I had forgotten about this thread, but since Vivi bumped it up, I will go ahead and add this short little drama that I finished recently. It’s only 10 episodes of between 20 and 25 minutes each. There are some really lovely and memorable cinematic moments in this.
On a side note, since some of us are in the middle of a ‘Military Prosecutor Doberman’ watch in WP, this little drama has both the unstable, criminal hottie from Doberman, as well as his equally terrible friend Allen from there, but they are so much more likable in this, obviously.
Nonono. They are only shown online, rather than on TV.
Any drama can be based on a webtoon, and it can either be a web drama or, more usually, a TV drama. I’m saying “more usually” because a successful webtoon will have a large audience interested to watch the drama version. For instance What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Misaeng (incomplete life), Yumi’s Cells, Bride of the Water God and many others were based on webtoons.
I am still finding myself unable to watch longer dramas at the moment, my focus, my memory are not that good, something I watched a few days ago might have already been forgotten by me, so here I am writing down a few shorts to not forget over time.
Considering my age and the number of Asian content I watched, there was a fair amount of let’s call them pop-rock dramas, or idol dramas as well. It can’t be called another You Are Beautiful or Shut Up, Flower Boy Band …
I found the acting some kind of lacking, I can’t grasp the reason … The story on paper looks okay to me. The music -some titles I liked right away, and one or two grew on me.
Maybe my expectation got the better of me … It’s not a bad one, but I am still far from recommending it wholeheartedly.
If you have seen it, please share your sentiments.
Viki rating is at 9,2 -MDL 7,9
And more about it.
I just read that there were 4 writers for this drama, and maybe it is a case of too many cooks ruin the dish … As for the steps the story makes, it is pretty cliché and predictable. The main male lead’s role reminded me a lot of Hwang Tae Kyung (YAB), but he is just not that memorable. Equally, it isn’t of help for the drama to have so many band members and not that many episodes. Even though I think addressing the problems of idol’s life was delivered well, but since we saw some of it in other dramas (it might be different if you just started with Asian dramas, so the rating might be different) it didn’t add that much to the main story line or the characters and their development. Apart from that, the directing, cutting and cinematography are fairly well done.
What kind of irritated me was the title of the drama “Let me be your knight”, but one of the main songs, “Let me be your night”. Such things can bring up a long train of thought … And I am still not done thinking about that.
And now to some J-drama, you might think are a bit “slippery”, when actually the only slippery one might be the one with the soap, or maybe it is two depending on your personal point of view.
I thought it is yet another teacher/student “hot” drama, where the sexual part is driving part and I would give up after 1-2 episodes, but this one deliberately is shipping around those cliffs. It almost landed there but surprise it did not happen, hope I did not ruin it for you all now by writing this. What I liked the characters’ development, all in all I think the drama’s timeline was about 8-9 years … I might have been taken aback by some scenes, but I guess that it really is just a cultural thing. It might be lame for some, but I liked that it didn’t make a “madly in love couple forgetting everything else around them, but instead were confronted with reality, didn’t escape it, but dealt with it.”
V 8,9 MDL 8,1 not that far apart for once.
V 8,6 MDL 7,6
Oh, well, probably the weakest one in comparison. Story might be only working in Japan. In the US, there surely would be some lawyers quite busy by now. Apart from that, yeah the story is weird, strange … However, you want to name it, but … Is there actually a “but”. You could say for people with the sweating problem and the psychological impact, it might have a motivating aspect. Yet, don’t go out there to apply a job in a “soap company” for finding Mr. Right with the dog nose, who will be crazy for you. Somehow I still liked the main characters and how they went over their problems and their company colleagues, because they were often just so sweet and encouraging (minus the one female character, she wasn’t K-drama style so neglectable) you couldn’t avoid wishing for them in real life. Honestly, I could need that cooking brother of her right now. All in all sometimes confusing, sometimes overdoing stuff, kind of like the Taiwanese Fated to Love You, but take it with a bit of humor, and it can be okay, no must watch either.
It is sometimes weird to think about to what measures people might really go in order to achieve it. Age is just a number and experiences no matter in which direction can be good or bad. And so is Rinko it presents solid story delivery, solid acting, … Depending on the viewer’s age and life experience, her “shortcoming” might be seen as serious or funny. But I have to give one great point to this drama, a female lead with a flexible brain, she grows with her actions and I do not mean solely based on those with her male colleague.
