What to do with our lives???
Now the MCU marathon is over, what are we going to do with our lives???
Rehashing parts of my previous list, there are:
Barrack O'Karma - 20 Episodes of 40-ish minutes each (no English subtitles).
I mainly wanted to watch this because I don't watch enough dramas from Hong Kong. It's a comedy/horror about a security guard that works at a possibly haunted apartment building. I watched the first episode. So far, it's just average. Nothing was particularly too funny or too creepy. And I am able to get by with limited knowledge of simplified Chinese subtitles and limited knowledge of Cantonese words that sound similar to Mandarin. The videos also have a dubbed Mandarin track, but I would prefer not to use that.
Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty - 48 Episodes of 45 minutes each.
With so many detective shows, I get a little mixed up. I think this is the one that's produced by Jackie Chan so people think the fight choreography is extra good (for today's drama standards). This is also a gay source material story that was turned into regular bromance due to Chinese censorship. For me, the main draw would probably be the potentially okay fight choreography.
Joy of Life - 46 Episodes of 40-ish minutes each.
I think this is possibly a time-traveling story that had to be changed in some way due to Chinese censorship. But I don't know enough about the plot to know details of what changes there were. Basically, a modern-day person's soul/consciousness is transported into olden times. And from there, stuff happens (including some sort of chicken leg-related romance, apparently. There's also some guy that's potentially a robot:
The internet keeps talking about how this is one of the best written (story and character) dramas of last year. I vaguely watched one episode awhile back and couldn't get into it. Although I'll be honest and say that I might have been doing something else at the same time (coloring or Sudoku). The downside to this drama is that there's a second season announced (but somehow the same main cast - something is amazing!). So it's likely it ends on a cliffhanger.
And to add to the list from last time, there are:
Lost Romance - 20 episodes of 1:10 hour each.
I heard it's about this guy being shirtless at least once every episode.
The actual plot is about the FL, who is some sort of crappy romance novel editor IRL, who travels to an alternate reality where she's the villain or second FL in a crappy romance. There, she meets ML, who is the stereotypical too-cool-for-life ML of a crappy romance novel.
FL is played by Vivian Sung (Our Times) and ML is played by Marcus Chang (Cafe, Waiting, Love and Back to 1989). I like both leads to start with so I'll definitely watch this at some point. But it's still airing and the last episode airs in October.
Train - 12 episodes of an hour each.
To continue with alternate realities, there's Train. I rarely watch Korean dramas and think they're boring and overrated. But I keep trying to give them a try since they're so darn popular. So this will be my next attempt.
It's about ML that can move between alternate realities and something about trying to solve some murder with FL, who may or may not be dead in one of the realities.
Cross Fire - 36 episodes of 45 minutes each.
Alternate reality? Time travel? Stuck in a game? Who knows what the gimmick of this drama is. It's about e-sports players Lu Han and Leo Wu playing Cross Fire, which might be a real game in Asia, according to internet searches. One of them is from the present time, the other is from the early 2000's.
I watched parts of the first episode and I really like the in-game portions of the drama because I dig gun violence and shooting games (especially sniping). The episode also has some of the best fight choreography I've seen in drama in awhile (that's not saying a whole lot, because recent drama fight choreography sucks). But I'm assuming most of the drama won't be the in-game aspects. It'll probably be cross-reality bromance. And since people on MDL are always asking "is there romance?", there's romance. And modern slurry mainland China Mandarin. And one also has to put up with Lu Han's face.
And I think that's that!
I would definitely watch Lost Romance at some point, but not now since not all episodes are out yet. If length is a consideration, I would watch Train. It looks so serious, but at least it's only 12 hour long episodes so it's not a huge time commitment if it ends up sucking.
The in-game aspects of Cross Fire is compelling to me. But if I can't stand the face of one of the MLs, can I really watch 36 episodes of it?
For some reason, I just can't get excited about Joy of Life but feel I should watch it. I probably prefer Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty.
