Have you read the synopsis to Take Me Home? Once we have a draft of episode one then I think you can start spinning you hottie Rolodex for the main lead.
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Vivi slouches in her chair mumbling unintelligible words as she flips through her Range Rover catalogue, completely ignoring the chaos around her.
âI can already see the scandals coming our way with us foreigners trying to write about Japanese servicemen to the Korean people and other Korea-Japan conflicts⌠Our ratings are going to die in their cradle!!â she grumbles as she watches Ali, looking like a human tornado of Junho photographs, runs out the door with Happy. She looks at the mirror on her desk. âIâm too young for this project!â Vivi was still slightly annoyed over the fact that she hadnât told MissWillow itâs âbiscuitâ in her country, too.
She looks out the window and sees the Segue Cafe open for business again.
âMight as well get another mocha so I can stay awake for however long this takesâŚâ she tells herself as she gets out of her chair and tosses the catalogue away with one last, longing look.
âWhen do we begin, MissWillow?â she asks as she walks out the door.
@leerla73, you could be in charge of publicity!! 
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Cheese and Japanese. The foundation of a cold open, a title sequence, a male lead, and an OST. And in Asian symbology, a rat always bodes well.
https://www.spoonforkbacon.com/korean-cheesy-corn/
https://culturecheesemag.com/stories/blog/world-cheese-culture-japan/
Not meaning to be culturally insensitive, I have to relate how I explain the strange ethnic soup that is my home state of Texas, a mess of indigenous, African-American, Hispanic, non-Hispanic folks, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and other folks who, depending on their arrival time, conquered, re-conquered, struggled, fought, submitted, found acceptance, were discriminated against . . .
I explained to someone what I call the history of the modern world, but itâs actually just history.
Group A takes over a piece of territory mainly for economic and political purposes. Group B comes in and takes the territory from Group A. Group A gathers allies and takes the territory back from Group B and subjugates its allies and anyone wandering through at the time.
Rinse and repeat for 200 years, and then everybody gets officially married.
My semi-hemi-demi-quasi-historical research regarding any potential celebrities of Korean and Japanese parentage has turned up these two men:
(Kangnam of M. I. B from Wikipedia and Simon of DMTN from Kpopmap)
Simon born 05/29/86 in Seattle, Washington; Korean father, Japanese mother (American name Simon Park, Korean name Park Junho, Japanese name Sakai, studied at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Kanagawa, Japan).
Kangnam born 03/23/87 in Tokyo, Japan; Korean mom, Japanese father (name Yasuo Namekawa).
These two guys were born long after the difficulties of war, politics, and general human selfishness made life intolerable for so many. They are who they are; they are loved by their families and friends; they have found a place and a purpose in life.
And since human history has made an alphabet soup of all of us since early on in the history-recording process, I at this point think, OK, it is what it is. Or we . . . is what we is?
If you want to watch a movie that messes with the idea of average people of Asian ethnicity speaking truth to power, I highly recommend Foreigner with Jackie Chan playing a Vietnamese guy trained during the Vietnam war by the CIA. He owns a Chinese restaurant and ends up going after Pierce Brosnan as some sort of minor official representing the British government in Northern Ireland (Ulster) where a large number of my ancestors on both sides come from.
I saw it three years ago on Netflix. Wow is he a fantastic actor!
But back to the issue at hand. Cheese and Japanese and rats.
I think that there is lots of room for panel trucks, scooters zipping in and out of traffic, exploding buses, rocket launchers, charcuterie, diamond rings dropped in the Han river, cherry blossoms, meet-cutes on the Ginza at midnight with bottles of champagne and chunks of fromage, drones, mistaken identity, and (just when the tension gets to be too much) an incensed obaasaan and helmoni running out in traffic to subdue unsavory characters with whacks from golf umbrellas.
And having given my perspective, I now take my leave to go sleep on the conference room table and dream of the clean, pure ocean flavors of transcendental food.
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Impossible, Iâm in betwix being in awe, dwl, 
the echos of âStorm the barricades!!â must have been ringing in kdrama2020ali ears. The PD explicity asked my assistance on that score, but Alas! 
I was again floored, 
while missing no details, no clapbacks, or any witticism, all while experiencing a bit of a @frustratedwriter complex. And then this too 
#2 
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This PD has actually lost sleep over this project, knowing full well the office of Badger production is mostly female, there is now a very large imaginary female bear that has managed to gain control of the sharp stick that I provoked it with, and it is now metaphorically holding the pointy end against my ribs ready to stick it to me at any moment!
