So before I get going on my month, there was so much new stuff in the other post that I completely forgot one of the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS that happened in the last few days - Lee Jin-ki (better known to most as Onew) from SHINee came back from hiatus. He did it spectacularly, too, leaving SM for a brand new agency for his solo work at the same time, then hitting us with photos, videos and all sorts of interesting upcoming stuff. He looks so good, and healthy. Look at him 👀😍
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| ❤️My beautiful ult ult bias Onew ❤️ |
So back to March and here's a look at how my listening went according to LastFM.
The one thing that listening to so much music does is reduce the overall number of times I listen to individual songs. I spend so much time trying to get through the playlist (March's had 1,208 songs) and working out my top 3s each month that apart from a couple of playlists that I play pretty regularly (most of my Receiptify top 10 come from them) I don't really have time to build up lots of listens to a particular track (except when I'm streaming tracks for one of my favourite bands or if I really love one). So while I may have only listened to a track a few times, if it's made my top 10 most listened to tracks be assured I love it and would listen to it more if I could.
Talking of Receiptify, there were a few brand new entries last month, and I expect more for April as there are a few songs from March that, despite what I said above, I really can't stop playing, although nowhere near as much as I could do without all the pesky new music to get through.
- Chinese
- English
- Korean
- Fake Japanese (Non-Japanese bands singing in Japanese)
- Japanese
- Other (this takes in Filipino, Thai etc.)
Concerts etc.
I didn't get to go out much in March, so I haven't been very good at my resolution to spend more time outside the house, but we did get to see the comedian Bill Bailey early in the month.
As mentioned in an earlier post, there was disappointment that iKON, who I was due to see at the end of March cancelled their concert. But, I was lucky enough instead to see Eric Nam perform his sold-out show at Hammersmith as he decided to livestream it. And excellent it was, too.
Dramas
As I had listened to so much music, I had almost a week off to watch drama because I needed a complete break. As I was bingeing, I got through quite a lot.
Korean Drama
I finished 2 dramas that I had been following weekly. I enjoyed both a lot.
Love Song For Illusion - This was one of my favourite dramas of the year so far. It stars Park Ji Hoon as a Crown Prince, who due to trauma in his early life, gets taken over by an evil spirit, which emerges every time he sleeps. I thought his portrayal of the dual personalities fighting for supremacy was masterfully done and kept me engaged and wanting to see more. It was a romantic drama, with both personalities falling for and fighting over the same girl (a princess turned assassin who wants to kill the Crown Prince played by Hong Ye Ji) but for me, the romance took second place over the prince's battle with himself.
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| Park Ji Hoon as Crown Prince Sajo Hyun/Ak Hee |
I have huge problems with crossdressing dramas and rarely manage to finish them as the 'man' is always far too pretty and clearly female. This was the case with this drama too, but Jo Jung Suk's performance as the tortured monarch was enough to keep me watching.
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| Shin Sae Kyeong and Jo Jung Suk |
Branding in Seongsu - a hard-nosed and highly successful marketing team leader with no friends (Kim Ji Eun) swaps bodies with her easygoing and cute intern (Lomon) after an incident that almost leaves them both dead. Annoyingly, they find they have to work together to unravel the mystery of who tried to kill her and return to their own bodies.
The episodes were short so although there were 24 it had a similar run time to a normal drama. I originally picked it up because I kept hearing the OSTs from it, and they were good, but stayed because the story flowed well, with decent cliffhangers. I thought both leads did an excellent job, especially when they were portraying each other's characters, and there was a nice little mystery to solve.
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| Which one is the bad guy? |
I also watched a couple of shorter dramas.
A Shop for Killers - A college student (Kim Hye Joon) suddenly finds herself under attack from hordes of deadly assassins after being informed that her quiet and mysterious uncle (Lee Dong Wook), with whom she lived after her parents died, has apparently taken his own life. She has to use the bizarre training he gave her in her formative years if she wants any hope of surviving long enough to find out what's going on.
I quite enjoyed the drama as it was a real romp with an interesting premise, albeit extremely violent, but the ending was something of a letdown for me. I understand that there may be a second series, but I would have preferred that they made it slightly longer and wrapped it up properly in one. Also, one particular element made absolutely no sense whatsoever, really annoyed me, and almost ruined the entire show for me.
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| Don't trust any of these people (not even Lee Dong Wook) 😂 |
This is, quite frankly, one of the most bonkers K-dramas I've ever seen. It was adapted from a webtoon and they went all out to follow it as closely as possible (while webtoon adaptations are extremely popular in Korea they usually try to make them more realistic and take out the really crazy stuff). They also stuffed the drama with the cream of the K-drama world, some of them only for a cameo a few minutes long, and somehow it works. It is proper laugh-out-loud hilarious in places, emotional and thought-provoking in others. It's a real rollercoaster of a ride. I told Quincy the bare bones of the plot as I was watching it and she said it was a lot. She was right, it was. I think my emoji response to another friend who was also watching and asked what I thought, sums it up: 😂😵💫🥴🤣.
