Musings of the Obsessive Kind
She's a mite whimsical in the brainpan.
Musings of the Obsessive KindShe's a mite whimsical in the brainpan. |
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| Oct. 18th, 2009 @ 07:39 pm Dangermousie's kdrama rankings post, part 3. With summaries, reasons, pics and vids | |||
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This is the latest in my series of "Dangermousie ranks all the kdramas she has ever seen" posts. I have seen over 70 kdramas and, being addicted to ranking, have decided to rank them all. (For previous posts go here.) Below the cut are dramas ranked 50-41: these are entertaining dramas worth a look: they are flawed but a nice time investment nontheless. All the dramas behind the cut are dramas I like. Some of them I like a lot. Once again, I have either finished these dramas entirely or finished enough to make up my own mind. complacent( Generals, gigolos, gangsters and gun runners under the cut: my 52-43 dramas ) Until next time, amigas! | |||
| Jun. 17th, 2008 @ 12:45 am MISA and Lobbyist: I love tough angsty guys clearly... | |||
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First off, in an attempt to get more of my flisties to check out Sorry I love you (aka MISA), I bring you these awesome MVs of it. content( Another two ) MISA is totally one of my favorite dramas now, and the whole story is about a young thug who has a limited time left to live and comes to Korea in search of his birth mother, only to discover he was 'thrown away' by a rich woman, and decides to wreak revenge on her and her family, but finds himself totally derailed by slowly falling in love with a girl who is good but quirky, odd but sweet. So he learns not just to let go of vengeance but how to be a good human being, actually...But of course it all has a fairly quick expiration date... How could you not love a plot like that? MISA is apparenly a huge thing drama-wise and rightly so, IMO. But, a word of warning: it is one of the saddest kdramas I have ever seen (but OTOH I think if you have seen/liked Tree of Heaven, A Love to Kill, Bali, Damo or Snow Queen, MISA isn't any more depressing. And I think Taiwanese drama Silence is still champion for the angstiest. It's the only drama I was never able to finish because of angst). Anyway, please watch. I want to talk about it! In other news, I finished Lobbyist!!!! Happy ending!!!! EEEEEEE! EEEEE!!!! I also loved that Maria went back to her good-hearted self. And the end with her being a teacher and Harry being there. I died. But that last phone call made me sniffle like mad ('You are my present, Harry.') And I love that she was the one to save him and sacrifice her liberty to get him away. He saved her so many times, it was only fair. I ffed through all the business/weapons/lobbying, I confess, but still overall I'd totally rec the drama (with judicious ffing if politics stuff isn't your thing). Song Il Gook is beyond gorgeous and a great actor, the story is complex and unusual, and the gender reversal of roles fascinating. | |||
| Jun. 14th, 2008 @ 08:05 pm MISA: I am dying here...And platonic sleepovers of angst... | |||
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I finished Sorry I love You. shockedI would like my heart back please. And now I also know where the name came from and...*bawl* ( Spoilers for the whole thing ) More meta later, of course, but for now have to run. This was awesome and I am still crying. | |||
| Jun. 14th, 2008 @ 06:22 pm This much angst must be causing shortages elsewhere... | |||
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Current Location: emo-land
Oh MISA (Sorry I love you).Oh. I am broken. And I am only in the middle of ep 15. (- am beginning to wonder how this can go on further for more than another 10 minutes: surely they've run out of horrible things to do to the lead!) I adore the otp with total adoration and they make me sobby and grinny and incoherent, all at once. It's so hurty-perfect precisely because neither of them is a paragon. But she teaches him how to be a human omg and the scene in the hotel and the carrying and and and... This said, I loathe every other character in this drama, other than the otp and the retarded sis and the kid. The rest I want all to diaf so badly. I hate the Mom the way I haven't hated a parental figure since Bali, an my loathing is almost visceral. Every time I see Secondary Guy, I want to drown him, and Heroine's father should be stabbed in the face. But the otp? Kills me. Kills me. I love this drama even as it rips my heart to shreds and dances a polka on the pieces. | |||
