We Watch Challenge 2024

10th Challenege || 11th Challenege :

Hi Mart 

I see you have watched a lot of dramas. xD But here are a few that I could recommend. Let me know if you prefer something else. 

1.  Twinkling Watermelon: 16-episode heartwarming K-drama from your PTW.  I recently watched it and absolutely loved it.  It's a youth drama with characters that are pretty lovable and funny. It is involving time travel and mixture of all the genre - romance, a bit of mystery, parent child relationship and slice of life (in bigger picture).

2. Dali and the Cocky Prince: 16-episode romantic-comedy K-drama if you are looking for something with charming leads, playful banter and heartfelt chemistry. 

3. The Spirealm - A 78-episode Chinese Bromance Drama. I saw a lot of BLs on your completed as well as on your CW list. Though there are 78 episodes, each of them is 20 minutes so it's sort of 38 episodes but is really interesting.  This is a fantasy drama with a compelling plot and stunning visuals (including both the leads xD) This is supposed to be a BL but suffered from censorship but still would very much recommend this.

4. Plus & Minus - A 8-episode Taiwanese BL. You have already watched most of the BLs that I have rated high. This one I couldn't find on your list. The chemistry between the leads is palpable though pacing was uneven at times. Still a good one-time watch!

Open to recommendations. Preferably a romantic drama. No horror, please. BLs are also fine. 

Accepted Recommendation From leafless7 : Lovely Runner

Thank you for the reccs, was very torn between LR and flower of evil. Chose LR coz in mood for something light. But will watch FOE soon. The synopsis seems very interesting. 

Status:  Completed  [ Started:  03/07/2024~ Completed: 04/08/2024]

Rating: 7.5/10

Thoughts : Busy writing it. Will update here soon.

6th Challenge completed!

Hi leafless7!

I know you said you prefer KDrama, but I saw Love Between Fairy and Devil on your PTW and it was a really good show so I wanted to recommend it to you since your profile mentions you like romance dramas.

OR

Under the Skin - This one is one of my faves to recommend because it's such a hidden gem!

image link

I accept Killer_Queen recommendation to watch Blood! (Since you said it's quite medical based, as a med student I have to watch it, haha)

Status: Completed 5.5/10 I liked the ML's acting, but the plot kept getting lost and the "good side" kept losing somehow so that was tiring. Other than that I enjoyed it, especially since it's been on my list for so long and now I get to mark it as completed!

Tanil

I recommend blood  (kdrama) this will make you cry at times. This drama is very medical based so can get a little confusing at times but you won't regret watching it. This is the only drama I've watched that vampires had a scientific background 

The second drama is morning-comes-to-the-mental-ward this a drama I feel everyone needs to watch as it is based on spreading awareness about different mental disorders. It makes it easy to understand for everyone. It also shows the effects on the staff that work there The main lead develops  depression.

The next one is our-police-course is a perfect balance of crime-solving friendship and love that always had we rooting for 

Would love a drama with a genre I don't really watch like fantasy or sci-fi. Please no rom-com as they are not for me 

I accept memories of alhambra 

2/10 

I had to drop it not even half way through as the story was boring. No lie i fell asleep.  The acting was horrible, anyone would do it better even those with no acting experience 

I, II, III, IV, V, VI

Hello leafless7! I've not watched many k-drama romcoms but hopefully you'll find something you're interested in here.

1. Once Upon a Small Town - This is the closest to what you're currently looking for. The plot and characters reminds me of older k-dramas. (12ep x 34m)

2. The Story of Park's Marriage Contract - Maybe give this one another go. I was recommended this and absolutely adored the main leads' chemistry. There are tons of cliches as well, reminiscent of older shows. (12ep x 70m)

3. Inspector Koo - This one's not exactly what you're looking for, but since you have it on high priority, I figured I might recommend this anyway. The plot is so interesting and the cat-and-mouse game between the main character and the antagonist is the highlight of the whole drama. There are also adorable side characters who you can't help but fall in love with. (12ep x 70m)

Please recommend something on the shorter side. I'm open to anything, but if you recommend a thai drama, please make it a GMMTV production series. Oh, and avoid anything in my Not Interested list :)

I accept Mart's recommendation of Moonlight Chicken. I was debating whether to watch Cupid's Last Wish or Moonlight Chicken first, and this just sealed the deal. The fact you wrote makes me appreciate their acting prowesses even more!

my list

Status: Completed
Rating: 6.5/10

Thoughts: A quick one! I love EarthMix. I like seeing them play as a couple. They work best acting more nuanced and non over-the-top characters like in this drama. However, I found their storyline to be a bit... bland? I couldn't relate to their struggles as I'm not at an age where I work full-time, pay bills, and support my family financially, so I felt a strong emotional dissonance to the main character. I was more invested in HeartLiMing's love story, but even then, they couldn't save me from this lack of emotion I felt towards this drama. I feel as though Moonlight Chicken would work better as a longer show, to develop the characters even more. 