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| Do NOT eat those chicken nuggets! |
Obviously, I dived into some older romantic comedy dramas that I'd always meant to watch but never got around to.
The Secret Life of My Secretary - Jung Gal Hee (Jin Ki Joo) works as a secretary to a handsome, intelligent, but perfectionist boss (Kim Young Kwang) with a heart of stone and a distrust of everyone, who never keeps his secretaries for longer than a year. After an accident leaves him with face blindness with everyone but his secretary, he finds himself needing to rely on her - unfortunately, he had just sacked her. Gal Hee finds herself falling in love with her boss, but a case of mistaken identity jeopardises her position, while at the same time pushing the two of them closer together.
This was a proper classic-style romantic K-drama with all the tropes but with such nicely drawn characters I couldn't help but be drawn in. The second couple (Kim Jae Kyung and Koo Ja Sung), who can often be an annoying distraction from the leads, were so good you found yourself rooting for them too. It was an easy watch and I felt it was well worth the time I spent on it. There was an interesting side plot too, but it ended up being sadly underutilised and I kept wishing they would go back to it and cover it properly.
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| He likes her really |
Although this is a well-loved series, there is often criticism that the leads are too young-acting for the age they are supposed to be, and Cha Eunwoo, in particular, has no range (it was one of his early roles). However, I thought they perfectly captured the characters who were naive in their own ways, had no experience of dating, and in the female lead's case had zero self-confidence, even though she was beautiful. Instead of the light and fluffy romance I had expected, I was surprised that it highlighted some serious issues, looking at them to explain that everyone has problems, and not skipping over them or making them seem less problematic, and I found it a satisfying watch.
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| Beauty really is more than skin-deep |
Chinese Drama
I also managed to fit in a couple of short (very short in one case) Chinese dramas.
Sweet Trap - Jiang Jie (Xie Bin Bin) is a talented young chef whose abilities have taken him to the pinnacle of Chinese cuisine, earning him the prized five-star kitchen knife. But his desires are bigger, coveting an even larger prize. Li Nai (Zhang Miao Yi) is the disciple of the chef Jiang Jie robbed of his knife. Determined to restore her master's honour, she hatches a plan to work in his kitchen and penetrate his inner circle to learn enough about him to beat him at his own game. But Jiang Jie is determined to prove once and for all that he is peerless when it comes to Chinese cuisine.
This was a sweet and generally unstressful watch, with decent chemistry between the leads.
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| Such sweet chefs |
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| 5 people and a mystery |
Japanese Drama
Finally, as if all that wasn't enough, I also watched a Japanese drama, called Unnatural. This is a medical mystery show, in which the Unnatural Death Institute (UDI) conduct autopsies to establish the true cause of death when earlier investigations are disputed. It follows a case-of-the-week format but also has a through strand.
I originally watched it because I heard that it was being remade as a K-drama and wanted to see the original before it comes out. I thought the show was interesting and well-made, but as with most Japanese dramas, there was something I had a hard time connecting with. I don't think it helped that it was realistic in showing the problems in Japanese society (still highly patriarchal as most Asian countries appear to be) and seeing the female coroner get criticised for doing her job because she's a woman, or worse still, not being believed because of it was extremely annoying, and it continued to grate long after the series finished. I will watch the Korean version when/if happens to see how they adapt it.
Books
With everything else going on I didn't have much time for reading, but a trip to the launderette and sorting the washing before and after gave me time to listen to the 11th and most recent Jack Nightingale book by Stephen Leather. Called Rio Grande Night, it follows Jack as he travels to Mexico on the pretext of looking for some missing American students, while also checking out supernatural happenings in a small border town, that may or may not be related both to the disappearances and Proserpine, the Princess of Hell he's had regular contact with throughout the series.
I always enjoy these books, but the last few have been missing something that was present in the earlier books. I can't put my finger on it, but I wonder whether it might be because they're now taking place in the USA, and Jack is a quintessentially English copper and seemed to fit better into his home country. However, I enjoyed this book more than the last, despite the supernatural factor decreasing in importance and a rushed ending that offered little in the way of a surprise. I will happily read the next should the author decide to continue the series.
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Okay, well, this took far longer than anticipated, so I'm going to end here and go and watch some more K-drama. Currently, I'm rewatching Hwarang, which was one of the first few K-dramas I ever watched. I only remember that it starred a lot of pretty boys and was quite cheesy, with a great bromance and a terrible love triangle, but I'm actually enjoying it so far. Obviously, it's exactly what I need right now.
Hopefully, next month I'll be a bit more timely with the update, but who knows.
Have a final Onew before I go.
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| I am so happy he is back and healthy - now I just need to hear him sing again |
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