Octogenarians and the 90s (Chinese Drama, Viki)

Growing up playing amongst the elderly residents of Sunshine retirement home, our heroine’s relatively carefree world comes crashing down when her grandmother, the founder and director of the retirement home decides to ask her granddaughter to take over the running of the home after discovering that she has cancer. Our hero is a fast-talking health supplement salesman who has set his sight on earning a glorious commission through the residents of Sunshine retirement home. Seeing right through our hero the moment she sees him, our heroine kicks the sweet talking salesman out but has to welcome him back when our hero puts his own grandfather into Sunshine retirement home. Like adding droplets of water to a pot of hot oil, our two twenty-something leads’ presence in the retirement home will bring surprising conflicts and heartwarming resolutions to the lives of the elderly residents. 

I have to admit, it was really jarring to go from watching actor Bai Jing Ting as the cool SWAT team captain in You Are My Hero to a somewhat scrawny fast-talking salesman here. Still, this one looks pretty promising if you are in the mood for a heartwarming story that focuses on cross-generation relationships. The two leads’ chemistry also looks good thus far so I think their bickering romance should be super cute. It is interesting to note that this type of story is actually quite applicable to Chinese society since the high cost of living means that there are a good number of kids who are raised by their grandparents.  

Miss Crow with Mr. Lizard (Chinese Drama, Viki)

On the fateful night of their first meeting, our young heroine lost both of her parents in a traffic accident while our hero, a good samaritan, ended up almost dying. Years later, our two leads meet again. Our heroine is now an upbeat aspiring architect who works various part-time jobs in hopes to earn enough money to go back to college. As for our hero whose heart was so damaged on that fateful night that the doctors had to give him a mechanical heart, life seems almost pointless. While the mechanical heart did indeed give our hero a second chance at life, yet it has taken away all the joy as well. Warned to be careful to keep his heartbeat even, our hero has to avoid anything that would physically AND emotionally make his heart beat fast. While the feeling of love is something that is joyful to everyone else, it now becomes something that would not only bring our hero pain but could kill him as well. Fate would of course bring our two leads together once again when our heroine ends up becoming our hero’s assistant. 

I am liking this one a lot! The synopsis sounds cliche but the show surprisingly doesn’t feel like that all. Yes, the story has all the plot points and twists that you would expect it to have (ie. candy type heroine, aloof hero, fateful meeting, etc) but for some reason, the story still feels refreshing to me anyway. I have become a bit jaded after seeing so many dramas with candy type heroines and aloof rich CEO heroes but our two leads here are truly very likable. Our heroine is upbeat and kind but not annoyingly optimistic to the point of being naive about the world around her. Our hero IS aloof but given his particular circumstances, his actions are very understandable and proof of his tender considerations for those around him that he is forced to hide. Anyhow, I am about three episodes in and am planning on putting this one on my watch list. 

The Imperial Coroner (Chinese Drama, Youtube Eng Sub)

Coming from a family of coroners, our heroine not only has to battle people’s prejudice against her profession but also the fact that she is a female coroner. Famous for his ability to solve criminal cases, our hero, a prince is one who recognizes our heroine’s talent in telling the stories the dead could not utter themselves. While suspicious of our heroine’s seemingly mysterious background, our hero nonetheless finds himself relying on his new female coroner more and more.

I am liking this one. In fact, Mama Ninja is even watching it and that says a lot since she has become quite picky in her…um…wise old age. Both of the actors playing the leads here are new to me but they are doing an excellent job. I am especially impressed with our heroine who is doing an outstanding job making our heroine naive yet super charming at the same time. I don’t usually like naive heroines but it would be very difficult to not be charmed by our heroine here with her big puppy-like blinking eyes. Oh, and yes, there is plenty of chemistry between our two leads and hints of budding romance to satisfy me.

The Dance of the Storm (Chinese Drama, Viki)

Once a top government agent, our hero had no choice but to leave everything behind after his mentor sacrificed himself to save him. Returning back to his old job to chase down his mentor’s killer, our hero teams up with his ex-girlfriend (the one he left three years ago) to uncover the hidden secrets within their own organization that could reveal the ugly truth behind his mentor’s death. 

William Chan’s new crime action suspense. The show is pretty flashy…perhaps a bit too flashy for my taste. Still, I think as long as one goes into this show with a modest expectation then it should still be a good watch. Oh, there are also plenty of romance between our hero and his ex which is always a good thing in my book.

So I Married the Anti Fan (Korean Drama, Viki)

Losing her job as a reporter after a very unpleasant confrontation with our hero- a popular idol who is well known for his gentle and considerate persona, our heroine promptly declares herself as our hero’s anti-fan. With no income and no place to live, our heroine goes against her better judgment and agrees to participate in a reality show where she will live with our hero as his anti-fan. 

This one is super cute! I was worried with this type of premise the story would feel stale and predictable but while it isn’t difficult to guess the direction of the story I didn’t get the stale feeling at all.