| Mar. 21st, 2008 @ 10:12 am The only thing better than a kdrama? A kdrama as anime! | |||
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I have just found what might arguably be the most awesome thing in existence. artisticThe trailer to the anime version of Manhada, Saranghanda (MISA) (OK, this is scary I can spell this off the top my head). A.k.a. Sorry I Love You. You have no idea how gleeful it made me! Now you can have your hot, unlucky, dying woobie with Mother issues who meets neglected innocent girl who makes him into a good person unfortunately only in time for him to keel over from nasty kdrama terminal illness from bullets lodged in his brain. Only in anime form! All the screaming manpain you can ever want only animated. GLEEEEEE. I have no idea if the trailer makes any sense to anyone who hadn't seen the drama, because they sort of strung some of the most famous moments from the drama into it but eeeeee! I am also amused that quasi-brother is even girlier here. For a while, I kept thinking he was actually a girl :) I wonder if they animated the shower scene. SERIOUSLY I HAVE NO WORDS. Especially since I know Winter Sonata has now been confirmed to be animated too. | |||
| Feb. 25th, 2008 @ 04:33 pm This I got to see | |||
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I need to finish Sorry I Love You (MISA) which I stopped with at ep 6. I liked it, but it was so depressing I needed a break. bouncyBut that isn't about that. Guess what: they made a MISA anime!!!!!!!!! Whaaaaaaa? Why? How come? What? Ummm, yeah. 'See Moon-Hyuk get shot in the head repeatedly, go to Korea to avenge self on abandoning mother, fall in love with girl who crushes on his stepbrother, angst all over the place for hours and writhe around on bed in pain. Oh, and conclude with some awesome death-suicide stuff. Who doesn't want to see a cartoon about that?' Yeah. I repeat, whaaaaaa? | |||
| Jan. 17th, 2008 @ 10:37 pm Oh MISA otp: you give me caring and dysfunction. What more can a fangirl ask for? | |||
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 chipper (from an earlier scene, that is nonetheless full of funny and emo. But not what this post is about) Because we are now on a day later, and I swoon so hard for something that happens, I simply must share. He knew she was going to be sick being out in the rain. So he followed her to the hovel she was staying at and spent the whole night taking care of her, when she was unconscious. Basically sponging her face all night. And only leaving her side to wake up an apothecary to get meds for her fever. Which he then spoon-fed her. OMG. And then, in the morning, when he was sure she was going to be OK, he quietly got up and left, so she never even knew he was there. Hold me. Best part? He has no idea why he is doing it, but he is totally moved by her, and I think what really gets him are the unconscious acts of kindness she performs matter-of-factly. GUH. ( Some caps of awesomeness ) ETA: Sweet but mentally dim heroine assumed it was the weeny secondary male who was kind to her unconscious self. (Why? Who knows?) Hmmmm, she is hugging secondary male, and Our Protagonist is (a)unhappy (b) snapping pictures of the hug. I bet this is for no good purpose. Give it up, young man. Rain tried it with Shin Min Ah in A Love to Kill and we all know how well it turned out for him. Btw, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lesbiassparrow, you simply MUST watch ALTK). | |||
| Jan. 16th, 2008 @ 12:46 am MISA: somehow it began to totally own me. Oh no | |||
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Somewhere in ep 4, it's like a switch flipped on and I fell madly in love with Sorry I Love You. Which, seeing that it's very upfront about its lead eventually dying in horrific fashion from bullets in brain, is probably not good. chipperI've gotten to the point of really really hoping for a miracle cure even though I've seen the ending, and also writing AUs in my head.  