V 9 MDL 7.9
What all of these J-Drama more or less had as a theme is becoming a full adult. There is often a different approach and sometimes J-dramas not only follow the wishes of the viewers but throw out a lot of slices of life into the mix and that is something I like for a change.
Are they shady? I don’t think so … But others might still find these stories kind of disturbing.
Anyone else watched something of short length recently?
P.S. Given that Japan seems pretty open with the topic, it never seems to address matters of “protection”, or maybe they just assume for it to be a given …
Placing the link didn’t ring the alarm that it was placed before, do I guess it is not on, but I know that some already watch it.
I approve it! Haha, I think it is well done short 12 eps only, but roughly an hour long, so not a web drama. I found it really enjoyable.
My Husky Boyfriend! It’s absurd but it gave me all the feels. The actors were amazing and managed to carry the strange plot well - so fluffy and cute!!
6 thirty minute eps
I like to find and watch short little dramas as filler, but then I always forget to mention them here. A couple that I have recently finished (they are both J-dramas, so they have their own ‘flare’):
I was watching “After The Rain” yesterday, a special from KBS 2 episodes (1h each). Since I am not in the mood to start a bigger drama, I stay with “shorties” or movies.
It was a nice watch, I can’t even tell much haha, or I will spoil the whole story - it’s about an old man, who doesn’t want to leave his home because he is waiting for his only love to return and his son and no, the only love is not his mother …
I don’t recall anyone mentioning this drama 4 episodes, 4-4,5 hrs of drama. Others might fill 12-16 episode with such a story, but boy this little thing really took me by surprise. At first, you might glance over it and say, yeah, I saw stories like this before, but seriously, this drama takes off layer after layer from the FL’s life and her soul. There has been so much damage done to this young woman, and that is what she wants to give back to society and people she thinks are responsible for that misery of her own life. The more she wants to push people out of her world, she suddenly feels that they become part of her life and somehow the plan she made about taking revenge gets out of control …
Although it isn’t per se a funny story, it is funny at points to see her fighting with herself, when life happens while she is busy making plans.
P.S.: I can’t say if all the music was changed but in ep 3 you get to see lyrics, and the funny thing is after two lines I was singing that song since I knew it from my younger days, well my mid 20s. The time Brit Pop was the thing and yeah I liked that snobby kind of music style. It sounded as rebellious as the FL.
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have found this little hidden gem if I wasn’t invited to work on it as GE. The reason I accepted was because I had just finished watching My Husky Boyfriend - I loved ML Ryan Cheng’s expressions and acting talent, so I wanted to watch him again. Safe to say, he just keeps flooring me. I’m interested to see how he grows in his career.
It’s short but fast-paced, mixing action, mystery, romance and comedy. I loved the cinematography, costumes and styling. Everything was very pretty, and the actors were convincing. I especially loved the little child actor and her character. It was nice to see a child who wasn’t a spoilt brat - she was adorable and a little too smart for her age XD
It’s funny and very unexpectedly chemistry-filled, fiery and romantic(I really wanted to Watch Party this with the members of the NSFW Hottie Posse thread lol it is a PERFECT swoon fest). I loved that the ML and FL really trusted each other with no misunderstandings. I loved the fact that the ML was smart enough to unravel mysteries and also trusted FL enough to fill in the missing pieces and believe in her even when there was no evidence to support it. He surprised me multiple times.
10/10 would recommend as a cute short filler with a little action and mystery, but no real angst between the leads. It was always a supportive relationship from start to end.
I second your recommendation for “A Familiar Stranger”! I just finished it and what a great mini drama! Engaging plot, Fast paced, great acting and directing, production values. I loved that both female leads were intelligent and resourceful. Agree with you on the OTP relationship. So refreshing to have an OTP relationship NOT filled with misunderstandings and the like. And some very nice kiss scenes.
Truly a “hidden gem” for 2022. I hope that Viki can get the mini drama “The Killer Is Also Romantic” which is by the same director.
This was a fun and cute Jdrama - short with only 9 episodes of roughly 30 minutes each. The ML has some really fun facial expressions, especially during the many times when his “dialogue” is all in his head.