Weaving a Tale of Love (Chinese Drama, Viki & Youtube)
Left an orphan after her mother, the best seamstress of the empire was framed and forced to kill herself to save her young daughter, our heroine grew up in the palace hiding her own talent with a sewing needle. With her mother’s killer lurking in the shadows, our heroine manages to escape the seemingly never ending danger in the palace thanks to the aid of our hero- a brilliant young scholar.
This one is set in the time of Tang Dynasty so it will involve real historical events and characters such as the famous Empress Wu Zetian (the only female monarch in China’s history). I checked out the first five episodes and the story seems fairly solid for an epic palace intrigue+romance. The heroine comes off a bit naive at this point but I am assuming that will change as the story goes along. I am undecided on how I feel about our hero at the moment. The male lead’s acting was a bit stiff for my taste in the beginning but it did improve by the fifth episode. Although I believe there will be plenty of romance, I am really not one who is usually patient enough for palace intrigue so I am still on the fence about this one.
Game Changer (Chinese Drama)
Once a reporter with an impressive track record, our hero sends himself on an exile for three years after his last reporting brought about an unexpected traumatic ending. Entering into the intense world of public relations by chance, our hero eventually wins the respect of those around him as he handles each crisis case with sensitivity and innovative solutions.
I am used to seeing actor Huang Xiaoming looking super suave so it was fun to see him looking like a hobo for the first couple of episodes. There have been a few similar sorts of C-drama that focused on the field of crisis PR, but I felt Game Changer’s story felt different enough and with just the right amount of intensity to make it worth checking out.
*The youtube version is not subbed. I did a quick google search and it looks like dramacool has it subbed. I have never really used dramacool so can’t vouch for it. Anyone use them regularly?
The Blessed Girl (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)
Convinced the evil that plagues his land is caused by the disappearance of the gods, our hero, the young king sets out to seek a way to bring the gods back. Ending his search in a remote village, our hero finds a young girl whose mysterious power has just been awakened. Convinced by our hero to join his quest along with her father, our heroine must find a way to protect those dearest to her, bring peace to the land AND defeat the evil forces.
Hmm…the fantasy element is intriguing but I am uncertain about the alien-looking “god transformation” our heroine goes through in the show. It’s kinda like watching an episode of StarTrek + Chinese historical drama meshed together… The other thing that was concerning to me is that I find the heroine’s father’s character a lot more interesting than the actual hero. It is probably not a good sign that I keep wishing the hero would go away so I could just watch the cute interaction between our heroine and her father.
Go Go Squid 2- Dt.Appledog’s Time
I thought Go Go Squid was good but not too memorable of a show but for some bizarre reason, I find myself really excited for this one. Unlike Go Go Squid where the heroine was like 10 years younger than our hero, Go Go Squid 2 is a noona romance between our heroine Appledog and our hero who was inspired by her to enter into the field of professional gaming competition. I checked out the first three episodes and was quite pleased with the squeal-worthy vibe.
On a side note, there seems to be muttering from some fans over the fact that Go Go Squid 2 not only did not cast the original actress playing Appledog (the heroine in this one) from Go Go Squid but also chose to cast a younger looking actress to play the character. I had originally assumed the heroine’s age would be closer to the one portrayed in the original but much to my surprise, after reading the novel, I realized our heroine was actually only supposed to be 25 years old. Our hero is 20 years old so there is only a five year difference between them. For those of you who watched Go Go Squid, in the novel, Appledog became a gaming legend when she was only 15 so she is 25 ten years later when the story starts.
Love Unexpected (Chinese Drama, Viki & Youtube Eng Sub)
Due to the traumatic experience of losing his mother years ago, our hero suffers from the inability to experience basic human emotions. Unable to empathize with others, our hero is resigned to a life that is devoid of love or laughter…that is until he hires our heroine as his new bodyguard and out of nowhere, our hero suddenly begins to experience all the physical pains his new bodyguard’s body experiences. (Basically, if our heroine gets punched, she herself wouldn’t feel any pain because our hero would be the one hurting.)
The actor playing the male lead, Kris Fan is one of those actors whose hairstyle really influences his look. I thought he was really good looking in My Supernatural Power (It aired a few months ago but I didn’t mention it in my Drama Roundups since I couldn’t find any Eng subs for it) but his hairstyle here in Love Unexpected definitely took a bit getting used to. However, once I got over the hairstyle, I found the show hilarious and charming so do check it out if you are in the mood to get some good laughs.
Douluo Continent (Chinese Drama, Viki)
Growing up in a remote village, our hero has never heard of the existence of spirit fighters until a stranger offers him the opportunity to be admitted to a prestigious academy. Despite being teased and looked down on for being born with what everyone regards as a useless fighting spirit, our hero’s main concern is how to hide the fact that he is one of those rare talents who actually possess two fighting spirits.
I went into this one with a fairly low expectation since the story sounded pretty standard: Underdog hero who in actuality is a super talented fighter + save the world with a beautiful heroine and loyal friends by his side. After checking out the first few episodes, I am happy to report that while my prediction of the storyline was on target but I was still nonetheless charmed by the story and the characters. I especially like the fact that our hero is naive but wise enough to observe silently and ask questions, has a strong sense of justice but doesn’t come off annoyingly self-righteous.
Be My Cat (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)
A prince from the Meow Star of another galaxy, our hero is dismayed to discover he has somehow made a servant-master pack with our heroine while he was unconscious in human form. Weary and puzzled at first over why our hero would be chasing after her while demanding that she dissolve some sort of servant-master pact, our heroine is stunned then overjoyed when she accidentally discovers that our hero turns into a cat whenever he touches her necklace.
A super goofy and light show but definitely worth checking out especially if you are a cat lover.
River Where the Moon Rises (Korean Drama, Viki)
A retelling of the classic Korean folktale between Princess Pyeonggang and Fool On Dal. Actress Kim So Hyun plays our heroine, a princess who vows to become the first female ruler of her country. Raised to be an assassin after her mother, the queen was killed by evil villains, our heroine’s cold and cruel world begins to change bit by bit after she meets a young man by the name of On Dal.
This one looks very promising. The story seems solid thus far and the chemistry between our two leads looks good as well. This one of course aired to high expectations so I am hoping the political intrigue won’t get too draggy.
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It is not subbed on Drama Cool, from what I can see
I’ve watched ten episodes of Weaving a Tale of Love and have decided to stop because of the unconvincing storyline and characters. I don’t mind naive characters but I’m not convinced that the heroine who has lived in the palace, where all the politics and head rolling happens, for over a decade is not smarter than she is. The empress to be is a much more interesting character than the heroine.
And how can the head seamstress with no risk connections have so much power to get soldiers to investigate a lowly, missing servant?
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Thanks for ranting! I love drama rants. I didn’t follow it after checking out the first two episodes and going by what you said, it does sound like it wouldn’t be worth it to go back to it.