We Watch Challenge 2024

6th Challenge Completed - HIStory 3: Trapped

I recommend jenn to watch Hanging On

Hi there again, This is one of my fav sitcom, it was quite funny. I watched it just on a whim and didn't expect to enjoy it that much. If sitcom is not your genre, message me anytime for replacement. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Couldn't find a better resolution pic :(

Accepted Sweetsis_warriors's recommendation - Under the Skin

Status - Completed - (7.0/10)

Under the skin, yet another drama that I paused at Ep-6 this year. ? Finally, completed it today. Irregularly paced, slow in the beginning rushed at the end.
At first glance, plot intrigued me the most, which showcased forensics science and art as a major subject in investigation and crime analysis. I'm not at all versed in art and literature but medical science, forensic science or sciences in general are my point of interest, so I found this to be of my interest where supposedly I get to know the use of art in forensic sciences. This being the unique aspect of the drama, they did really well weaving it into investigation perspective and/or procedures. The way some cases were represented by certain paintings was interesting. I really admire the hard work they put into detailing artistic aesthetics. Tan Jian Ci did complete justice to the artist Shen Yi.
Individualistic portrayals of characters were well done esp. by Jian Ci (Shen Yi) and Shi Jia (Du Cheng) but I found chemistry lacking until the last few eps. They had a past rift so it's understandable for Du Cheng to not be favourable towards Shen Yi in the beginning but as he grew to admire his work and dedication to right his wrong (technically he was not in the wrong but still) their chemistry didn't came out well. They were like two parallel train tracks crossing once in a while.
Support characters were there just to be there, little to no contribution to the plot. I understand the fact that they want to bring in art as basis of investigation but they overdid it. It felt like they were implying that without Shen Yi police were doing nothing, him and only him can solve the cases. That's also the main reason chemistry felt lacking to me because it was rather acknowledgement of one character than teamwork. They made his character extremely perfect that he can do everything on his own and others weren't even needed there. He has his own demons he was fighting but still he knows everything except for firing a gun.?
There were questionable logics and plot-holes that irked me a lot. Like who rescued Shen Yi first time? .. when doc told him to experience same event to treat his retrograde amnesia I was dumbfounded as he almost drowned in previous case and it didn't do a thing .. ?? Also, there were inconsistencies in how they represented science and technology.
You get to see the character development of both our main characters in last few episodes, apart from that everything from plot to characters were monotonous.
Cases that were dealt with were more or less predictable, even the main arc which was supposed to be the basis of the story. Only the He Hong arc was interesting. It was nice to see how they took the dive into mental state and stories of the victimised perpetrators, we get to see a lot of atrocities faced by people in real life from sexual assault to fraud to domestic violence to acceptance everything but they turned every criminal into victim which didn't set well with me. (as said earlier monotonous)
On technical aspects, editing wise it was good, transitions were smooth but with direction I think they tried so hard to make it suspenseful. Cinematography was surely top notch, maybe because art was centre of attraction. SFX wasn't something unique but blends with tone of drama and makes a good intro. Sorry to say but cliffhangers were not really cliffhangers.?

Probably a 6.0 but for all the efforts of an artist. ?

3rd challenge completed

Skyline 

I recommended you being a hero-   It is a Chinese drama (crime) about an individual who wants to avenge his father's death so have to find a person called k

Blood- It's a Korean drama ( medical) about a vampire who wants to turn human. It will use a lot of medical terms but is a great watch. There will be a little bit of romance.

under the Skin- It's a Chinese drama(crime) that explores how art is used to catch criminals and is vital when CCTV fails the police.

Open for recommendations but no longer than 20 episodes 

I accept 3 nen a gumi- it was excellently played out as I learned so much about the society that everyone likes to keep hidden and how it can affect others 

10th challenge complete

JulyMoon, I am going to recommend two different shows because the first one is more deep/introspective/quiet, the other a more classic romcom. I got one from each, your watchlist and the challenge list.

Lost aka Human Disqualification is your quiet, somewhat somber slow burn story that you can actually read the synopsis (I translated it from the network’s summary and director’s stated purpose/intention I read) to understand how the main characters feel without knowing much about them. It is 80% character development, 20% plot… It DOES have a FL who is depressed after an event tragic for her occurs, but we don’t see that event present day. Its purpose, though, is healing and finding their way. Cinematography is some of the best, as is the use of silence that a few times had me stop breathing and hold my body completely still it was so powerful for me. If you want something with depth and healing with thoughtful characters who are the least likely to ever have anything to do with each other, it is a good pick. 

