When Twice is Never Enough

First Watched: 2015

Times Watched: 4

Personal Database Score:  9.5/10

In my MDL review of this Drama, I mentioned that I'd just watched it for the second time. Since then, twice more. It remains top of my rewatch favourites. My only regret is that they never made an SP or a season 2. I love everything else about this Drama.

First Watched:  2017

Times Watched:  4

Personal Database Score: 9/10

Another example of great chemistry overcoming flaws. The storyline is tired, but the execution was great. It was a less misogynistic version of the Itazura Na Kiss  family of Dramas, and  I'm still hoping to see Shen Yue in something that resonates with me as much as this one did.

First Watched:  2013

Times Watched:  4

Personal Database Score: 8.5/10

I didn't realise until starting this list that I watched this in the year I first started watching East Asian Dramas.  This TW classic made me fall deeply in love with Lin Yi Chen AND Chen Bo Lin. Their pairing was magic and transcended the dramas flaws - overlong, excessively nasty SML and the FL's rather obnoxious personality for much of the Drama. That last flaw was well corrected in the J-dorama remake, which I enjoyed, but which lacked the indefinable magic of Ariel and Chen.  I still love the OST as well, and that's a mark of how special the Drama was for me, since I tend to forget OSTs quickly

First Watched:  2019

Times Watched:  4

Personal Database Score: 7.5/10

This is a bit of a 'cheat' on the rewatch count because although I have rewatched it 3 times,  for a total of 4 views, the rewatches were all highly selective. I mostly FF'd through the OTP arc and focused on the quite wonderful STP storyline, which I loved to bits. Very much a Groundhog Day arc, the way the two flawed STP characters grew separately and together over multiple time loops was beautiful and moving.

First Watched:  2016

Times Watched:  3

Personal Database Score:  11/10

The only one of my 10+ list to also feature on this list, this is probably my favourite contract marriage Drama. My second favourite Yui role (after Okitegami), this Drama shows what happens the magical lightning strikes and a Drama gets everything right - including THAT dance, of course. :) 

First Watched:  2017

Times Watched:  3

Personal Database Score:  10

I watched this first for Gong Seung Yeon, having been mesmerised by her performance in the only K-SF Drama I've loved, Circle.  This one was pure brony crack! The chemistry between the two leads was off the charts, no doubt greatly helped by their having worked together before. Just typing this is tempting me to rewatch it again. THere are some things I didn't like, especially the graphic violence which was tonally jarring, but a 10/10 score  and a total of 3 watches shows that the osculation overcame those flaws. :) 

First Watched:  2013

Times Watched:  3

Personal Database Score:  9.75/10

Another one from my debut year of watching, 2013. This Drama had so much going for it - great chemistry between the leads, a strong OST, a nice mix of sweet and sad, and a "screw logic and commonsense, let's have a happy ending" happy ending ?

First Watched:  2016

Times Watched:  3

Personal Database Score:  9

This iconic Drama needs little introduction, I'm sure.  Yoon Eun Hye at the top of her game and a pairing with Gong Yoo that set the bar for K Drama romcoms. A bar few have ever met since. No serial killers, mafiosi or murderers  stuffed into it to  try to make it 'edgy', just romcom done right

First Watched:  2020

Times Watched:  3

Personal Database Score:  9

Generally speaking, the super sweet C Dramas that get raved about here at MDL end up getting trashed and/or dropped by me for the persistent toxic misogyny and patriarchal patronising endemic to the genre. That I watched this one thrice and scored it 9/10 shows it passed my test in avoiding those flaws, or ar least minimising them and providing a sweet story and lovable OTP to offset them. 

First Watched:  2013

Times Watched:  3

Personal Database Score:  8.5

The fact that I watched and loved this Drama 3 times despite being  a borderline anti-fan of its male lead is testimony to how much I was sold on the story. Another one with a great OST too. 

First Watched:  2020

 Times Watched:  3

 Personal Database Score: 8.5

I gushed about this in my MDL review, and I stand by that gushing - this Drama was so deliciously sweet!

First Watched:  20206

 Times Watched:  3

 Personal Database Score: 8.5

Reel-to-real romance Dramas (like Nigeru Wa Haji) often gain a little extra something from that outcome for me, but this one stands alone in my experience as STARTING from real life. The fact that the story is inspired by/based on the writer's own life story made it extra sweet to watch, and the wry humour in the relationship of the OTP definitely felt real.  This is still on my "watch again" list, too. 

First Watched:  2014

 Times Watched:  3

 Personal Database Score: 8

A blast from the past, probably my favourite Kim So Yeon Drama. The few reviews here at MDL show it's not everyone's cuppa tea, but I liked her character's growth and the development of the OTP.  Kang Sora was cute in it too ?

First Watched:  2020

 Times Watched:  3

 Personal Database Score: 8

My MDL review  sums up my reaction to this Drama. I loved its sugar hit sweetness, though I will confess that some of my high scores and multi-rewatches of PRC romances in 2020 may have been pandemic medicine :)

First Watched:  2013

 Times Watched:  3

 Personal Database Score: 7.75

This one is a guilty pleasure. It's MUCH better than the awful Korean "Mischievous Kiss" in terms of its treatment and depiction of the FL, but that's setting the bar so low as to be subterranean. THe reason I loved this came down to Ariel hitting it off with another Chen. She and Joe just beleted this out of the park, and the fact that they've remained BFFs ever since explains why this Drama rose above its tropes and carved a place in my heart despite its flaws. 

First Watched:  2013

 Times Watched:  3

 Personal Database Score:  7

The exact opposite of They Kiss Again, this Drama absolutely ROCKED in its depiction of the female lead roles. Han Ji Min was good, and fun, but the reason I rewatched this twice was for Han Go Eun's stunning role and performance. It remains one of the defininig examples of a platonic 2FL done perfectly. Never even a hint of romance with the ML, just a strong, self-assured woan who lived life on her terms and enriched the story along the way.   The end of her arc was exactly right, even though it was a long way from what I would have wanted, the fact that I rewatched it twice knowing that is another testament to her and her character. 

First Watched:  2014

 Times Watched:  2.5

 Personal Database Score: 9.5

That I absolutely LOATHED the TW original and LOVED this remake is due to several factors. Primarily, the fact that the ML is a fundamentally decent human being, not the toxically misognyist jerk Ethan Ruan played. The fact that the ballerina 2FL was played by a REAL ballerina (the lovely Wang Ji Won) definitely helped, as did the fact the her character was more sinned against than sinning in another pleasing departure from the original.

I've listed this as watched 2.5 times, because the second rewatch was partial, focusing on the gut-wrenching scenes toward the end, scenes that made me cry every time. To this day, "Morning of Canon" is my alarm ringtone, a constant reminder of one of my early K favourites.