Everything was there (the cinematography, acting, message, etc.) but my connection wasn't. It's an objectively good drama, just not for me.

8th challenge completed 

@Martina I fear that most of the romance dramas with HE I have watched and loved exceed the 20 episodes limit so please bear with me. xD I've chosen dramas for you that I loved because of their romance and lovely main leads. You Are My Glory was my first thought, but you have already watched it so here are alternatives that are just as good. ;D

1. To the Moon and Back | Thailand | 21 episodes á 1 hr. 12 min. - lovely main leads and romance (healthy mains relationship), found family

2. The Romance of Tiger and Rose | China | 24 episodes á 45 minutes - historical romance drama with swapped gender roles (the females are in power here) 

3. Zhang Gong Zhu Zai Shang (Her Royal Highness) | China | 27 episodes á 2 minutes (best watched in one row like a movie) Short Length Series with excellent chemistry between leads, historical romance and action

4. Angel's Last Mission: Love | South Korea | 32 episodes á 35 minutes - romance, comedy but also a tearjerker, so be warned ;)

5. The West Wind Is Strong | China | 20 episodes á 10 minutes - historical romance, great chemistry, supporting each other

Open for recommendations. Preferably from my MDL Watch Challenge Custom List or PTW list (but not necessarily) and a K-Drama or something with action/medical theme, I need something more fast paced right now. Thank you! :)

I accept neriya's rec for Dirty Laundry. 

Status: CW

Rating: TBA

18th challenge completed!

I want to be let out of my comfort zone! Recommend me a historical, sci-fi, horror, or any drama that doesn't heavily focus on my favourite genres and tags (check my profile to see.) You can also recommend dramas with unusual plots or characters, or even choose a drama in my Not Interested list in case I'm missing out on a gem. Go crazy with it! :)

Hi, Neriya!

I took a look at your list and profile and a few come to mind… I stuck with things not already in your PTW. 

Historical? My first rec is Under the Queen’s Umbrella for a sageuk with strong women, mothers arguably the strongest kind of tigress to be found. 

As for sci-fi, I don’t see any from Taiwan in your completed list… if you are ready to focus intently (give your brain some breaks) and can handle some heartache, Someday or One Day might be for you-rather than a body swap, it is more a body takeover. If time travel seems more palatable without souls inhabiting bodies of doppelgangers (the starting premise of Someday or One Day), I found My Perfect Stranger really heartwarming as the leads go back in time and meet their parents when their parents were teens/young 20-somethings. Both have mysteries to unwind…

Out of almost everyone’s comfort zones is one of my all time favorite dramas, Pegasus Market. I can’t remember who originally subbed it years back, but I hope that person’s subs still exist somewhere since the license has long since expired and it has been shuffled over to other sites (thinking Kim Soo Ji-she tends to do a phenomenal job actually getting accuracy in meaning and tone, humor and references)… the original subs had me wanting to cheer because the subber took things like rhyming passages and made equivalent rhymes in English, kept references that made sense (not all rice wordplay or words of wisdom land the same in English) and meant the same thing in the end. Even without knowing Korean or getting the top subtitles, though, the performances sometimes made me choke up and get teary from sudden sentiment right after laughing with joy, and it handles some social issues smartly, too, while staying funny and keeping the cast thoroughly endearing (for me). It feels like a love child of a Japanese comedy and a workplace oriented Korean drama. Weird it is. Your style of drama it might not be. ?

Direct link if it doesn’t show: https://photos.hancinema.net/photos/fullsizephoto1120587.jpg

(I am curious why you have Alchemy of Souls in your not interested. Body swaps, action, romance, supernatural powers, and historical but without the feeling of historical dramas bc of the supernatural elements... more a curiosity, though, that happens to be historical so it came to mind.)

Open for recs! Still on the hunt for wonderful Jdramas, but anything up to 20ish hours long is a-ok as long as there is **no dubbing** (so no Chinese historicals… I tried, and I just can’t enjoy them fully because the dubbing kills it for me; modern day ones have been okay so far). The weirder the better! :)

I accept Mart’s recommendation for Amidst a Snowstorm of Love! I haven’t seen any posts about it, so I a, going in blind, my favorite way to watch! (Eighth Sense is on my radar for when I want a BL. The other two are unfortunately my least favorite kind of story and characters in general… ive seen the Kdrama versions of both back when they aired, and they are, because of the characters, male leads especially, and storylines, too, in my bottom 10% of dramas ever watched… I h no doubt the Jdramas are better, but I will still want to throw the men in them across the universe on a one way trip as far from humanity as my willpower can fling them! I know many love em, but for some reason, those kinds of love stories just don’t resonate with me and make me angry that the FLs put up with the guys, let alone fall for em [even though love itself isn’t rational or sensible, I need my drama characters to like people I find charming, at least, if not actually good]?)