Welcome to Samdalri also has healing at the forefront, but it has the opposite tone/feel entirely-it is a romcom with slice of life vs slice of life being the central genre like Lost. Childhood friends who became lovers and never get over each other (but have some family grief keeping them apart), a small town setting where the FL, after a career upheaval from a scandal where she was falsely accused of harassing an employee), returns home where her mother is a haenyo (diver) and she has two sisters with their own drama (plenty of bromance and sismance), friendship between 4 who grew up together… there is a love triangle and a cheating ex who regrets it and becomes a bit of a pest, fair warning, but the triangle is not very pervasive from my memory and resolves pretty quickly. I didn’t see Hometown Cha Cha Cha in your list, but the setting and townspeople feel very similar. 

Open for recs, Japan, Taiwan, or Hong Kong especially welcome!  As always, up for anything (up to 30 hours long) so long as there is a solid storyline and no dubbing. I need mouths to match the audio to enjoy it! Ignore my PTW since it is not at all indicative of my taste. My completed list is infinitely better for figuring out what I like (sort it by rating for ease). Any genre, any country, “normal“ or weirdly wonderful, it is all welcome! :)

I accept jenn’s recommendation for The Eclipse!

RATING/feedback: I hovered between a 7.5&8 for this but gave it an 8 because of the acting and detailed coming out story portrayal. It’s “mystery” was a bit lacking, the scenario far less solidly crafted than the characters, and some of the message I feel was intended about schools and society pressuring teens to conform to norms/expectations, “rules” that filled a board but only really explored fashion choices and disruption when so much more could’ve been included in the same time make the complex issues of teens feel as intense and taxing in adolescents as they are in their age of self-identification. The “curse” felt a bit ghost story-ish (throwing the quiet class president in there for the opposite reason of the lead seemed a little jarring, too, coming out of nowhere and not really feeling authentic bc so little time was spent on his transition from onlooking neutral to protest attendee and suddenly inciter of stronger protests) and toward the end as they reveal the problems of the two adults who’ve been there the longest, several things felt too quickly explained (like mental illness-the lead who was breaking down midway showcased that pressure fantastically, the chemistry of the main couple especially powerful, but it felt rushed as it closed out though the tie in with Mes, the former student, who was dealing with depression/failing to adapt was solid, just … it, the koala shortstop lead’s uncle, and other details were given very brief bits of time that could’ve benefited from better tying together of everything. Rules and norms clearly got linked to the elder principal’s notion of sexual “abnormality” but the school end of it felt very shallow and was like a stage with monotone props that vaguely have the shape of desks and such but don’t make it really feel much like school aside from a single scene where everyone is throwing questions at their perceived rebellion agonist. I’d LOVE them to be a couple again-like watching a black bear and koala cuddle lol- and in particular Khao “shortstop” has some killer gazes that remind me, on the female side, of Hani in romance (FL in Hit the Spot).

Thanks for the rec! You are going to make my list have the best of BL’s complete lol (Eclipse just didn’t quite flesh itself out like Not Me… that one had an intense story and powerful emotions throughout, less “okay, not so memorable” cast performances as Eclipse which I’ll quickly forget most of the people in… plus I already liked that little marshmallow puff Gun before watching him there). 

4th drama completed 

Jen

Can I say you've watched a lot of dramas 

I recommend Female CEO Love Me (Chinese) romance drama that is a slow burn with ML. The Fl is an independent woman who knows what she wants 

Racket boys( Korean). A family moves to the countryside ending up with their son doing badminton. He learns what true community and friendship is. There is a little romance 

Would love another physiological drama or action genre ( recently ones I watched seem boring) 

I accept devil judge 

11th Challenge completed!

Two options for leafless7 since you didn’t give any indication of your mood. Welcome to our delightful challenge! :)

Psst: It is hard to choose when you have a vast list of titles but very few are rated-I don’t know which you swooned at or raged at without at least a general high to low scale! I looked at your stats and titles seen so far since that is all I had to go by (and the first twenty I thought of you’d seen but only a few were rated?)…

First, based somewhat on your stats is a mix of teary-eyed moments, sweet humor, reflection, and family as a wife, mother, and well-loved team leader/director faces her final days and her husband devotes those days to her, his fabulous voice (my MVP) giving some monologues that I can still remember and them using food as a primary means of storytelling. Lesson-packed but not preachy, sweet and somber at the same time, one to hit you in the feels but with that basic trigger warnings of cancer and death: Recipe for Farewell 

The other is based on the shows you gravitate toward. It is an older title, the first of 4 seasons, a psychological thriller that in first glance is another police procedural but has a unique element, voice profiling. It also has the single hottest villain to ever exist in kdramaland, for what that is worth!: Voice