Not good at all. On the plus side, I have rarely seen a kdrama which fetishizes its leading man as much as MISA does So Ji Sub (who does fully desrve to be fetishized. YUM). We'll see how long I last unweepy. Oh, and the slash continues to give. Of course, Secondary Male, the thing to do with this drunk passed out guy you showered with is to bring him home to sleep it off. Not really too indicative, you say. Hah! How about the fact that when you bring said hottie home drunk, to your gigantic house with tons of extra rooms and extra sofas and beds, you put him in bed with you. WTF, oh Secondary Male? Also, I totally HATE Male Lead's mother with a passion of a thousand suns. Shut up, you whiny *****! But oooooh, Eun-Chae, the heroine, is adorable. If a total goof. Every time the OTP is together, I swoon a little. ( Picspam of the adorableness and angst in ep 4 ) You know, that is why I only watch the tragic dramas in strict moderation. I can't detach and snark. I get emotionally drawn in and thus eviscerated. village, you were right, MISA is amazing.Oh, and here is EunChae and MooHyuk shippy vid: Also, I am a bad person. I am eagerly anticipating MooHyuk seducing Secondary Male's gf away from him for revenge. | |||
| Jan. 15th, 2008 @ 11:31 am Korea goes SLASH!!!!!!!!!! With whole-hearted gusto. My God. The apocalypse is near. | |||
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OK, you know me. Usually I do not notice slash. Ever. If it's a canon same-sex relationship, I might like it or not (depending on portrayals, my overall interest in the story, etc etc, basically same as canon het ship) but slash? I almost never notice. I mean, it literally has to slap me in the face. chipperWell, guess what? Consider myself slapped.  I mean, I am sorry! Two unclothed guys. In the shower. Together. One of them deciding, in fact, to walk over to the other and start playing with soap, and then wash the other person. Loooong close-ups on said scenes. All of this right after Guy A offered to teach Guy B how to swim. Ahem. You can NOT tell me the writers did not know how this was going to come across. Where is keepaofthecheez? They are quasi-brothers, too! :)( MISA picspam of relevant scenes: now with 487 percent more slash, than all the other kdramas put together ) Oh man. KOREA. | |||
| Jan. 14th, 2008 @ 02:22 pm Moonlight and MISA. Angsty and hot | |||
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I am a bad fan. I have not yet seen the latest episode of Moonlight. Will do during the week, but they are so scarce I want to savor them. Why yes, I am a sad person. I have heard it was very good though. Y/Y? coldIn other news, I took a whole bunch of screencaps of eps 2-3 of Sorry I Love You, the one with the bullets-in-the-head vengeful Korean hottie and his diminutive OTP. If you want to see boys in pink sweaters (secondary male lead), rescues from watery grave, and more angst than that of a starving vegan in a steak-house, go behind cut. I can't guarantee lack of snark :) ( Pictures heeeeeere ) Next time, I bring you purely gratuitous swimming scenes involving teeny-tiny speedos. Korean TV knows its demographic. | |||
| Jan. 13th, 2008 @ 09:05 pm Largely about kickass female archers, Bae Yong Joon in armor and brutal medieval polo | |||
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Seeing that I am almost done with the lovely Snow White on DVD, and can take MISA only in carefully-controlled doses, on computer (I always split my dramas into computer and DVD (I usually watch one of 'each kind' at the same time...well not literally...), my DVD drama is Hotaru No Hikari, when I finish SW, but my computer drama is... cheerfulThe Legend.  The Legend is Korea's last year epic fantasy drama. For a Western viewer, the best way to describe it would be as a sort of Arthurian legend, complete with politics, swords, battles, star-crossed lovers, and a brutal medieval version of polo (!!!!). Dam Deok (played by Bae Yong Joon. It's my first BYJ drama and I think I really get the fuss now) is someone prophesied to unite fourth century Korea when he reaches adulthood. But will he even be able to survive in the cut-throat world of warring clans and court intrigue? Will he be able to fulfill his destiny? Will there be a lot of awesome battle scenes, magic, love, and hot men in armor? YOU BET. OMG. You guys. I just finished the first episode and I am in love. The first episode was solidly backstory and I didn't mind. I usually forward every epic/period drama, but here I remained glued to the screen. The first episode largely deals with what happened 2000 years before our story takes place as a head clansman tells a famous legend to his ward, an adorably tomboyish scruffy girl named Sujini (our future heroine). For a reason we find out mid-ep, the tribesmen do not want to tell this story to her at all. It is a story of the dawn of mankind, when humans were being enslaved by the Tiger Tribe, which possessed a fierce power of fire spirit, wielded by the Tiger Tribe Priestess Kajin. Lord Hwangwoong, son of the Ruler of Heaven comes down