My Heroic Husband (Chinese Drama, Youtube)
A modern businessman who wakes up to find himself in the body of a rather ordinary man in ancient times. Not given time to work out his confusion, our hero is informed that not only is he engaged to be married but he is the one marrying into his new wife’s home. (In Chinese society it is seen as a great shame for a man to marry into the wife’s home. It is assumed that only men who are not capable or low in status would allow such things. Children born from such marriages would take on the mothers’ name.)
Unwilling to be married off and forever bury her fabric dyeing talent, our heroine’s only hope in her seemingly useless soon-to-be husband is that marriage to him would allow her to keep working on her dream. Much to our heroine’s amazement, her “useless” husband soon proves to be quite astute in business, and in no time, our heroine finds herself relying on her new husband increasingly.
For those of you who are fans of Joy of Life, then this one should be a treat especially since there will be lots of familiar faces from the show. Our two leads played sister and brother in Joy of Life but here, they will be a couple. I was afraid the transition from sibling to a couple might be weird but my fear was unfounded and I had no problems at all. It helps that while the actor playing our hero is not your typical handsome type but his onscreen charm and comedic timing are great.
I Once Remembered That Guy (Chinese Drama, Viki)
This one is a pretty standard C-high school romance with our handsome sharp-tongued hero and naive bumbling heroine. The first episode was ok but not really anything to write home about. Now, I do have to confess that I have a low tolerance for the bumbling heroine type of characters so I am totally not the target market for this sort of storyline.
Storm Eye (Chinese Drama, Viki)
Yang Mi and Vin Zhang are teaming up again after Eternal Love (2017)! Vin Zhang’s character didn’t get the girl in Eternal Love so hopefully the second time is a charm. Our hero is an elite national security agent who is hot on the heels of a corporate spy hired to steal important tech secretes that could impact the future of national security. Following the spy to the city of Shuangqing, our hero gains the support of the local national security unit and is quite surprised to discover that the team leader is none other than his first love– the girl who abruptly disappeared 10 years ago.
Checked out the first three episodes and I am liking the show’s pacing. The show has done a great job mixing the spy intrigue with just the right amount of romance to keep viewers like me happy thus far. I don’t really expect this one to be too romance heavy though so it was really nice to have two leads with proven on-screen chemistry.
The Sword and the Brocade (Chinese Drama, Viki)
The 11th daughter of her family, our heroine has always been keenly aware of her low status due to the fact that her mother is just one of her father’s concubines. Gifted with a talent in embroidery, our heroine dreams of using her gift to live a life away from the control of her family. Unfortunately, unexpected circumstances eventually forced our heroine to agree to a marriage alliance that would ensure her family’s continual prosperity.
As a general whose whole life has been devoted to the welfare of his fellow countrymen, our hero has little interest in romance or all the women that have been pushed his way. Knowing that he cannot offer his new wife anything more than material comfort, our hero has long been prepared to live the rest of his life in emotional isolation…that is until his little wife begins to attract more and more of his attention.
This one kinda reminds me of Story of Minglan since quite a bit of the story involves our heroine engaging in a battle of wits with other women. I had a hard time imagining Seven Tan’s cuteness paired with Wallace Chung’s stoic cool at first. However, after checking out the first eight episodes, I am really loving their chemistry together.
I am really liking Wallace Chung’s character thus far. This is not a hero who is rude or haughty. In fact, he seems genuinely sorry that he can’t offer the romantic love the women in his life wants from him and tries his best be a decent man.
Vincenzo (Korean Drama, Netflix)
Song Joong-Ki’s new drama where he plays a mafia lawyer from Italy whose arrival in Korea has gone quite differently than he had planned and ends up helping a group of apartment renters to fight off a corrupt corporation…Italian mafia style of course.
Before I comment on the show, can I just say Song Joong-Ki sure looks great in expensive suits!
Ok, fangirl aside I am a bit torn on how I feel about Vincenzo. The show is a dark comedy but I feel like I might develop a multiple personality disorder just from watching it. The show goes from suave mafia guns blazing vibe to cheap silly over-the-top comedy to the rise of the little guys against evil corruption. Not only does the overall tone of the show changes multiple times during a single episode but the feel of our two leads’ character also goes through the same changes. One moment our hero is the ruthless indomitable Mafia then the next he is the guy who gets beat up by two clown-like small fry. Could it happen in real life? Well, I guess but it sure makes for a confusing drama watching experience.
I do think Vincenzo’s storyline is promising especially if you are the type who likes the anti-hero type that fights evil with evil. The show’s comedic style took some getting used to and some of the comedic scenes were more confusing/gross than funny to me but despite all the issues I listed above I actually liked it enough to give it a couple more episodes.
Sisyphus (Korean Drama, Netflix)
Despite being the CEO of an extremely successful company, our hero- a genius engineer would give up everything he possesses to see his dead brother again. His life suddenly turned upsidedown by mysterious organizations out to kill him, our hero is thrilled when he discovers that his dead brother might very well be alive. Coming from the future where the world is bleak and hopeless, our heroine is determined to keep our hero alive in order to give the future a fighting chance.
I went into this one expecting the drama to be on the serious side so it was a pleasant surprise to see the show has managed to inject some humor into the story where they can. I am usually a fan of Cho Seung Woo’s work and was way excited to see him playing a “Tony Stark” sort of a character. In fact, most of the show’s humor has come from Cho Seung Woo’s character thus far. Park Shin Hye’s character as the trained fighter from the future is fairly standard for this sort of story but I am finding her character very likable and her chemistry with Cho Seung Woo is great.
While I find Sisyphus quite enjoyable, I do have to warn you that episode one was really over the top and you have to watch it completely ignoring common logic. I would usually categorize myself as the type of viewer who asks very little questions and is generally willing to go along with whatever the show wants me to go along with but even I had to shake my head at the first episode. To be honest, even the basic premise of the show doesn’t quite make sense to me. I mean, the world as we know it is about to end and you have a bunch of people who are obviously in on the secret so what do they do? They waste precious time chasing our hero around when as far as I understand his death would not stop the world from getting destroyed. Oh, well. These are the questions that pop up in my head that I have to suppress while watching the show but as long as I don’t think too hard, I am finding this one an easy watch.
The Wolf Princess (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)
This one is a historical fantasy that follows our two leads’ bickering romance. Learning by experience how conniving our heroine could be the very first time they met, our hero is convinced that our heroine, an unfavored princess from the enemy country must be a spy. As a descendant of wolves, our hero is confident that our heroine’s wit is no match to his fighting ability. Unbeknownst to our hero, there actually exists another side to our heroine– a wolf-like existence that comes out when our heroine touches our hero.
I liked this one. The story is not too complicated but there are plenty of little mysteries to keep the viewer interested. I also like that the fact that both of the leads are smart and very capable people on their own which makes their battle of wits that much more interesting.
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