Bo Xiang
Characters: Lu Zhi Gang, Sun Bo Xiang
Additional Tags: Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Possessive Behavior, Barebacking

I started to learn Chinese!!! I have been thinking about it for a while and two weeks ago I signed up for the course organized by a local university. I had my first lesson on Friday and it was great. The group is small – just 7 people, and the teacher is nice and competent. I’m very excited about it. :)


I finally got VIKI Standard Pass. Mostly because of Because Of You 2020. The new episodes are available right away only for people with Standard Pass. The rest has to wait two weeks. I decided that I was too impatient for waiting, so I have the account now and I can watch what I want with no commercials. It’s nice.


My 3rd MODC fic is almost finished, it just needs the last scene. It’s a super self-indulgent iddy PWP and it was fun to write. And I wrote 700 words of the 4th MODC fic this week.


And now the week in watching:


Because Of You 2020 - episodes 3 and 4

Still so much fun. ( Minor spoilers behind the cut. )


The Untamed – episodes 1, 2 and 3

The first two episodes were rather meh, the 3rd one was a bit more interesting. My main problem is that I don’t like Wei Wuxian. It’s not a big problem. I watched and liked show before when I didn’t care for the main character, but then I liked a lot of other things in such shows. Here ehhhh... I don’t really care for anyone yet. Lan Sizhui is a sweetheart, but that’s it.

Well, ok, Lan Zhan is fine, too, I guess. I usually prefer seemingly calm, repressed characters to immature, bratty ones. And, on the more shallow level, I find Wang Yibo so much prettier than Xiao Zhan. :) So knowing myself, if I will continue watching Lan Zhan will probably become my favorite character. But also knowing my fannish fascinations lately I will probably also fall in love with some secondary pairing. And what will I do then in a fandom so focused only on the main one? ;)


Gentefied – a new Netflix show about Mexican American family in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood. I watched the first episode and I like it a lot. It’s charming and warm and funny, even when it deals with very serious issues. This is a good review on IndieWire about it.