With that said. I think I have an idea how to release the draft for ep 1 of Take Me Home.
(and no, they will not be servicemen, definitely NOT military)
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As I see it, this Atonement Idol contest is for Japanese guys to carry Korean people on their back? Why would anyone get into a contest to do that?
Why do any people get into any kind of contest? During the Great Depression in the United States, random strangers would pair up for dance contests that went on until one couple was left standing after hours, sometimes several days, of non-stop dancing. And that couple would get a cash prize that would help pay bills.
I just saw that this show is up on Viki now. We must find room in our production for a gaggle of beauty queens to run down a street somewhere, throwing their tiaras as deadly weapons. I put it on my never-ending watch list; Japanese family dramas never fail to deliver the entertainment goods.
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I see that @kdrama2020ali has thoughtfully put up a sign over the office copier.
(Facebook)
Instead of wasting scrap paper to test if a printer is working, use a renewable resource that will also let you dust furniture at the same time.
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Tenor
I think that âTake Me Homeâ needs my Umbrella and Rain Trope!!!
HELLO KITTY 
imgflip
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Has there been a scene in any drama where the guy is giving the girl a piggy back while itâs raining, so the girl is holding an umbrella over them both as he carries her? I donât recall one, but if it exists, Iâd like to see it or it could be part of âTake Me Homeâ.
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YEEEEEEESSSSS!!!
Cold open, Ep. 1. Right there. Pink and red and gold sparkly hearts!
No music, no sound but the sound of the rain, cars passing on the wet road. Reason FL is being carried? ML knocked her over in rainy pursuit of . . . âsomebodyâ . . . she twisted her ankle in the fall . . . heâs so super mysteriously cool and responsible that he immediately turned to her, picked her up, and is now carrying her to the nearest emergency room.
As they approach the emergency room entrance, three doctors step out from behind an ambulance. He nods to them, sets her down gently.
âWait here for just a moment.â
Her umbrella briefly obscures the view, then flutters to the ground as she collapses. One doctor flings a syringe into a bush; the other slides into the driverâs seat of the waiting ambulance; ML and the third doctor help her to her feet, escort her to the back of the ambulance, help her climb in.
ML says, âMy cousin owes me a favor. If we take you to see him, you wonât have to pay anything for treatment.â
FL whispers, âThatâs too much trouble . . . I can just go home and bandage my ankle myself.â Then is completely out like a light.
Doctor with ML shakes his head. âToo bad thatâs not possible. Too bad she doesnât have a home to go to anymore.â
ML asks, âAre you sure?â
Doctor says, âI saw it happen.â
With everyone inside, the ambulance siren starts wailing and takes off out of the ER parking lot as a fire truck zips past in the opposite direction.
Inside, two grim looking firemen look way too tired.
âAre you sure they got everyone out of the building?â
âBuilding super says yes.â
âThird suspicious fire in a week when weâve had more rain than in the last six months combined. What the hell is going on?â
âI donât know, and I donât want to know.â
Cut to a cluster of town-house style apartments, smoke and flames rising from the back side of the complex. People huddle under umbrellas across the street as several fire trucks and fire personnel in front of the complex pool resources to deal with the blaze.
In the back of the crowd, a very pleasant-looking woman is standing under a black umbrella in a plain grey raincoat. She has a rainhat tied on her head, black gloves, on her hands, slip-on rain boots over her shoes. âYes, the fire department has arrived. Looks as if only apartment is a loss. Oh, would you be able to pick me up for work? I probably wonât be able to get near my car for the next couple of days.â
An older gentleman under an umbrella with his wife turns to the pleasant-looking woman and says, âAre they making you go to work?â
The pleasant-looking woman says, âItâs not so bad. I think theyâll pay for my lunch, and itâs a useful distraction.â
The older man nods. âYouâre right about that.â
A nondescript car pulls up. The pleasant-looking woman nods to the older gentleman. âHave a nice day.â
In the car, as it pulls away, the pleasant-looking woman turns to a pleasant-looking man at the wheel and says, âWell, I donât know where our target is at the moment, but they donât know either. All we have to do is show up at her office with the evidence that she is responsible for the fire, take her into custody, deprogram her, and hide her away in a nursing home.â
âThen we can go on vacation for the first time in ten years.â
âYes, about damn time.â
Cut to ML listening intently to an earbud. âYouâre a genius,â he says to the doctor with him in the speeding ambulance. âImplanting a listening device in her chest while claiming she needed a pacemaker ten years ago.â
âitâs worked longer than I thought it would.â
Just at that moment, the doctor in the passenger seat turns around and announces, âWeâre being followed.â
ML says tersely, âThanks.â
Cut to an explosion just ahead of the ambulance. The driver turns hard to the left to avoid it, the ambulance topples over on its side and slides across the rainy, deserted highway.
