To be honest, I don't really have much to say but thought I should make a note that I actually left the house (for the first time since before Christmas).
Qunicy and I finally decided to get our arses in gear and get to the cinema to see Wonka before it disappears to home cinema (I was reliably informed by several people that I should see it on the big screen rather than on the TV). We both had a wonderful time and enjoyed it very much - I do love a musical. We also got to have a cheap meal at Pizza Express thanks to an early birthday pizza gift from them and app rewards.
Alas, I now have a craving for some decent chocolate (or any chocolate would do quite frankly) but I don't have any in the house as I finished the few I bought for Christmas. I do still have some Turkish Delight left but it's the traditional rose and lemon rather than chocolate-covered and it's not what I want.
I have been busy working on my end-of-year lists - honestly, I haven't forgotten, it's just a heck of a lot of songs to re-listen to so I can put them in favourites order. Plus, of course, I'm listening to January's songs as they're released, and if you've checked out the playlist recently (pinned at the top) you'll know it's already got 245 songs on it. To give you an idea of how it's going, according to Lastfm I have listened to 1,931 tracks so far this year.
I have had a bit of a break from the lists for a few days as I thought I should catch up, and in some cases finish, some of the K-dramas I was watching last year. So here's a quick breakdown of what I finished:
The second part of Death's Game (Amazon split it into 2 parts for what reason I have no idea, except to annoy me, probably - it was only 8 episodes in total) - which I absolutely loved. I thought the drama was clever and thought-provoking, and although a little mawkish at the end (as it was always going to be) it covered difficult subjects well. It also had a stellar ensemble cast with all the various lives Seo In Guk re-lived during his attempt to outwit Death. For me, it was probably the best drama he's ever done and I look forward to even more challenging roles for him in the future.
The Story of Park's Marriage Contract - this too was a good watch and it made a nice change to have someone coming forward in time rather than going back to the Joseon era. However, for me, it fell apart in the last episode because of the requirement to have a 'happy ever after', which was pretty impossible to achieve effectively, given the premise of the leads living in two different eras rather than it being a straight reincarnation story. I do understand why some people need this type of ending, but I thought it was a bit too ridiculous and would personally have preferred the bittersweet ending that gave the story the heart (no pun intended) it needed. However, overall the performances were good and the leads had nice chemistry for the romance side, so I did enjoy it a lot and would recommend it as long as you don't think about the plot too hard.
A Good Day to be a Dog - I watched this because of the cast. It was cute and fun and Cha Eunwoo is always nice to look at. It has a pretty crazy premise - about a girl from a cursed family who, when she's kissed for the first time, turns into a dog every night between midnight and 6am until she gets another kiss in dog form from the same person who kissed her. If there's no second kiss within 100 days she will remain a dog forever. This should be relatively easy as she's a cute puppy and a pretty girl, but her kisser has a pathological fear of dogs. Cute really is the best word for this series.
The Matchmakers - I always have a problem with Rowoon in period dramas as I'm not sure he's a good match for them; for me, he seems better in a suit and tie than a hanbok and gat. However, he did have an interesting role as a widowed prince working with the best Matchmaker in the area (a widowed noblewoman in disguise) to arrange the marriages of several old maidens, who are stopping the Crown Prince from being able to marry. This did take me a little while to warm up to, and having stopped to do music and Christmas I had to force myself to watch the last few episodes. But it was a solid period drama with a good cast and a decent story, and they handled the ending quite well. I am glad I watched the whole thing (which can't be said for some dramas last year).
I also watched a short C-drama called An Ancient Love Song. It is a clever little story (14 episodes at about 20 minutes each once the music either end and flashbacks are removed) that you can watch either from start to finish or finish to start (or both) depending on whose story you want to follow. It, like the Story of Park's Marriage Contract, deals with a relationship between two people living a thousand years apart. It's not a big-budget production and the cast isn't well known, but it had extremely good reviews last year among watchers of that type of drama, so I thought I would check it out as I had a couple of hours to spare and I really enjoyed it. It does tug at the heartstrings though because it's a bit more grounded in reality and doesn't force a happy ending that you know could never happen.
I have 2 more dramas that I'm waiting for the last few episodes (I think they're both due to finish next weekend). These are My Demon which, if it continues as it has so far, will probably be my favourite of the romance dramas and My Man is Cupid, which I would be enjoying far more if I didn't really dislike the female lead, who is stupid and vain (I guess Nana is doing a great job, unless you're not supposed to consider her that). Poor Cupid deserves someone far better than her as a love interest. However, there is a murder plot which I want to see resolved (I did hope the FL would be killed, I honestly dislike her that much) and while I don't think it will happen, as there needs to be a HEA with the leads unfortunately, I would love to see Cupid get his wings back and return to doing his job rather than mooning over this awful woman who, in my opinion, pretty much deserves the original fate given to her (which was to fall in love with the king/policeman who is not the nicest man in the world).
I am trying not to get too sidetracked from music until I've done my lists but I have started 2 new dramas too as they both looked interesting and were ones I'd probably end up seeing spoilers about (as I did with My Demon unfortunately).
One is a modern drama called Marry My Husband, about a woman suffering from incurable cancer who discovers her husband and best friend are having an affair. They accidentally kill her, but she somehow comes back to life ten years earlier - just before her marriage. She realises that time will play out again and she'll end up ill and maybe dead but if she can change elements she may survive, so she sets out to get her awful and bitchy best friend married to her truly horrible husband. So far, it's extremely entertaining and I have high hopes for the rest of the series.
The other is a period drama called Love Song For Illusion. It's about a Crown Prince who is battling with a split personality and his relationship with a young assassin princess, who is trying to kill the royal family because the King killed her family to take the throne. This has only just started but I very much enjoyed the first couple of episodes and am interested to see where it's going to go.
I'm off now as this took far longer than I originally expected and I'm shortly going to be watching a rerun of the TVXQ! 20+2 anniversary concert, which I watched live on New Year's Eve. I've then got a Lee Junho (2PM) concert at 8am. I might also play a bit of Hogwarts Legacy between the two.
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