Profile: Drama: Falling Into Your Smile (你微笑时很美) Country: China Episodes: 31 Aired: Jun 23, 2021 – Jul 15, 2021 Aired On: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday Original Network: LINE TV, Tencent Video, Youku Duration: 45 min
Plot: Tong Yao joins the all-male ZDGX OPL team, replacing Ming, and becomes the first female professional esports player. ZDGX team leader, Lu Si Cheng, at first didn’t accept her, but they slowly grow close.
Main Cast: Xu Kai – Lu Si Cheng Cheng Xiao – Tong Yao Zhai Xiao Wen – Jian Yang
Review: Somehow i always end up watching esports themed drama even though I’m not a fan of esports. But i appreciated the esports players after watching this drama. Didn’t realize they also do a lot of trainings. I just thought they were naturally talented.
I liked getting a peek into the good and bad sides of the industry. I think it’s the same as with showbiz where fans, rumors and fake news can make or break you. Fans dont own the players and we should respect them and their personal lives. You are watching esports because of the sport and the player who is good at the sport. It shouldn’t matter who the person was dating or doing unless it’s something illegal.
I like the ZGDX team and their friendship. Accepting Tong Yao as the only female player in the team. They also fight and argue a lot but they all grow and learn better.
I also liked that they showed the different teams and their sportsmanship with one another. The ending when Tong Yao won the championship and everyone (not just ZDGX) was cheering and praising her skills (even the ex boyfriend who at first was annoying).
I found the romance cute from the first time they met until they got together around ep 21 or 22. One of the cutest confession scene when the kitty came out of Cheng’s jacket, and Tong Yao was so happy she hugged Cheng. (I would have done the same 😁).
I wanted Tong Yao to be more responsive during the kiss scenes. She always looked wide eyed and wasn’t playful like Cheng. So it felt like Cheng liked her more than she did and the kissing didnt look natural. Which was too bad because there were a lot of kissing scenes and Xu Kai was too hot to not kiss!
Unfortunately, I got bored starting ep 23 and was fast forwarding to finish. I didnt like the forced issue with Cheng as the captain.
Show: Physical 100 (피지컬: 100) Genres: Sports Tags: Physical Ability, Survival Show, Competition, Wrestling, Reality Show (Vote or add tags) Country: South Korea Type: TV Show Episodes: 9 Aired: Jan 24, 2023 – Feb 21, 2023 Aired On: Tuesday Original Network: Netflix Duration: 55 min.
Review: This korean reality show gathered 100 of the strongest athletes, bodybuilders, fitness trainers, etc to find the perfect body.
There were 5 quests they had to go through. Pre quest is hanging on to the bars. 1st quest is one on one death match which cut the contestants down to 50.
2nd quest is the sand bags race which further cut down the contestants to 25. Survival round gave 5 losers from the sand bags race a chance to get back into the game.
3rd quest is pulling the 1.5 ton yacht to shore which trimmed down the contestants to 20. 4th quest was 5 different mythology games and the winner of each game became the top 5 contestants.
The final quest was a set of 4 games that focused on strength, stamina, endurance and balance.
I thought the games were reasonable and not too complex. Every person even the females had equal chance of winning the game even against the bigger and bulkier opponents.
I love all the contestants, i didnt have a clear favorite, and i didn’t mind who wins coz they were all winners. I love that they are all competitive and displayed good sportsmanship, even when they lose. They also supported and cheered for each other. They had dignity, tenacity and willpower. And they all had fun.
My only comment was the title of the show is physical but in the end, it was the mental and emotional strength of the contestant that won the game.
The top 5 were unexpected, as well as the ultimate winner, but that’s why the show was interesting coz you never know who will win.
Profile: Title: Super Junior: The Last Man Standing Genre: Documentary Date Released: January 18, 2023 No. of Episodes: 2 Channel: Disney+
Review: This is a must watch for ELFs and newbies who want to learn more about this legendary kpop group.
There are 2 episodes, first episode focused on their training, pre-debut upto 2nd album.
Second episode started with Sorry Sorry and launching their global success. But it felt they rushed the episode by cramming the rest of their 15 years in less than 1 hour episode!!
They could have added third episode focusing on after everyone came out of the army, their new albums, how it felt like competing with the younger generation, what their future goals are.
Wished there were more songs, concerts, music videos shown to see their growth. Wished they also focused on all their achievements too not just one or two. And they could have also gotten more industry experts to talk about their fame and influence. And i dont think everyone got to say their final words in the docu. But i loved how they included some ELFs and their thoughts about being a fan.