Open for recs, Japan, Taiwan, or Hong Kong especially welcome!  As always, up for anything (up to 30 hours long) so long as there is a solid storyline and no dubbing. I need mouths to match the audio to enjoy it! Ignore my PTW since it is not at all indicative of my taste. My completed list is infinitely better for figuring out what I like (sort it by rating for ease). Any genre, any country, “normal“ or weirdly wonderful, it is all welcome! :)

I added both titles (I am excited to watch more HK titles!), but for the challenge, I am accepting Selma‘s recommendation of Leap Day which (as days go) just happened annnd happened to be lost in the mess of my PTW from 3 years ago when it was nowhere to be found at the time. It also has a pretty picture, and I just finished a BL from the last rec, so it’ll be a nice bit of diversity in cast dynamics so I don’t immediately go comparing it to a higher budget longer BL! :) Thank you for both of them in advance! ❤️

Rating/feedback: This was wonderfully set up-a time travel story that actually linked everything together well and couldn’t be predicted within 10minutes of every character being introduced! I gave it a 9! My main critique of it is in how some non-lead characters are showcased. The bookstore owner friend was sweet but so underdeveloped that I didn’t realize a couple of times when she was on dates that it was her… more than her, though, the three “extra” sacred society ppl needed work from the dialogue feeling a bit shallow to the hypnosis girl’s acting being pretty meh. They were props, basically, but I liked the main three and the story of the pregnant girl quite a lot! The inventor guy also irked me at the start (he was supposed to, though, with that viewcount fixation!) but became, despite his acting sometimes being less than amazing, important to the story (and her comment about his gadgets being just like him was pretty funny!)…

I really loved seeing how the ML, confused by his own comment about being her boyfriend, got curious and kept going to Sapporo (I don’t remember ever having that much time off even when I was part time as a professor, not even if I omit the other work I was doing, but his PhD must be more special than most lol) and exploring to ultimately carry out the story she kept seeing; the candy he stuffed in his bag and gave her might’ve been my favorite “random moment made special” though it has a lot of competition; her love story was a really sweet one like no other, and the different presumed friend or lover roles they proclaimed themselves as in the future were really neat to see the 3 years going into, tiny details like those years perfecting something simple as a rolled egg/omelette especially tender-feeling… it was really fun seeing how different perspectives in the same situation played out and even how completely coincidental details impacted the FL who was facing these years ahead versions of everyone! 

It was deeply satisfying, so thank you to whatever force in the universe  landed you on it AND to you  for recommending it to me! 

PS if you ever see this, do know that there is NO NEED to finish titles quickly should you ever want to give it another go (and you can also state your mood if you want something particularly (funny, quirky, light, thriller-y, etc) or know that kind of mood strikes often! If someone recommends something, you can, of course, say you aren’t interested in that and to get another from them but you can also wait til you ARE in the mood for it (we have 10 months, after all, and some took almost that long to get to their titles last year)! ❤️Either way, thanks for the rec! I’m starting 940920 tonight! 

11th Challenge | 12th Challenge | 13th Challenge | 14th Challenge: 

Selma ,


I am offering 2 options because I am still learning to navigate your PTW, CW, Watched, and Not Interested lists on MDL and I am unsure of the system you have on there. Anyway, the recommendations are  BL:

1. Not Me ; OR
2. Nitiman

Open to recs. Please no horror or anything dark (i.e. Save Me, I actually cannot watch it without it getting me physically sick).

Saygo , I accept the rec for Hit the Spot ...

Status: Completed
Started: 03.06.24
Finished: 03.06.24

Rate: 8.5
I really enjoyed this quick cute series! It was almost a 9 rate but I wished they had discussed some of these topics more in-depth rather than in passing and on a surface level. I enjoyed how they stayed pretty true to their characters but wished they talked more about what they were experiencing and their fears.

Hi Sagyo

I am offering 3 options. Below are my recommendations :

1.  Encounter Or
2. Run On Or
3. Falling Into Your Smile

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Accepted Recommendation From .Elbee  -  Crash Landing on You

Status- Completed

Rating- 8.5/10

Thoughts-This was an enjoyable and light-hearted watch. The highlight of this drama was the chemistry between the leads. The story had a few glitches here and there ,but a breezy watch. I feel the first few episodes were a bit slow paced hence couldn't binge watch but it picked up in the last few episodes .

All the supporting actors acted well too. I really enjoyed the camaraderie between the ML and his troop. The OST was amazing!