Rating/Thoughts: What a total sugar rush! They have amazing chemistry (I really like the FL in general, so I went in figuring I would at least enjoy seeing her, but they are adorable)!

That said, it gets an 8.5 (still a solid score from me) because it was distinctly lacking a kind of critical detail, plot development (and backstories were nowhere near what they could’ve made them). 

What would’ve made it a 10: 

1. When they show that bit of footage from the teacher’s tape set of him with the young ML, we deserved to go into that part of his life (whether early on or even at that point), especially since the pro players from that era of his youth return as adults and talk about but never SHOW us their past beyond a couple of too-brief scenes and *ideally…
2. Throw in a bit of explanation so the games going on aren’t just us seeing balls on tables without non-players of snooker etc having to go read a guide before continuing or just not get what is happening, a pity, really, since it wouldn’t take long and there were plenty of scenes that were just alright. 
3. A bit more fleshing out of the plot in general as it goes-make me BELIEVE the situation that feels, because we are just thrown into Europe with random Chinese people who just happen to have this kind of obscure/unpopular passion as their careers, pulled out of thin air and doesn’t have the foundation set to feel like they are more than drama characters. The people in Finland (I believe-or is it Hel peninsula Poland? Looks more like Helsinki but the signs are not at all Finnish several places so maybe it is just “utopia, coldasseurope” lol) were so endearing that I kind of want to know just how and why the ML is there and where the money came from for him to buy the place. 

Show, not tell, is my preferred way of learning everything about characters I am viewing, and the point and a half off ultimately amounted to the writer solely relying on their chemistry and not actually developing the script richly the way these cast members deserved it. It would’ve been so much more captivating to actually feel the struggle from before and know what the heck was happening during the tournaments etc. There were so many opportunities with non-pros and even kids coming into the billiard hall, to naturally draw the audience fully into the universe with some knowledge I just didn’t have (for snooker at least).

THANK YOU, though, for such a sweet story! Their chemistry is magical enough that I was, about 5 episodes at a time (one can and in my case should only handle so much sweetness in one sitting lol), fully enthralled in the characters’ relationship even as I was wishing they’d have a better story, more than an outline of barely developed timeline points shown through scenes of them together falling in love in front of us with the story ultimately just there to have a place, time, and situation to show off the leads over and over, something I sometimes got drowsy from because nothing was going on but still went back in and watched to completion with little complaint (despite me being so wordy about it lol). For someone wanting to swoon and flutter, this is a solid choice so long as the rest won‘t get in the way of just falling in love with them falling in love. Her awkwardness and my back and forth reactions of secondhand blushing as she felt so relatable in a given moment then me screaming in my head, “USE YOUR WORDS!!” over here were a great pairing. 

8

9. Hi Mart

First I haven't watched any 40 eps long cdrama. But

✓1. I Am Nobody- cdrama, slapstick comedy, bromance, NO romance, 27 eps

2. My Girlfriend Is an Alien: 28 eps

3. Vincenzo from your ptw. This is must watch kdrama.

4. Memories of the Alhambra and 5. Romance Is a Bonus Book my favourite kdrama I picked from your ptw.

Short drama:

6. Death's Game- 8eps 

7. Enigma- 4 eps

Open for recommendation. I prefer kdrama. Maybe in mood for thriller, psychopath killer, serial killer or Romance.

I accepted the recommendation from  SmileHoney to watch Nobody Knows

All other titles seem interesting. But I choose this drama because it has been in my ptw since it was ongoing.

Status: Completed

Rating: 10/10

Interested. I can say hooked. But I am busy with practical exam. So It will take maybe 3 days to finish it.

At ep 10 they showed how he died. And 6 episode is remaining. So I knew there is more in plot. In short it just keeps getting better and better with every episode. 

I was secretly shipping fl with villain. And not with teacher. I know he was screwed up character. But I liked his character. And his bonding with underling . And they all are in the jail. I laughed at that.

I liked how drama title 'Nobody Knows' is related to plot. Eunho jumped because he was afraid nobody will know how he died. 

Fl and eunho are my favourite character. Every supporting cast played memorable character. I mean those characters are not forgettable. And they had their own presence in drama. 

1st Challenge Completed {?}

Hello, SmileHoney! You said you wanted to watch comedies so I would love to recommend you:

-Click on the titles to reach the page (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

A Business Proposal

• A Business Proposal: Since you wanted to watch some good comedies. ✓
• Watching: Since it was available in your PTW. 
• Hide and Seek: Since it was available in your PTW. 

I am open to any recommends :)

Lol that's why I don't tell people that I would prefer a drama or movie from my PTW because I know they will cry and curse me for that and mostly the drama they recommend are in my PTW or I forgot to add it. I am confused between four of them because I want to watch them all ;) But

I accept Tanii's recommendation of Under the Skin

Status: Completed

Rating: 10/10