to Earth in order to put a stop to this destructiveness and to help humans. He largely establishes peace and plenty, brings powerful protective spirits down to help, and is even kind enough to heal Kajin's wounds when he comes across her in battle. He also meets a Warrior Woman Sae-Oh, and well...Gods aren't supposed to fall in love with Humans, but... Oh heck, it's kdrama, and it all goes to hell in a handbasket. But with awesome CGI. How is it relevant to our story? Well, Dam Deok is in a way a reincarnation of Lord Hwangwoong and Sujini is a reincarnation of Sae-Oh, but that's not necessarily a good thing... Normally I wouldn't care about backstory, but this first ep really held my attention. It would make a pretty good dark fairytale in itself. ( Here are tons of screencaps ) ( Two MVs ) In other news, i've been haunting the usual places for 1 Pound No Fukuin subs. I need my Kame and the Nun fix. I am going insane. | |||
| Jan. 13th, 2008 @ 01:19 am How can so much angst fit into such a relatively small country? | |||
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I really want to watch 90 Days: Falling In Love Days (also known as '90 days time to love') with Kang Ji Hwan (arguably my current favorite kdrama actor, what with Capital Scandal and Hong Gil Dong. I must make a post about the awesomeness of ep 2 of that btw) and Kim Ha Neul. chipperProblem? Unlike CS and HGD, 90 Days sounds incredibly depressing! It's one of those traditional 'everybody dies' kdramas, and I don't think I could bear to see KJH keel over. I will have hysterics. The story follows a man who learns he has 90 days left to live. He also comes across his first love again. This being a kdrama, she is his first cousin (which I don't think is incest. Marriage between first cousins is legal in 1/3 of states). This being Korea, it's not looked upon as kindly. So yes, we get two horrifically angsty situations for the price of one: terminal illness AND quasi-incestuous love. OMG. How can I? And yet how can I resist? Here is a MV: ( Spoilery MV or two ) And speaking of angsty dramas: It's some sort of a new record. I am crying in third episode of Sorry I Love You. Third!!!!. My God, I better stock up on kleenex. But when SJS is inside his mother's house, I sort of dissolved and remained so. And when he called his gf, trying to find out how long he had to live OMG. Also, I don't think I have ever hated a kdrama character before as much as I hate his mother. Not even Jo In Sung's awful father in Bali. The OTP is incredibly adorable though. I think I might not last the course with this one. I mean, if I am a wreck in ep 3, I think the whole thing might be too much for me. Screencaps coming, btw. ohhhh, I never found SJS hot before, but I do here, even if his character isn't really likeable, is he? I do feel for him horribly, though. Also, any good place to find We're Dating Now? The thought of Kwon Sang Woo AND So Ji Sub both being in a drama whether neither of them dies, loses his OTP, or otherwise goes through twenty kinds of hell at the same time in the same drama is making my head explode. | |||
| Jan. 10th, 2008 @ 10:09 am MISA ep 3: now that's a meet-cute you don't see every day | |||
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The hero and the heroine of Sorry I Love You finally have their meet-cute.* When she finds him peeing on the wall outside her house. cheerfulYes. She asks him 'oh, you are the one who rescued me in Australia?' and he is all 'nope, as I must continue being anti-social' so she moves on to business and asks him WTF is he doing. His reply 'marking my territory.'** I could not make this stuff up. Writers of MISA, you are unique and special snowflakes, indeed. I have also decided that I really dislike Secondary Male Lead. Now, he has not done anything bad, nor are we supposed to dislike him. However, he wanders across the screen in pink sweaters, searing my eyeballs. Also, his time seems to be spent evenly divided between hanging out with his even more boring girlfriend and forming a mutual admiration society with his Mother. The two of them fawn on each other so much, I am thinking Norman Bates will be proud. This SML was much cooler in Time Between Dog and Wolf, saving Lee Jun Ki with guns and babymaking with cute glasses girl. I know they are doing this to contrast the cush, loving upbringing of SML by So Ji Sub's Mom, when she ditched So Ji Sub in the gutter, but you don't have to try so hard, drama. I prefer SJS anyway. Even if he isn't house-broken. * Not their first meeting, of course. Their first meeting involved him saving her from a strip joint. Pretty kdrama. Though seeing he was the one who sold her in the first place, maybe not. ** It's the house of his birth Mom (no, the hero and heroine are not related (though I love that I need to clarify this, in drama world). Her family rents the basement and her Dad is the lady's driver), who ditched him at birth, to be brought up in poverty and eventual bullet-in-headedness only to lavish all her attention on his younger brother. Ahhh, kdrama parents. What would we do without you? This ROCKS. | |||
