Ninja’s Drama Roundup #68

Renascence (Chinese Drama, Viki)

The life of her unborn child and her own abruptly taken away by poison, our heroine, the empress is bewildered to wake up and find herself in the body of her younger sister. Chased by assassins, our heroine loses her memory when she falls off a cliff and ends up falling in love with our hero (the emperor’s brother). Eventually regaining her memory, our heroine re-enters the palace with a determination to seek revenge and to help our hero dispose of the corrupt emperor. 

The plot is filled with lots of makjang twists… if you couldn’t tell by the soul switching and the male lead being in love with his sister-in-law. I was pleasantly surprised that the first few episodes are actually quite light and fun but I do expect the story to get more serious once the palace intrigue starts. This one is based on a novel and since the novel has a happy ending I am fairly hopeful the drama will too. 

School Nurse Files (Korean Drama, Netflix)

Our heroine is a school nurse who can see “jellies” (that seems to be the product of human desire/greed) and monsters. With a toy sword in hand and her trusty sidekick (our hero, the school’s language teacher who somehow can “recharge” our heroine thus giving her the extra strength she needs to fight off the creatures), the duo will fight off the invisible dangers that confront the clueless students.  

Boy, was I in for a surprise when I checked this one out. From the promo trailers, I had gone into School Nurse File thinking it was a comedy…and that’s not exactly wrong but boy, there were some really scary parts that I didn’t expect at all. I think of this one as Ghostbusters on steroids mixed in with a dose of Asian style scary story vibe. Not really my kind of show but I am sure there are plenty out there who would love this. 

God of Lost Fantasy (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)

Growing up under the constant jeers of others that he is a loser for being born with a sickly body that prevents him from being a fighter with the energy of stars soaring through his veins, our hero nonetheless does his best to help his fiancée who is touted as one of the most talented fighters. Unbeknownst to our hero, his fiancée’s family has received the much coveted chance to form a marriage alliance with the royal family but in order for that to happen they have come up with a plan to kill him. 

This one has a fairly standard fantasy martial art plot with the beloved formula of an underdog hero who will be betrayed by a woman at first but ends up stunning the world when he eventually becomes the strongest fighter AND is surrounded by beautiful powerful women who want to spend their lives with him.  (With this being a drama adaptation, I imagine our hero will lose his harem.) 

I checked out the first five episodes and the story is decent but fairly predictable since I grew up reading these sorts of novels. Do check this one out though if you are new to this genre because I think this one would be a good gateway drama.

Zombie Detective (Korean Drama, Viki)

Waking up with no memories of his past, our hero slowly comes to the shocking realization that he has somehow become a zombie with a dreadful thirst for flesh. After working night and day to get his zombie body to the point of being able to move like a human being, our hero goes into a city and accidentally takes up a job as the zombie detective. Our heroine is a tv reporter with a strong sense of justice that often gets her in trouble which will eventually lead to her leaving her job and begin working with our hero in his detective agency. 

The show’s pacing feels a bit slow to me for some reason but of course the story gets top marks for being creative and hilarious. By the way, not sure how this is possible, but I think Choi Jin Hyuk is even more good looking as a zombie. 

18 Again (Korean Drama)

An unexpected pregnancy during their senior year in high school caused our two leads to reaffirm their love for each other by getting married but it also meant the end of their once bright futures. Their twins now 18 years old, the difficulties and realities of life have eroded whatever love our two leads once shared. After an especially bad day where he is fired from his job and his marriage about to end in divorce, our hero wished that he could go back…and was granted his wish when his body is suddenly transformed into his 18 year old self. 

This one is a remake of the 2009 American film 17 Again with Zac Efron. I am having a difficult time finding an easy platform to watch this one here in the US but I believe Viki might have it in some select countries. Mama Ninja has been following this one (via Chinese platforms) and says it’s pretty funny.

Love is Sweet (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)

Severely allergic to tears, our heroine is a woman who doesn’t have the luxury of crying. Worried about his little daughter, our heroine’s father had hired our young hero to protect his daughter. Taking his “job” quite seriously, our young hero proceeds to arrange for other kids at school to pick on our heroine so she would toughen up and not cry over small things. Clueless of our hero’s good intentions, our heroine only thinks of her self proclaimed “protector” as her tormentor. 

After losing contact for many years, our two leads are reunited when our heroine applies for a much-coveted job at the famous MH investment company and discover in dismay that our hero, a top executive at the company is set on making sure she is not hired. And so begins the tragic story of how a boy who never learned pulling on your crush’s pigtail is not a good strategy grows up to be a man who is destined to embark on a long and difficult journey of convincing the girl he loves that he actually likes her. 

So many pretties…why do I only have two eyes! I am liking this one even if the story in itself lacks a bit of depth…since we are more or less just watching how our hero digs himself deeper and deeper into a hole. Still, the chemistry between our two leads is awesome, and did I mention how pretty this show is? 

More Than Friends (Korean Drama, Viki) 

First crushes are supposed to be lovely and sweet? Wrong! At least that hasn’t been the case for our poor heroine who has not only been rejected by her crush once but twice. To make the matter worse, our heroine has been unable to make her heart beat for any other man for the last ten years despite her willingness to date anyone. Sick and tired of this seemingly unshakeable “curse”, the last thing our heroine wants is to see her crush again…but her crush seems to be equally determined to remain in her life. 

I am really liking this one even though what our hero fundamentally needs is a good wack on his head for putting the girl he likes through so much unnecessary pain. I do love that our heroine has a temper of her own and is not the type to put up with our hero’s “Let’s be friends” sort of bs. Unfortunately, our hero is most likely equally frustrated with his inability to forget our heroine and is determined to not suffer alone. 

Poisoned Love (Chinese Drama, iQIYI app or Youtube Eng Sub)

Due to a traumatic experience, our heroine suffers from a condition where she would fall into a sleepwalking state anytime she is frightened. Overjoyed when she discovered that an embrace from a certain famous male star could alleviate her mysterious ailment, our heroine is determined to do everything she can to get close to the man who could be her cure. Unbeknownst to our heroine, the certain famous male star is actually NOT the one who had helped her but it was our hero, the male star’s brother who is her cure. 

The chemistry between our two leads looks very promising but I am a bit worried that the majority of the story will be the two brothers fighting over our heroine. I liked the first couple episodes enough though that I will be giving this one a few more episodes. 

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