Doom at Your Service (Korean Drama, Viki)

Losing both of her parents at a young age, our heroine is an ordinary book editor living an ordinary mundane life. Her world is turned upside down when the doctor informs her that she only has three months left to live, our heroine’s already bad day turns even worse when she finds out her boyfriend is a cheating jerk. Feeling the animosity the world has towards her, our heroine goes on what should’ve been a harmless drunken rant…until it brings Doom himself to her. Cajoling our heroine into signing a contract with him for her last 100 days on Earth, our hero figures that this whole thing is just a small diversion for him but little does he know that his own eternal torturous existence will also be changed. 

I loved the first two episodes! I feel bad that it is almost instinctual to compare any of these supernatural immortal + young woman storylines to Guardian: The Lonely Great God but fortunately, Doom can totally hold its own (at least at this point) against Guardian. I am also very impressed thus far with both Park Bo Young and Seo In Gulk’s performance. Park Bo Young is simply charming as our downtrodden but still plucky heroine who is trying to hold herself together against the rain of the lemons fate has given her. As for Seo In Gulk…I will just say his trademark wryly smile and sad puppy eyes are perfect for his character…also making it impossible not to fall in love with him.

Use For My Talent (Chinese Drama, Netflix)

This one is a C-remake of the K-drama Clean With Passion For Now (2018) which was a live-action of a webtoon. Our hero is a very successful CEO who due to childhood traumas suffers from severe mysophobia- meaning he is obsessive about keeping himself and his surroundings extremely clean. At the opposite extreme, our heroine is the carefree sort…including being quite carefree about getting dirty. After the requisite number of fateful encounters that end with our hero seeing our heroine in the most embarrassing situations, our heroine ends up working at our heroine’s company as a member of the cleaning crew. 

Hmm… Jasper Liu looks super fine here so I really wanted to like this one but after three episodes I am still not feeling it. In fact, the whole thing feels rather cliche and not the sweet squealing sort. I might still be tempted to give this one another chance though. I am really hoping once the story setup is done maybe the plot will stop feeling so recycled. 

Miss the Dragon (Chinese Drama, Youtube)

This one reminds me a bit of Eternal Love since it has a similar setup where our heroine saves a wounded snake only to find out later that the cute snake is actually a dragon god. Having fallen in love with our heroine, the dragon god ends up secretly protecting our heroine during each of her reincarnations until our heroine finally discovers his existence during her fourth lifetime.

Like one of the readers has mentioned in the comments, the show’s secondary couple actually seems to more interesting than our two leads…even though the synopsis did sound quite interesting on paper. I personally didn’t find the acting painful to watch but the story felt blend. It really is such a shame since I like both actors playing the leads and was really hoping this one could be a win for both of them.

What Ninja Watched, is Watching or Not Watching Anymore

Might Contain Spoilers!!!

Don’t Disturb My Study (Chinese Drama, Finished, Youtube)

I marathoned this one last weekend and enjoyed it quite a bit. Like I mentioned when this one first came out, the heroine is fairly annoying at first with her “know it all” attitude but by the third episode, I started to like her more and more. The story mainly focused on the friendships, cute budding romance between our leads, and a plethora of shenanigans between our heroine and her classmates. Overall, I found it to be a very heartwarming come-of-age story.

One Boat One World (Chinese Drama, Finished, Youtube)

I was in the mood for a cruise C-drama for some strange reason so I really gave this one multiple chances…but I just couldn’t do it and dropped the show after about 14 episodes in. I like actress Claudia Wang but boy, I just couldn’t stand her character here at all. Not only was our heroine the bumbling naive sort that constantly gets into one trouble after another but I find her interaction with the hero infuriating. Our hero, out of the kindness of his heart, takes our homeless heroine into his home and asked her very nicely to not touch anything of his. Taking what should’ve been a very reasonable request as a sign that our hero must have some psychological issues, our heroine proceeds to break down a door in our hero’s house in her effort to “help him”. Our hero is furious once he comes home but eventually forgives her…just like he will have to forgive her again when our heroine tricks his mother onto the cruise ship without informing him first.

I realized it was time to drop the show when I watched scenes between the two leads that signaled the beginning of their budding romance and all I could think was “Is he crazy? Why would he fall for a girl like that?!” I am assuming the show will eventually redeem our heroine but I wasn’t about to stick around on the slim hope that a scriptwriter who thinks it is cute and perfectly normal for her female lead to break down someone’s door while living free of charge on that said someone’s kindness could come up with a heroine character I can to like.

Love Is Science (Taiwanese Drama, Viki)

I am currently waiting on ep.8. This one has turned out to be surprisingly good. I had expected this one to be a fairly straight forward noona romance where our heroine who has been badly hurt in love will find happiness with our hero who has loved her all these years. While I still expect the story to eventually follow what I expected it to be, the actual process has more twists and surprises than I had foreseen…which is great.

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