| Jan. 9th, 2008 @ 04:33 pm Have you hugged your dying-from-bullet-in-brain kdrama hottie orphan today? | |||
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Oh, episode 2 of Sorry I love you a.k.a. MISA is even more fun and angst-filled than the first. contentMmmmm. His many shades of emo are uniformly hot. I will not make comment on the fact that if he had head surgery, his hair would be shaved and not such lovely luxuriant locks. If Vic Zhou can die of stomach cancer in Silence looking all spiffy, this is nothing.  Oh, and our heroine practiced the monologue from Romeo and Juliet about poison and dying on Romeo's corpse. Dramatic irony must have cackled.  They are currently doing this beloved of kdramas cliche of hero and heroine passing each other unknowing. In slomo. Oh kdrama, never change! | |||
| Jan. 7th, 2008 @ 12:49 am MISA: crazy fashion, crazier people | |||
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I am in love with the first ep of Hong Gil Dong like nobody's business. This is likely to end up THE winter drama for me. Oh, and we are through ep 11 of Capital Scandal with coldfilmi_girl and I love it as much as ever.But the post is not about that. I have decided to start watching MISA (Sorry I Love You), one of the most famous kdramas out there.  MISA is a very quintessential kdrama: everyone cries and dies, but does it incredibly beautifully. Our hero, a small-time gangster, has bullets lodged in his brain, which mean certain oncoming death. He wants to avenge self on his mother, who abandoned him as a baby, but gets derailed by his love for this pure, winsome girl who is Our Heroine. I have more fully summarized it elsewhere, but kitsune714's description probably suits it best (to paraphrase): it's all these horrible things happening at once to this one very good-looking woobie. One ep in, I am most pleased as Our Hero has, in less than half an hour of screen time, proceeded to rob a hapless cute Japanese tourist girl. He then met the down-and-out heroine, who is adorable and looks 12, I swear. She was also robbed (not by him) and out of it. He proceeded to get her drunk in a sleazy strip-joint, and then 'sell' her to a skeezy guy in the bar. Walking away with no remorse whatsoever. Somehow, I do not feel too bad for his upcoming angst and demise. His gf might have ditched him because he is broke, but I would have ditched him because he is a blight on society. Not to mention that the drama makers did their best to obscure the incredibly gorgeous' So Ji Sub's exquisite bone structure with stubble and a hairdo out of a nightmare. I guess he will get hotter when he will get sicker and nicer. He has also massacred the English language quite horribly. Oh, and his smokes. Clearly the bullets are some sort of divine smiting. Still, the cinematography is breath-taking, So Ji Sub is to die for even with the haircut of doom, I like the fact that the hero genuinely needs redemption and is not a nice person, and I like that the heroine is sweet and so tiny she doesn't even reach his shoulder. ETA: And he came back and rescued her. YES. When he grabs her hand and they are running, it's GORGEOUS. (And famous. That is the scene Delightful Girl Chun-Hyang parodied so brilliantly). And she made fun of his haircut. And the characters are dirt-broke, which is really unsual for a kdrama. And he held her at night. And gave her his coat. When they slept in the dumpster. And she woke up to find he got her suitcase back for her. And as I said, the cinematography is arguably the most beautiful in a drama I have ever seen. And the soundtrack is to die for. The fun has begun! ( Episode 1 in five minutes. In screensaps ) Where is lesbiassparrow when you need her? This promises screaming manpain by the gallon. And loving it and mocking it in equal measure.Oh, So Ji Sub, you emoting woobie! I can't wait until your Cain and Abel, where you play a mob assassin in love with the same girl your separated-at-birth brother, who is a cop, is. I would, however, pay good money to see you in a comedy. Please. Also, Australia is clearly a scary country where you are totally threatened, mugged, robbed, almost raped, and etc. Somehow I managed to avoid it while there, but clearly, it's a scary scary place. | |||
