Intro

Hi, welcome!~ I'm just an Aussie who loves watching Asian dramas.

I started properly watching anime in 2017, and my friend at the time also told me about Asian dramas. I became addicted, and finished something like 40 shows in 4 months, often staying awake all night to finish a 20 episode show in under 24 hours. It was nuts haha! Now I take breaks and often switch between watching anime, watching Asian dramas, and other things.

First Drama

The first drama I ever watched was You Who Came from the Stars (or whatever it's technically called lol), which was the one my friend told me about, but technically the first drama I finished was Hana Yori Dango. From there, I mostly watched Kdramas, but soon began branching out into dramas from other countries. I really enjoy the differences each country has when it comes to their dramas!

Favourite Dramas

I have a top 10 list, but I want to expand on it here because there's a lot of dramas I love. In no particular order, here are some of my favs:

Korean dramas :

• Kill Me, Heal Me
• Evilive
• Beyond Evil
• Strangers from Hell
• Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo
• Chief Kim
• Coffee Prince
• Live Up to Your Name

Japanese dramas:

• GTO (1997)
• Kazoku Game
• Long Vacation
• Kimi wa Petto (2003)
• Hana Yori Dango (2005)
• Sora Kara Furu Ichioku no Hoshi

Chinese dramas:

• Nirvana in Fire
• Scarlet Heart
• The Rise of Phoenixes
• Winter Begonia
  
• The King's Avatar
• Love O2O

Taiwanese dramas:

• The Devil Beside You
• Bromance
• The Perfect Match

Thai dramas/lakorns:

• Project S: Skate Our Souls
• Bpoop Phaeh Saniwaat

Favourite Actors

The first actor crush I ever had was Lee Jong Suk after watching him in I Hear Your Voice. Then it was Kamenashi Kazuya from Second Love (bad drama though don't bother). And now I have an entire list. I would say, though, that my Ultimate Crushes are Ji Sung, Lee Jong Suk, Kimura Takuya, and Matsumoto Jun. I love them and they've been in some of my absolute favourite dramas.

Favourite Actresses

I didn't have any favourite actresses for a long time, but my first was Cecilia Liu from the Sound of the Desert - and then I found out she was in Scarlet Heart and I went nuts! She is my Ultimate fav, but I also really love Park Min Young, Gong Hyo Jin, and Hwang Jung Eum. I don't always enjoy their dramas (thinking mostly of the 2nd half of Her Private Life lol!), but I do love them.

Scoring Dramas

I try to be a fair scorer, but I am not completely objective. I prefer watching shows that are highly rated (with reviews outlining why it's good as well), but I'll make exceptions if an actor I love is in it!

My scoring guide is as follows (I've started it at the lowest score I've given):

4 - Subpar.
4.5 - Subpar, but has merit.
5 - Average.
5.5 - Average, but has merit.
6 - Alright, but heavily flawed.
6.5 - Alright.
7 - Good, but flawed.
7.5 - Good.
8 - Great, but slightly flawed.
8.5 - Great
9 - Excellent.
9.5 - Outstanding.
10 - Perfect. 

Drama OSTs

It doesn't happen a lot, but sometimes the opening song or a song from the soundtrack of a drama will just completely sweep me away!

Kill Me Heal Me's Auditory Hallucination was the first to really take my breath away, and any time the song showed up in the drama you knew you were in for an emotional time.  After that, I really enjoyed Long Vacation's upbeat and cheery 'La La La Love Song' - I even learned all of the lyrics so I could sing along in not that great Japanese haha! 

The opening song 'Light From the Dust' from The King's Avatar was next. I never watch the openings of shows, so when I stopped skipping the opening (despite the spoilers) I knew 'Oh, I really love this a lot'. It's beautiful and triumphant and exciting all at once!

More recently, the opening from Winter Begonia has burrowed it's way into my heart. I initially didn't like it because the first few seconds are really loud and chaotic, but dang if that opening isn't beautiful (I couldn't find a clip of just the opening, or the song name in english, so here's a link to the full song).

 Yi San is, however, the only drama so far whose ending song swept me away instead of the opening. I read somewhere that the meaning of the song is that the singer is a child who has become a palace maid, and can never see their family again (which I think suits Jewel in the Palace way more lol but whatever).

The love theme Promise is also beautiful and haunting - I really loved it.

Current Thoughts

08.01.2025

Jumping back into asian dramas/movies for the new year. Thirst and The Handmaiden were so good??? And obviously Oldboy was great. Who knew acclaimed director Park Chan Wook made good movies. It's actually kind of funny/weird that my first Park Chan Wook film was I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, though, haha.

Anyway, I should actually...try and finish some dramas in my on-hold list haha...ha...