As Siwon said, they last because of their trust and respect for one another, and all of them wants to be Suju forever. Yes, Leeteuk, when we all die, we will have SuperShow in Paradise 🥰
ProfileTitle: 第9節課 English title: Lesson in Love Genre: Romance, youth Episodes: 12 Broadcast network: iQiyi, EBC Broadcast period: 2022-Dec-11 to 2023-Jan-08 (iQiyi) 2022-Dec-11 to 2023-Jan-15 (EBC) Air time: 12:30 (iQiyi), 20:00 (EBC)Country: Taiwan Language: Mandarin
Plot: A forbidden love between a high school student and his teacher results in secrets being revealed about the past, and a stalker that threatens the relationship and their lives.
Main Cast Tiffany Hsu – Chen Meng Yun Edward Chen – Zheng Yi Xiang Simon Hsueh – Li Da Wei Ivy Yin – Xie Shu Fen
Review Thought i’m open minded when it comes to relationships but this one really tested me!
The drama was addicting because the topic is taboo and there were a lot of twists along the way. The first 6 eps weren’t easy to watch and I wasn’t sure why I was still watching. Not because it was bad, but because I was uneasy seeing a high school guy bullying his teacher and also harassing her to like him, while the teacher wasn’t doing anything to stop his advances and seems like she liked it too! Ep 7-9 made me feel uncomfortable coz I thought although it’s not a crime to fall in love, it felt too inappropriate for the teacher to fall in love with a high school student. Couldn’t they have waited until he graduated before they started anything? Ep 10-12 added a stalker storyline to already stressful events, which I thought wasn’t really needed.
To be honest, it’s tough to like the couple, Mengyun and Yixiang given the circumstances. But I admire them for fighting for what they want. If I were Mengyun’s friend, I would have told her to stop or wait, instead of her nurse friend who was even egging her to snag the hot young blood. Are they really teachers??? I also didn’t feel any passion in all their steamy scenes because I look at the guy and all I see is him wearing his high school uniform in every scene, reminding us that he is still a boy. And an adult should not be messing around with a kid!!! But later on, his father telling his son that he was ok with the relationship also made me think. He’s right, the more they try to stop them, the more the kid will rebel. And it’s better to accept them so they won’t further hide what they were doing and they can monitor their relationship.
However, I didn’t like the way Mengyun was written. From the start her decisions and actions have been terrible. We don’t always know what she is thinking or feeling because she has one expression. What did she like about Yixiang? He was bullying her, humiliating her in front of the class, almost sexually harassing her, and she kept telling the other teachers that it wasn’t like that, he wasn’t harassing her etc. Maybe it’s really true what they say. If you don’t like the person, he/she is a stalker, but if you like the person, it was sweet and romantic! And then just because he had a puppy love, he starting cleaning up his act, walking her home, going on cute dates, she easily fell in love. If she didn’t find out that they could be potentially siblings, she probably wouldn’t even stop to think what am I doing with a kid when all my friends are getting married and having kids? I really can’t imagine, but hey she seems happy so be it. But she should have resigned even before it became public because it was really unethical. Another thing is I get that she is angry and wants revenge from Yixiang’s mom, but if you look at it reasonably, the mom was an adult when she started the affair with the dad (not that it excuses her actions), but you don’t get revenge by doing the same thing to a kid. She knew the trauma she kept all these years, and if it turned out badly, Yixing could also be scarred and traumatized by her too!
I really hated the mom at the start but in the end, I actually liked her even more than the FL. She had the most growth in the drama. Still doesn’t excuse all the bad things she did and I understood she tried to protect her son from an adult trying to get her revenge and hurt her son. if I had a child and he was having an affair with the teacher, I probably would also try to stop it from happening too. But not the lying and trying to get the teacher fired through power abuse. Or on second thought, maybe I would be the cool mom and say, okay you can date after you graduate from high school. But do not get her pregnant now. Oh and also if the teacher is younger than me!! i can’t have a daughter/son in law older than me! lol!
The whole stalker thing was unnecessary and obvious but can’t believe they didn’t figure it out! Probably because they were too busy with themselves. When Dawei showed up in her hometown just as she was taking her vacation, it was too creepy and Mengyun should have seen all the red flags!!! Also, I didn’t like that the ending was written in a way that they’re forced to forgive or sweep everything under the rug after the stalker. Like thank you, my son almost died but you saved him and for that I will accept you as my son’s girlfriend. I think without the accident, the mom would still be fighting with her son and be totally against Mengyun, which I think is more realistic than showing all is well after 6 years. Also, I’m sad that it seemed like Mengyun ended up being a stay at home wife/girlfriend (not that it’s bad) but I wished they showed her still being confident and successful despite the initial scandal. She literally took what Yixiang said that he will protect her and support her if she waits for him.
KDrama Dreaming 