Ninja Chatter #3

1/18-1/24/19
Well Intended Love (Chinese Drama, New)
As an aspiring actress working hard to realize her dream, our heroine’s world suddenly comes to a screeching stop when she is informed that she has little time left to live unless she has a bone marrow transplant. Upon discovering our very successful and rich hero is a perfect match to be her bone marrow donor, our heroine promptly decides dignity is nothing compared to staying alive and latches onto our hero with all her might. Surprised at first when our hero finally agrees to be her bone marrow donor but with the condition that they have to enter into a marriage contract, our heroine eventually agrees thinking they will just part ways as friends in two years time…however, what’s a girl to do when your contract husband makes your heart beat faster and faster with each passing day?

I went into this one with really low expectations but was surprised by how cute and sizzling sweet the show is even if the plot is predictable. If you are in the mood for a light romance then this one should be a good bet.
Live or Die (Korean Drama)
With a very impressive cast, this one tells the messy story of an older brother who lived his whole life for his four siblings. This one started off more like a dark comedy but it will slowly settle into a family drama with some fun moments, plenty of heartaches and most of all, a revelation on the meaning of being a family.

I know the synopsis doesn’t sound great…and the show is not exactly the fun uplifting type…at least in the beginning, but I think this one will be one of those that might take a bit to warm up to yet once you do you will fall in love with all the characters.

1/22
The Legend of Haolan (Chinese Drama, New)

For those of you who were fans of Story of Yanxi Palace, Beauty Hao Lan should be a real treat to check out since both of our leads in Yan Xi (Sorry, not Fucha Fuhang but I mean the Emperor and our heroine) will be heading this one again here. By the way, Yu Zheng who produced Yan Xi is also the producer for this one so not only will you see lots of familiar faces from Yanxi but I think the vibe will feel a bit familiar as well. Wu Jinyan plays our heroine who was falsely accused and sold into slavery by her own family. Bought by the very shrewd and cunning businessman Lu Buwei (played by the same actor who played the emperor in Yanxi), our heroine is eventually given by Lu Buwei to our other hero- a prince who is living as a hostage in another nation. Similar to Yanxi where our heroine had two romance line with both heroes, this will happen again here except that Lu Buwei’s character is the sort where he might be in love with our heroine but he is willing to sacrifice love for his ambition.

While Yanxi was mostly palace intrigue in the Emperor’s harem, The Legend of Haolan will include some of the political intrigues (a big part of the story is how our heroine and the businessman will get the prince back to his own country so he can become the next emperor) …AND plenty deadly catfights we saw so much in Yanxi.
I Give My First Love to You (Japanese Drama, New)
Spending most of his childhood in and out of hospitals because of his heart issues, our hero is told that he will not live past the age of 20. Wanting to spare his childhood sweetheart the unavoidable heartache of losing him eventually, our hero purposefully chooses to attend a prestigious high school a long distance from his home…only to have our heroine declare on the first day of school in front of his whole school that she will chase him down to the end of the world!

Based on manga series “Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu” by Kotomi Aoki, this one looks super sweet AND heartwrenching. I really liked the first episode…but I am too scared to watch this one unless I find out later the story ended happily.
Season 2 of Ever Night has started filming and the first promo poster is out. Unfortunately, Arthur Chen who played the hero Ning Que will not be coming back for season 2.
Dylan Wang who rose to fame thanks to Meteor Garden (C-drama, 2018) will be playing the lead role as Ning Que in season 2 instead. Actress Song Yiren will reprise her role as Sang Sang in season 2 but the actress who played Mo Shan Shan will not. I was also sad to see that Adam Cheng who I thought was awesome as Fu Zi will also not be returning.

Season 1 was Ning Que’s story but Season 2 will most likely be more focused on Sang Sang’s part of the story. I have to admit that while Arthur Chen’s acting wasn’t perfect (It was his first drama so there were a lot of doubts if he could handle playing the lead role, especially since he was only 18. ) but I was still impressed by how well he brought his character to life…so much so, I am afraid the cast of season 2 will have to be super awesome for me to be interested.
Blessing of the Sea (Korean Drama, New)
Jae Hee’s new K-daily where he plays a jaded pianoist finally meeting his match in our optimistic heroine who has a special sight that allows her to see the world…and people, in their true colors.

This is a K-drama after all, so while the synopsis sounds cheery, the show does have plenty of dark intrigue and tragedy that gives our heroine a birth secret along with plenty of selfish villians to go around. The first three episodes looked decent but it was mostly background set up and the story was a little darker than I would prefer but I am hoping once our two leads meet as adults the chemistry will be fun.

I am WAY behind on Story of Ming Lan (I have picked it again though thanks to some of you guys’ glowing reviews) but lately, I also checked out the novel the drama is based on as well.  With how epic the drama was in the first few episodes, the novel was surprisingly relaxed and easy going right from the beginning. In the novel, our heroine is actually a soul from the modern world that took over young Ming Lan’s body about the time Ming Lan’s mother died from childbirth. Which means, our heroine actually never met young Ming Lan’s mother thus all those tear jerking scenes in the drama never happened in the novel. The author is a history buff so she wanted Story of Ming Lan to be a slice of life story set in ancient China, therefore, the pacing is quite slow…in fact, our hero doesn’t even show up until 1/3 way into the story (our two leads never met as children either). The story is not bad at all but this is one instance where I think the drama will probably end up being much better than the novel since the drama obviously had to speed up the pacing and add in some conflicts.

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