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OP: Old Chinese TV dramas were so wild lol

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And no, it doesn't matter if the people around you when you take the aphrodisiac are hot, because the rule is that you have to resist, so you don't get to have them either way

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PERFECT MARRIAGE REVENGE (2023) dir. Oh Sang Won — Oh, I didn't prepare anything for you though. You can show me through actions, then .

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twinkling watermelon, 2023 // mhairi mcfarlane

screencaps from @kdramatelier

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tantai jin: even though she beat me every day for 6 months and starved me like a street dog and made me do shit like kneel outside in the snow for 3 days straight then randomly under went a severe personality change and was like omg Love bombing hehe and then, well, I did a couple things admittedly but she ran away and then came back and saved me?? and said all this cryptic shit, but then she disappeared and then came back and attacked me and then seemingly left again after we'd like gotten married and divorced and she did a slight genocide in the dreamscape and demonized and shit bc I was bad at communicating and we died or something and then came back again and then acted like she loved me and then collaborated with my enemy doing like, idk treason I guess, and then was like Yeah well so what about it? You a bitch? and then tried to drug me again except this time like I think she did try and kill me for real shit with magic cyanide or whatever and murdered her grandma and then ran off with my bro/enemy/leader of the other nation im at war with and shit and then came back and agreed to marry me and then tried to assassinate me SHE IS MY GIRL 👏 I LOVE MY WIFE 👏 THATS MY HONEY 👏

Everyone else:

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Don’t die before I do. I’ll be even badder than you. Don’t you die before I do.

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“I think I might have seen one of them”

“I think I may have seen one too”

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“Just how heavy is that heart of yours?”

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even though i was not a big Lovely Runner fan cuz of Im Sol, Sudden Showers just does something to me, and i am not over that song.

it comes up on my playlist and i'm like OUAGH DKAKSMAMMSNASKKALDNSNDNSNDNS

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this has the same energy as the “what, like it’s hard?” scene in legally blonde

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Eun Gyeol: *catches a glimpse of Eun Yoo’s real name on her luggage tag while helping her*

Eun Gyeol: *stares into the distance* I feel like I just saw something really strange

Eun Gyeol, minutes later: *is alone with Eun Yoo’s suitcase and doesn’t check what the tag says*

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Top Dozen cdramas - 2024

This can obviously change but nothing truly exciting looks to air for the rest of the year so that's unlikely. My Top Dozen for the year are likely be set in stone.

It's a very idiosyncratic list which has two mini dramas, three moderns (!!! for me that's insane) and a lot of vibes dramas.

12 Hard to Find - all vibes all the times. A tragic romance that feels like a Gothic fairytale, this is what minidramas could be.

11 Love In the Desert - out of all the dramas on this list, this is the one that screams most "a good time." It's a romance and visual feast and webnovel madness and sexy good time and it made me cry.

10 Fortune Writer - a mini that is so smart and meta and fun about narratives and fate and villainy and fighting the story itself. So clever.

9 Derailment - a puzzle and a love story, telling most anything about it would be a spoiler but this story about a rich girl from 2025 who seemingly wakes up in a parallel universe in 2023 in body of a poor doppelganger, and the young man who was in love with the original has everything including addressing what it must feel to people to have a transmigrator possess a loved one.

8 Tender Light - the ending was just - it's the reason it's not n1. But the rest of this drama about an abused wife and an idealistic young man refusing to bow to societal pressure was just exquisite. It addresses morality and loneliness and complicity and sacrifice. Just incredible. Poetry in motion.

7 Will Love In Spring - a modern romance cdrama? In my list? Is the world ending? But seriously, this is such a gorgeous, realistic yet intense exploration of love and loss and trauma. It made me utterly reevaluate Li Xian to boot.

6 Snowfall - this is such a fever dream of a mood piece of a vampire romance, with seriously BDSM and gay vibes, as well as utterly incredible canon age gap ride or die OTP with Ouyang Nana bothering to act for the first time in her life and Vengo Gao embodying a gentleman vampire to perfection. Li Muge remains one of my favorite directors for a reason.

5 Heroes - the story of three very different men all consigned to the dustheap of history by changing times (the best swordsman in the era of guns, a former imperial guard of a regime about to be overthrown, a constable obedient to obsolete code who studied for imperial exams which got abolished) as the Qing dynasty is about to fall, this has fights, humor, three (!) separate love stories, philosophy and utter and complete heartbreak. The performances, the ideas, the filming and the writing all combine to make a bleak masterpiece with a 99% death rate (I am not kidding, only tertiaries make it out.) If I were in charge, it would get all the awards.

4 The Legend of Shen Li - the one truly mainstream idol costume hit on the list. It's an adult, passionate xianxia that reunites Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin as deities and battle powerhouses in a love story that is so full of yearning and passion and intensity I feel like peeking through my fingers. This is everything xianxia romance tries to be and almost never is. This just might be my favorite xianxia of all time, tbh.

3 Eternal Brotherhood - a dark horse whose existence I didn't even know about before it aired. Visually stunning despite its tiny budget, this narrative about three sworn brothers in a kingdom and world in crisis, is pitch perfect in its humor, its intensity, its tragedy and its themes (also THREE!!!! amazing love stories despite not being a romance-centric show.) The battles, the friendships, the traumas, the darkness at the heart of it all!

2 Fangs of Fortune - the sole drama that can rival JoL2 for me (only caveat is it's still airing), this is visually the most jaw dropping drama I've ever seen, but it's also high fantasy the way it should be - making me feel so immersed that stopping feels like coming up from a deep dive or waking up from a hypervivid dream. It has impeccable performances (many from actors who I don't normally even like), and its plot and relationships and themes - fate and sacrifice and choice and found family bonds and trauma and so many other things - make it feel as if it was made just for me.

1 Joy of Life 2 - THE drama of 2024 for me. It's somehow better than the incredible first installment. It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it has insane performances, a narrative that hits all my personally favorite themes (a person trying to remain human in an inhuman world, righteousness not being weak), a large cast of fascinating characters who feel like they live in front of me (there are no throwaway roles in this), my favorite ship of the year (though it's not even a ship-centric show) and above all, Zhang Ruoyun's live wire of a performance as Fan Xian, arguably my favorite cdrama character of all time. It should not work yet it does. Brilliantly.

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everyone’s favourite loser boyfriend of the year

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@whenthegoldrays

the parallel between seunghyo from love next door and sunjae from lovely runner is kinda funny when you think about the fact that, yeah they were both swimming prospects for the 08 olympics that had their dreams taken away due to an injury, but ykw atleast seunghyo had brains and became an architect. sunjae? dumb as rocks. had no choice but to rely on his charm and good looks, so he became an idol...but guess which one ended up broke in their 30s

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he is never beating the lewser allegations 😭😭

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absolutely obsessed with how the secret plot of lovely runner is that a serial killer who wants sol dead soooo bad has to compete IN EVERY TIMELINE with sol’s number one stalker Sun Jae. He fell in love with her at first sight OKAY he was here FIRST

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gotta ask: what's the deal with the dramas with the premise of "rich guy physically allergic to women EXCEPT THIS ONE" lol