Princess Silver (Chinese Drama, New) 

Waking up with no memory at all of her past our heroine is dismayed to find out that she is not only a princess but is a princess that is about to be married off to a prince of another country. Our heroine reluctantly agrees to the marriage in order to help her country avoid a hopeless war but after embarking on a long journey to another country, it is our hero’s turn to flat out refuse the marriage. After a battle of wits, our heroine successfully buys herself six months to change our hero’s mind. Intrigued by a young woman he saved who turned out to be the owner of a tea house, our hero eventually falls for the woman…without realizing she is the very princess he had refused to marry.

I took a brief glance at the novel the show is based on and boy, the story gets pretty messy with lots of villains, palace conspiracy, and birth secrets. The story did start with amnesia so I really shouldn’t be surprised. Still, while I tend to like less messy plotlines, I do think the storyline is quite solid especially if the tv show decides to truncate the story a bit.

The pacing of the first two episodes was a bit slow for my taste but the story definitely picked up after that. All the lead characters’ set up seems to have the right amount of depth to them and most importantly, they were all quite intriguing. The chemistry between the two leads was a bit tame at first but I am hoping that will improve as the show progresses.

Best Interest (Taiwanese Drama)

Forced to give up his dream of being a professional athlete after an injury, our hero’s passion is reignited by his aspiration to become a champion of justice. With his new hot off the press law license in hand, our hero becomes the newest intern to our heroine- a female lawyer who often comes off cold and unfeeling in her pursuit for results.

T-drama doesn’t usually do these sort of legal shows so I was quite intrigued to see how this one will turn out. T-drama overall is in an interesting place right now. It doesn’t have the ability to produce big budget shows like China or Korea and it can’t afford to put on the “take it or leave it” attitude J-drama has. After losing a lot of investment money and talents to China, I was afraid for a while there that T-drama would pretty much disappear from radar… and it did for a while but I am glad to see that it seems to be trying new things and searching for a niche among the Asian drama giants. It is too early to call yet, but it looks like one thing T-drama has been able to find a niche in is doing more indie and real life drama with a focus on featuring Taiwanese culture such as The Teenage Psychic (2017).

Anyhow, back to Best Interest. I liked the first two episodes. The story is not quite as wacky or glamorous as K-drama nor is it as shockingly strange as J-drama would produce, but I thought it was a good start for T-drama’s first venture with very vibrant characters and thought-provoking cases.

To Be With You (Chinese Drama, New)

Rejecting generous offers from top companies in Paris, our heroine decides to return to China believing she will be embarking on a blissful life with her boyfriend of many years. After a rather embarrassing drunken episode on the plane while sitting by our hero, our heroine could only comfort herself that she will most likely never meet our hero again. Of course our hero being the hero will end up meeting our heroine again and again during the lowest point of her life when her longtime boyfriend dumps her none too gently.

I speed watched the first five episodes and while the story wasn’t anything to shout from the rooftop but I liked it. The story IS fairly predictable with some stereotypes but I found both leads to be very charming and lovable.

Shady Mom-in-law (Korean Daily, New)

A successful fashion designer, our heroine entrusts all the business matters to her mother until she falls in love with our hero and her mother begins to earnestly try to break them apart. At first believing our heroine’s mother is opposing their relationship out of love, our two leads will soon discover our heroine’s mother’s shady past which will eventually lead them to our heroine’s real family.

The synopsis didn’t sound too interesting to me but after watching the first episode I was pleasantly surprised to see that our heroine’s sister’s love line actually intrigues me more than the two leads’ (that’s of course still not a good sign but that’s at least better than not finding anything to be interested in). Our heroine’s sister had lived most of her life blaming herself for losing her little sister years ago. As a new divorcee taking care of her mother who suffers from episodes of mental lapses, simply surviving each day seems to be a big challenge already for the poor girl…until she meets her love interest who will also become a key in helping her find her long lost little sister.

One Spring Night (Korean Drama, New)

Thanks to her job as a librarian and a boyfriend with a very prominent background she has been seeing for many years, our heroine’s life is the definition of stable comfort…if she can just ignore that nagging feeling of discontent…and the instant attraction she had with a pharmacist she met by chance.

This one is from the same team that gave us Something In The Rain (2018) so the vibe of One Spring Night is quite similar. For those who were fans of Something In The Rain you will be happy to know that actor Jung Hae In who was the hero in that one is also playing the hero here. In fact, the team had also offered the heroine’s role to Son Ye Jin but she turned down the role.

I am a bit torn on this one. I really liked the first couple episodes of Something In The Rain but never did go back to finish it after I read a number of poor reviews of how the story got really draggy in the last half. Which is why while I liked the first episode of One Spring Night I am still a bit hesitant to follow it given the production team’s previous track record.

 

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