Ninja’s Drama Roundup #69

Professional Single (Chinese Drama, Viki or Youtube )

The English title of this show makes one assume the story would be about working professionals but the show is actually a college romance. The more literal translation of the Chinese title would be “I am single based on my own ability/talent”. To be honest, other than the fact that our hero believes that as an aspiring sculptor he has no time to waste on romance, the story doesn’t seem to have anything to do with staying single. 

Anyhow, as far as the actual story goes, the set up is fairly typical with our cute outgoing heroine paired up with our tall smart handsome+aloof hero who is always bailing our heroine out of some sort of trouble. Obviously not getting any high marks on the creativity of the plot but I am still enjoying the show thus far as a light romance. 

The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion (Chinese Drama, iQIY app) 

Plagued by strange dreams after accidentally falling off a tree, our heroine is alarmed when she discovers the dreams are predictions of her future- a future that is filled with tragedies. At first determined to avoid our hero, Prince Su who if the dreams are to be trusted, will become the cause of her ultimate demise. Our heroine is soon dismayed to realize that some future…like the one marrying our hero, cannot be avoided. Unwilling to give up no matter how bleak the future seems to be, our heroine will team up with our hero to change the ending to their story. 

This one looks pretty promising. The two leads have great chemistry together and the second romance line (the heroine’s sister) also looks great as well. The show started off fairly light and fun. However, going by the synopsis, I am assuming we will eventually have to deal with lots of palace intrigue and conspiracies so I am crossing my finger that the show will somehow keep the fun going to the end. 

Do You Like Brahms? (Korean Drama, Viki, Finished)

I finished this one a few days ago and while I enjoyed it I am on the fence if I would actually recommend it. My very first drama with a music theme was J-drama’s Nodame Cantabile so I somehow have it stuck in my mind that shows with similar themes should be uplifting even if it has moments of bitter disappointments. Therefore, I was a bit stunned when the characters in Do You Like Brahms encounters one disappointment after another with no uplifting scenes in sight. Instead of watching a story about passionate musicians, I felt like I was watching a mountain climbing story…you know the kind that after you finish the movie, you go “Ah, they are ALL going to die. Even the ones who survived at the end of the story will just die on the mountain some other day.” I think in the show’s sincere desire to showcase the hardship professional musicians go through, it somehow ended up with a story that makes one wonders who in the right mind who choose music as a profession since it seems like everyone (even the successful ones) who dares to embrace it will end up being a tortured soul.

I know it sounds like I disliked the show but that’s not true at all…which is why I finished watching it. While I wished the story had more uplifting moments, I did still find the story poignant and engaging on what it means to love something/someone who might not love you back.

The Penthouse (Koren Drama, Viki)

This one tells the gluttony and betrayal of a few extremely wealthy families who live at the exclusive penthouse apartment that is 100 floors tall.  This show certainly has an impressive cast to back up it’s very over the top and makjang plotline. I am not used to seeing actress Kim So Yeon playing a villainous role so it was quite refreshing to see her here. 

After checking out the first episode, I can definitely see why the viewership rating is so high. However, this type of story is really not my sort of drama especially since I can’t find a single character likable so I don’t see myself following this one. 

The Spies Who Loved Me (Korean Drama, iQIY app)

Despite her rather disastrous first marriage to a travel writer, our heroine thank her lucky star every day that her second husband, a very successful diplomat, was able to convince her to give marriage another chance by showering her with gentle unbridled love. Little did our heroine realizes that her first husband (our hero) is actually a government secret agent who has been able to keep his cover intact the whole time they’ve known each other. As the drama god would have it, our heroine’s second husband is also harboring a secret identity as an industrial spy. Fulling intending to respect our heroine’s desire to never see him again, our hero is dismayed when he discovers that his pursuit of a cold-blooded industrial spy is going to force him right back into his ex-wife’s life again. 