Rehashing parts of my previous list, there are:
Barrack O'Karma - 20 Episodes of 40-ish minutes each (no English subtitles).
I mainly wanted to watch this because I don't watch enough dramas from Hong Kong. It's a comedy/horror about a security guard that works at a possibly haunted apartment building. I watched the first episode. So far, it's just average. Nothing was particularly too funny or too creepy. And I am able to get by with limited knowledge of simplified Chinese subtitles and limited knowledge of Cantonese words that sound similar to Mandarin. The videos also have a dubbed Mandarin track, but I would prefer not to use that.
Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty - 48 Episodes of 45 minutes each.
With so many detective shows, I get a little mixed up. I think this is the one that's produced by Jackie Chan so people think the fight choreography is extra good (for today's drama standards). This is also a gay source material story that was turned into regular bromance due to Chinese censorship. For me, the main draw would probably be the potentially okay fight choreography.
Joy of Life - 46 Episodes of 40-ish minutes each.
I think this is possibly a time-traveling story that had to be changed in some way due to Chinese censorship. But I don't know enough about the plot to know details of what changes there were. Basically, a modern-day person's soul/consciousness is transported into olden times. And from there, stuff happens (including some sort of chicken leg-related romance, apparently. There's also some guy that's potentially a robot:
The internet keeps talking about how this is one of the best written (story and character) dramas of last year. I vaguely watched one episode awhile back and couldn't get into it. Although I'll be honest and say that I might have been doing something else at the same time (coloring or Sudoku). The downside to this drama is that there's a second season announced (but somehow the same main cast - something is amazing!). So it's likely it ends on a cliffhanger.
And to add to the list from last time, there are:
Lost Romance - 20 episodes of 1:10 hour each.
I heard it's about this guy being shirtless at least once every episode.
The actual plot is about the FL, who is some sort of crappy romance novel editor IRL, who travels to an alternate reality where she's the villain or second FL in a crappy romance. There, she meets ML, who is the stereotypical too-cool-for-life ML of a crappy romance novel.
FL is played by Vivian Sung (Our Times) and ML is played by Marcus Chang (Cafe, Waiting, Love and Back to 1989). I like both leads to start with so I'll definitely watch this at some point. But it's still airing and the last episode airs in October.
Train - 12 episodes of an hour each.
To continue with alternate realities, there's Train. I rarely watch Korean dramas and think they're boring and overrated. But I keep trying to give them a try since they're so darn popular. So this will be my next attempt.
It's about ML that can move between alternate realities and something about trying to solve some murder with FL, who may or may not be dead in one of the realities.
Cross Fire - 36 episodes of 45 minutes each.
Alternate reality? Time travel? Stuck in a game? Who knows what the gimmick of this drama is. It's about e-sports players Lu Han and Leo Wu playing Cross Fire, which might be a real game in Asia, according to internet searches. One of them is from the present time, the other is from the early 2000's.
I watched parts of the first episode and I really like the in-game portions of the drama because I dig gun violence and shooting games (especially sniping). The episode also has some of the best fight choreography I've seen in drama in awhile (that's not saying a whole lot, because recent drama fight choreography sucks). But I'm assuming most of the drama won't be the in-game aspects. It'll probably be cross-reality bromance. And since people on MDL are always asking "is there romance?", there's romance. And modern slurry mainland China Mandarin. And one also has to put up with Lu Han's face.
And I think that's that!
I would definitely watch Lost Romance at some point, but not now since not all episodes are out yet. If length is a consideration, I would watch Train. It looks so serious, but at least it's only 12 hour long episodes so it's not a huge time commitment if it ends up sucking.
The in-game aspects of Cross Fire is compelling to me. But if I can't stand the face of one of the MLs, can I really watch 36 episodes of it?
For some reason, I just can't get excited about Joy of Life but feel I should watch it. I probably prefer Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty.