Anne: I hope everyone is starting a new year peacefully, even if the change of the Chinese zodiac will not take place until February 10… so exciting! I’ve spent most of my few days off doing a lot of DIY and catching up what I can with the dramas that seem to be dropping on streaming platforms left and right. Remember the “greenhouse” I was working on in the previous post, here is the finished product.
I oriented the base of the floor wrong, but I already glued all the hardware…so the floor was forced and the roof is completely removed…but you can’t really tell until you look at it from close. And my “pride” in this little greenhouse is the LIGHT! That works!!! I had to connect the bulb to a battery…tiny wires. And my next project is a mini block garden with a waterfall and fake mountains…over 7,000 pieces…I’m only about 1/3 of the way there after 4 days.
Despite all that prep work, I also managed to squeeze in a few shows in between.
Creature from Gyeongseong
I noticed this when it showed up on my NetFlix reel, as my algorithm now has all the Asian dramas on this topic. Unlike other Korean series, all ten episodes will be completely dropped by January 5. This goes in the direction of Kingdom, where it’s a period setting with supernatural elements. This story is about Jan Tae Sang, a very rich and self-made man from Gyeongseong, where he owns a very popular pawn shop called House of Golden Treasure. (It’s a little weird that the “vault” has windows…that seems to defeat the purpose.) He’s a connections guy in a town that’s still under Japanese occupation. And what happens when he is tasked with finding a missing woman and collaborating with Yoon Chae Ok. The title says it all, it’s a “monster” story that reminds me resident Evil(which I loved… the whole series of films, even the less good ones…), and you will understand why.
The story begins with the movement of a Japanese military group from a town to Gyeongseong. As they exit the building they are occupying, the audience sees the large test tubes, each containing a worm-like creature in a clear liquid. Next we move on to Gyeongseong, where we are introduced to Jang Tae Sang, played by my favorite dominant CEO OF ALL time (Secretary Kim), Park Seo Joon and how he ended up on the wrong side of the city’s ruling military commander. He is tasked with finding this commander’s missing mistress, and his failure to accomplish this task results in the confiscation of all of his personal property and his freedom. There is therefore a strong incentive to ensure that he does not fail.
Into this town arrive Yoon Chae Ok and her father, who are experts in searching for missing people and are on the right track to find her mother who has been missing for 10 years. Let’s just say that Yoon Chae Ok is not impressed with Jang Tae Sang and only agreed to work with him as part of an information exchange. He would help them with any information he had on his mother and, in turn, they would help him locate the missing mistress.
And that brings us to the town’s military hospital, where many of the town’s missing women ended up… and it looks like the “mother” has been part of this Japanese military group ever since she disappeared. Then there is Kwon Joon Taek, Jang Tae Sang’s best friend, who is also the town’s other playboy, who secretly funds the Korean resistance to Japanese occupation and maintains romantic ties with the missing mistress (at truth be told, the “link” is rather a bit loose since he was only a client of hers until she signed up with the commander). But Kwon Joon Taek is played by the alter ego of my favorite crazy detective, Wi Ha Joon.
So far I really like it. I hope this doesn’t go the way of Kingdomwhere I’m still waiting for season 3. If you like period dramas with the resident Evilthe intrigue, the fight against monsters transformed into humans, it’s a must.
Special lady
This one is on the light side of dramatic storylines. It is a romantic comedy between Song Zhu (the FL) and Xian Yu (the ML). Song Zhu is the black sheep of the Song family and she does not possess an iota of her family’s scholarly genes. She just wants to marry the famous artist Zhou Ji.
There is a tradition when Scholar No. 1 returns to town that a family can “kidnap” this man to marry their daughter. So… in an effort to save his “second eldest brother”, Song Yan, Song Zhu helps him escape and takes his “No. 1 scholar robes” and puts them on the unlucky Xiao Yu, who just happens to be wrong. place at the wrong time.
This starts them both off on the wrong foot. And to top it all off, Song Zhu discovers that Xiao Yu is her future husband, an engagement her father arranged when she was 3 to his best friend’s son. Of course, neither wants to marry the other, and so far it’s pretty cute. Although I’m a little hesitant to watch 36 episodes. But…let’s see what happens, I can still FF.
It’s all for this week. I also started Legalist Song Ci, but I haven’t really gotten there yet, I’ll come back to it next week. I also continue Gastronomic affairs, the Taiwanese drama about the cop and his restaurant killer buddy. This reminds me a lot Let’s eat, with a criminal touch. In episode 5, the killer realizes that his dinner buddy is a cop. Let’s see where this goes.
I hope everyone is having a great start to the year. I hope I don’t drown in paperwork… and my goal this year is to win at least one major argument with QA… hahaha…