I was way excited for this one since I love both of the actors (Eric and Yoo In Na) playing the leads here. I am not too sure how I feel about the criminal case part of the story but thus far I am really enjoying the two leads’ portrayal of a divorced couple who obviously still cares for one another but also has vivid memories of how badly their marriage ended. By the way, I don’t remember Eric being super muscular in his previous roles but boy, he obviously made sure he looks awesome for this role…which brings up one tiny complaint: What’s up with the awkward fighting scenes? The fighting scenes are so awkward looking that I have to assume the show is purposefully doing it for comedic effect. But come on! This is a spy drama! I am not asking for Jason Bourne fighting sequences but it would be nice to at least have some cool looking ones. 

Record of Youth (Korean Drama, Netflix, Finished)

Spoilers ahead!!!

Like Do You Like Brhams? I am fairly torn if I would actually recommend this one. I did enjoy the show overall but the story kinda fell apart as the story progressed. As the title suggested, the story focused on our heroine and the two male leads’ struggles as they try to find themselves in various aspects of their lives (love, family, career, etc). However, it felt like the show mostly just put the characters in their own stereotypes and then gave them the accompanying obstacles before making all the problems disappear in the last fifteen minutes of the last episode. For example, the male second lead is the rich boy who wants to become successful on his own merit but then turns a blind eye to his overbearing mother who throws money to build up a sandcastle of success for him. By the end of the show, the guy is forced to see through the mirage his mother had built for him…so he enlists in the Marines to do his mandatory 2 years of service and when he gets home we are simply told in passing that he is quite successful. 

I am also not too pleased with the open ending the show left us with. While open endings are not my favorite, I don’t mind if it makes sense to the story and the characters. However, in this case, I feel like the heroine’s reasoning for breaking up with our hero (he is successful but she is still pursuing her dreams so she doesn’t want to allow herself to lean on him) seems rather forced. In the end, I finished the last episode thinking “Wow, guess the 2-year military mandatory service is the magic solution…wait, did I just watch a South Korean government propaganda for its military service?”

So what did I like? Well, Park Bo Gum was certainly impressively good looking through the whole show. I also found the two leads’ easy bickering style of flirting with one another really charming. And based on the above two reasons…I don’t regret watching Record of Youth but I certainly wished the script was better.

Meeting You (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)

Despite being extremely smart, our hero suffers from social anxiety and has a hard time breathing when he comes into physical contact with other people. Transferring to a new school, our hero is overjoyed (in his very stoic manner) when he realizes one of his new classmates is actually his long lost childhood friend. A talkative extrovert with lots of friends, our heroine couldn’t help but wonder why the somewhat strange new transferred student is extra nice to her. 

I have seen plenty of childhood connection set up in C-dramas, but I have to say Meeting You has one of the cutest ones. 

The Legend of Xiao Chuo (Chinese Drama, Viki)

Tiffiny Tang’s new epic historic drama where she plays the youngest of three sisters who were all married off to husbands belonging to different political factions. Torn away from her loving sisters (well, at least before they turned on each other because of their husbands) and the love of her life (Shawn Dou), our heroine marries the emperor with the determination to bring prosperity to her people. Becoming the grand empress after her husband dies, our heroine has a staunch ally in the form of her first love who is now a powerful general and influential minister. Things get a bit complicated when both of our leads come to the realization that they still very much love each other.

I don’t usually have the patience for epic historical dramas anymore…BUT this one does have Tiffiny Tang AND Shawn Dou, that’s a combo that’s hard to turn down. One thing that is really attracting me to this show is its very strong female characters. Tiffiny Tang’s character is based on a real historical legendary figure of Empress Xiao of Liao Dynasty who was equally brilliant in politics and as a military strategist so no doubt the drama will really showcase some of Empress Xiao’s most impressive triumphs. By the way, I know most historically based romance doesn’t go well…but no fear, this one actually had a happy ending in real life so I can’t see the show purposefully going the other way.

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