Slowly, the back door to the ambulance opens, and the ML climbs out slowly, a cut on his forehead. Further back down the highway, the passenger door to a white panel truck opens, and a man who could almost be his twin gets outâsleek, well-dressed, calmly arrogant.
Via the famous Viki split screen, they stare at each other, the opening theme swells, and opening credits roll . . .
Yes? No? Worth taking to the writerâs table and arm wrestling over?
Itâs going to be a looooong meeting while decisions are made about which hotties are making âspecial guest appearances,â so @misswillowinlove is going to make herself comfy with snax and the special copier that transforms into a luxury bed. Wake me when Desi Arnaz and Fernando Lamas drop by . . .
(Google screen cap)
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I like this!! 
@ninjas_with_onions I really think we should leave out Korea-Japan stuff because we might stray into insensitive territory. I know I would hate reading a story like that if it involved my own country 
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Ah, but you see, there have already been a number of dramas done with the theme of children of mixed Asian heritage coming to terms with what that means.
Koreaâs history has been one in which it gets conquered by some larger country or kingdom and then snatched away by another kingdom because it has a seacoast, a seacoast that allows those others a jumping-off point for greater economic and military control in their region.
The history of the Indian subcontinent, the rise and fall of kingdoms and religions, the shifting of borders, how is that history any different?
My view is: history sucks. When you read about great wars and heroic leaders, wherever you look, people are busy promoting the idea that the smart people in life use people and love things, instead of loving people and using things.
That goes away when people focus on the humanity we all share and remember that people deserve respect and understanding simply because they exist, not because they are perfect or look like or sound like a particular group.
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@ninjas_with_onions Ran into the Badger production office and starts ripping the half written pages of the script to Take Me Home and is furiously feeding them into the shredder.
@vivi_1485 hides from PD-nim behind the flower pot that proved to be useless against @entwyfhasbeenfound and cautiously enquire what the hell was going on as @ninjas_with_onions continues to feed the shredder.
âItâs a sign I tell you! Itâs a sign!â He warns Vivi.
I was going to post the banner for Ep1 of Take Me Home with the intention of placing the writing bits out into separate posts. I though Iâd stick the synopsis up first, then Ep1, followed by the writing stuff when I hit upon the no more than 3 consecutive replies without someone replying rule. So It ended up looking very weird when you asked the question about the idol contest.
So I was in the middle of writing out a novel when my internet provider suffered a DNS outage and lost connection to Discussions and other strange things like YouTube would eventually connect but I couldnât play any videos.
Then light bulb goes ping 
and wouldnât you know it not a single spare in the house.
A trip to the shops for replacement bulb. Fixed 
Then the wife reports a loss of pressure in the shower system.
Quickly identify the issue
Another trip to the shops for a replacement hose.
Pressure restored.
Access to internet/Discussion restored
But all the links are broken
Start typing replies
Internet drops out again
@ninjas_with_onions is now at his computer with his finger pressing hard on the delete key as the characters of Take Me Home shrink like an unsent text to a love interest.
He lights an incense stick and drops it into the hole of the take-out coffee cup lid, the smoke of which rises up instead of steam from the cooling coffee.
The Korean - Japan stuff was my backup story in case things lost traction.
Atonement:(n) the action of making amends for a wrong or injury.
I like that, could the scars left in history ever be healed through atonement?
The plot point were
SHâs grandparents having experienced the war first hand end up hating her because she dared to fall in love with a Japanese man, is based on who we regard as âAn enemyâ based on the experiences of the individual.
TK is kicked off the Atonement program and sent back to Japan as it was a rule that they were not allowed to fraternise with the Korean women. Drawn from the parallels of celebrities not allowed to date being baked into their contract. (forcing SH and TK to date in secret)
Ending: SH moving to Japan to get away from the politics.