| Nov. 5th, 2007 @ 09:48 am I am sorry I love you casts its manpainy spell | |||
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Somebody talk me out of checking out I am sorry I love you (MISA). coldMISA is a super-super famous, super-super popular Korean drama from a few years ago. It's also so depressing, by the sound of it, that it makes What Happened in Bali seems like a joyful walk through the park (I've seen Vic Zhou's Silence compared to it, and if you were around when I watched Silence, you remember that a. I cried like a baby and b. I skipped all the middle part because I was too upset). MISA stars So Ji Sub (does he ever get to live in his dramas? Seriously. This, Bali, and his upcoming one, Cain and Abel, which I really want to see, but he plays a mob assassin, so I don't think he has good living prospects in that one) and Im Soo Jung. But the story sounds like such emo crack. As kitsune714 put it, it's all these horrible things happening at once to this one very good-looking woobie (paraphrase). Our poor hero: (1) He was abandoned by his parents as a kid. Now he is in Australia, as a small-time scam artist. (2) He meets our adorable heroine, Song Eun Chae, when she in Australia with her long-time friend and crush, a Korean singer (who doesn't see her that way). The heroine gets robbed and SJS saves her and returns all her stuff and she spends the night with him (not that way). (3) At an ex-gf's wedding, our poor hero is shot in the head (!!!!!!!) by accident. It can't really be removed, so he has only a year to live. Let's sum it up: he is an ex-gangster, he is dying, and his gf married someone else. Think it's going to get better? Nope. (4) He goes to Korea to find parents who abandoned him. His mother is a famous actress who has a son who is...the Korean singer in (2). (5) He decides to plan and bring revenge on them but he falls in love with Eun Chae, instead. Did I mention that his 'brother' needs a heart transplant? This is pure, pure, pure crack. I mean, we have evil families, heroic and doomed hero, revenge, angsty love etc etc? Perfect. lesbiassparrow, this promises to be chock-full of screaming manpain. Are you in?Here is a MV: ( A couple other vids ) | |||
| Aug. 13th, 2007 @ 04:55 pm Korean drama glee... | |||
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OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! chipperGot this from soompi. The Hong Sisters, the screenwriters for My Girl and Delightful Girl Chun-Hyang, two of my all time favorite dramas (I haven't seen their Fatnasy Couple yet so can't comment), are doing another drama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To be aired in November 2007. To be called Hong Gil Dong With Joo Ji Hoon (Shin in Goong aka someone who makes dangermousie swoon like she is five).OMG. OMG. Few dramas are as good at making you both giggle and cry, and be off-kilter witty and swoonily romantic as DGCH and MG. To have (hopefully) another one this good, and with JJH? I am so GLEEFUL. Apparently, there is a great deal of speculation in the soompi thread about the topic for the drama. HGD is apparently Korean version of Robin Hood, during Joseon Days. So people are wondering whether it will be a period drama or something like DGCH which is a modern riff on the classic story. Please be the latter, please! ETA: Ooooh, it's confirmed it's a period one. And supposed to be a light-hearted take on the original tragic story. Not surprising as it's Hong Sisters after all. Though this being kdrama, their 'light-hearted take' is still going to have more angst than a hungry vegetarian in a steakhouse. Also, someone. Please talk me out of watching Sorry I love you (also known as MISA). I mean, it's supposed to be ridiculously angsty even by kdrama standards. The protagonist was abandoned by his mother, and he has been shot, but not fatally, but the bullets are lodged in his brain and he has months only to live. And his gf (for whom he took those bullets) ditches him. And he falls in love with another girl but can't have her because he is dying. And he is too emo to even avenge self on his mom. And he is played by the ridiculously hot So Ji Sub. Someone, stop me. Please. Finally, Bae Yong Joon's 24-ep period/fantasy drama is going to air in September. YESSS. Poster:  | |||