âStill, I think Iâve started something that @entwyfhasbeenfound tasked me with and only having blown half of our unlimited budget! Should have gone with the Uber piggyback service concept but didnât have a story and weâre certainly not in the business of giving free product placement!â
âOh, and what was I going to start the ball rolling with before the internet dropped out?â
Iâll get the ball rolling with what do you think of the male leadâs name? (surname, given name order) I just picked them from a Google for Japanese boys names. I picked Kichi (luck) because I was going to work in a gag later where Seo Hyun eventually nicknames Kichi âKittyâ from a Soju drunken slurred greeting âhello Kichiâ when she tried to say in her broken English the English for Hello Kitty.
With that Ninja picks up the cupped incense and prays furiously out the door waving the cup up and down.
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Awesome visuals! The discriptive writings, are all so Awesome! 
! This production is serious business.
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I know a lot of stories have been written like this, but itâs usually someone from one of the countries involved who writes these stories. You donât see Indians writing about the Pearl Harbor attacks or Japanese people writing about the Jallianwala Bagh incident or other British-India conflicts.
Vivi goes back to hiding behind the flowerpot. Itâs actually becoming a comfortable space now
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Please, please, yes, bromance!!!
Doom, as nobody on the planet can be unaware [@kdrama2020ali . . . ahem] is on one level DEEPLY philosophical and even a bit dark and hopeless. And its love theme is very (even unusually for a K-drama) poetic and lyrical. Yet the bromance [FLâs dongsaeng and Korean version of a shinigami] is funny as all get out.
But the funniest, fussiest bromance around at the moment bar none is the one between the ML and SML of . . . (pausing to put on personal hysterical fan noise abatement equipment) Goblin. Oui?
(Warner Archive, Tumblr)
And the other brother from a different mother . . . or big bother from a different father . . .
Great opportunity to use the separated by divorce or kidnapped for shadowy reasons tropes, the plot device revealed in . . . episode 14? of siblings separated by just a few blocks without knowing it or by a continent, a culture, and an economic climate . . . and having it rubbed in for years.
I so want the Korean hole-in-the-wall Corn Cheese versus the Japanese French restaurant fromage . . . or some kind of homemade masterâs touch ramen versus ramyeon . . . or a fashion label smackdown somewhere in the background.
Meanwhile, WHERE ARE MY MARMITE BIKKI STIX!!!
P.S. @ninjas_with_onions has definitively proven that he is the PD-nim for the job, an astute, intelligent, and humble man . . .
It appears that he has married above his pay grade and is willing to rent sidewalk space outside . . . Pimlico Hardware? Tylerâs Homecare and DIY? to make Mrs. Onions happy.
Aww!
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You had me atâŚBROMANCE 
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(Giphy)
Another reason why you are always caught short on hearts. If you donât stay firm in the face of hotties, somebody else might surpass you in raining sparkly love down on the world.
Just a word of advice (while I laugh hysterically at those two ě´ëŚŹěě ěŹë [eoliseog-eun salam, or âsilly personsâ according to Google]).
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As someone who is not âAsianeseâ (at least not for several hundred generations if prehistoric migrations and genetics are any indicator) I will say I have always viewed Asian cultures as exotic.
My mother read my sisters and me every sort of fairy tale, myth, and legend from every sort of culture, and it was Hans Christian Andersenâs fairy tale âThe Nightingaleâ that sealed the deal for me. Oh, and the TV show Kung Fu with David Carradine, too, I guess.
So, my take on what we are doing is, well, yeah, it is definitely a bit like adding another ride in the Viki theme park, but we are certainly doing much better than Disney. Euro Disneyâs Cinderella is about as much like a historical royal or noble figure as a Pomeranian is like a wolf.
Given recent events, I shudder to think what Asia Disney might feature. The original Mulan had a few problems. Eddy Murphy as a tiny annoying dragon . . . But wasnât it basically an opportunity for . . . non-standard Hollywood celebrities to tell a story about people who were foundationally just people?
Except for the Huns. In the original movie, Mel Ferrer voiced a character who was definitely a stereotype.
If Asia Disney existed, and it had a Mulan ride base on the live-action version of the movie, wow, that would be very bad news.
Some people viewing the ânewâ Mulan (and I will never be one of those people) might be excused for thinking Mulan is a movie made by self-hating Asians, but . . .
What we are doing in our own way is reminding others that the having the ârightâ color, culture, and class are not the primary hallmarks of being human.
Celebrating the determination of all human beings to live beautiful, hopeful, peaceful, and surprising lives . . . is the primary hallmark.
Celebrating outlandishly and completely wherever we can.
To put it in economic terms: weâre bullish on humanity. We go all out.
Humanity? As the old saying goes, âIn for a penny, in for a pound.â
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