A VERY occasional outlet, for whenever 500 characters at Mastodon is not enough
Don't You ... Forget About Me: Episode 2
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
Continuing a nostalgic look back at OLD OST tracks from various KDramas, CDramas, JDramas
and TWDramas I've watched that were all released prior to 2010. This episode covers 2005-2006. Again, the Dramas are listed below
grouped by year of release and sorted by the order in which I viewed them.
The third Taiwanese Drama in this collection & second with (Ariel) Lin Yi Chen as lead and singer A remake of JDrama Itazura Na Kiss, I VERY MUCH prefer this to the KDrama remake Mischievous Kiss, largely because of the amazing chemistry between "Ariel and Joe" - very close friends IRL 20+ years now, they sell this iffy/regressive story in a way MK didn't. That Cheng never used his pregnant partner's ribs for kickboxing practice (which the ML actor in the KDrama version is alleged to have done) is another point of difference in its favour .
I watched the outstanding Korean Drama My Name is Kim Sam Soon so long ago that it was still called that, the literal English translation of its straightforward Korean name, as shown in the image above. I absolutely LOVED it, but have to confess that none of the OST really stuck. This track is a lot of fun though, and if it prompts anyone to check out a truly excellent classic Drama, with its strong theme of female empowerment, then yay me!
I started Goong one week after my first ever KDrama, way back in May 2013. It was the start of my Yoon Eun Hye kick, and I loved it then. In an interview she gave years later she said she couldn't watch it without laughing at her performance. I watched it twice that first year, but when I tried again in 2024, the Male lead's abusively tsundere character was too cruel for too long and I gave up in episode 21 of 24 when he was STILL a bully. Great OST though, and PROPER kisses. Also, Ju Ji Hoon NOW compared to then is 😍🤤
I watched KDrama The Vineyard Man straight after Goong, as part of my campaign to try to watch EVERY Drama and movie Yoon Eun Hye had filmed up to that point. I succeeded in that quest, but I did not especially enjoy this particular Drama, it was a bit too "Neanderthal farmhand schools vapid urban princess" for my taste. At 5.5/10 it's the only Drama in this collection I scored less than 6, but it made the cut because of this song. It is very unusual in my experience, I can't think of any other KDrama OSTs I've heard that were reggae.
The first noona-dongsaeng romance I watched, this one is highly regarded, if not widely known. It has a reputation for being less clichéd than many such Dramas. My own recall of it is vague, except that it is surprisingly candid and thus more realistic than was the norm at the time. It also ends strongly, with a fitting finale that now reminds me of TWDrama My Queen. The theme song is pleasant, too
#TWDrama Tokyo Juliet was another slightly odd one in my opinion, that I watched only for (Ariel) Lin Yi Chen as female lead. Lots of pain and sadness for her character. It's another Drama she also sang for, and while the Drama was essentially as tragic as its Shakespearian namesake, the title of this sweet little number sung by early 20s Yi Chen to her ML costar could be sung by early 40s Yi Chen to her brand new (at time of writing) son.
Two down, two to go. The next riveting instalment, featuring a truly iconic KDrama romcom, can be found here.
It's December 2024 and Dean Street Press have once again given me something to celebrate. The wonderful Liz Dexter's hosting a third Dean Street December , and this year, my entries feature four new-to-me authors, between them accounting for all but four of my set. For the inaugural Dean Street December , I managed to read and review 27 books published by Dean Street Press. For Dean Street December Deux , I opted for a much saner 15, and that's where I've ended up this year too, shown in the image below. In last year's challenge, several of the non-mystery middlebrow books were new to my library, but this year the major new entries are two mystery series I'd not even heard of before and my first two non-fiction works from Dean Street Press, biographies by Sheridan Morley. One of the three middlebrow entries from is a second chance for an author who left me tepid on my first encounter, Susan Scarlett. Once again, I plan to read the books in the left-to-ri...
Friday, July 27, 2022: The day I marked on the Storygraph my first ever Dean Street Press book as "read". That book was The Crime at the Noah's Ark by Molly Thynne. It was not love at first sight, as my reaction at The Storygraph indicates. Sunday, December 29, 2024: The day I marked on the Storygraph my 100th Dean Street Press book as "read." That book was Harlequin House by Margery Sharp and my Storygraph reaction shows how the times (and tones) have changed. They have me well and truly hooked! The image below shows all 100 of the DSP books I've completed up to the time of writing this post. This post is a paean, so what follows are reasons I think Dean Street Press deserve one. 1. Passionate People: it is very clear that Dean Street Press care very much about what they do. They don't just sell books, they sell readers on books, and they sell authors. I bought an entire series of novels by one author solely on the strength of a guest ...
This blog exists " for whenever 500 characters at Mastodon is not enough " which is reason enough to build a series of posts around a thread I posted at Mastodon. A nostalgic look back at very old OST tracks from various Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese I've watched. All were released prior to 2010 and all except one I scored at least 6/10. The exception (chosen for its musical rarity), I scored at 5.5/10. Each 'episode' lists two years, except the last, which is exclusively 2009 Dramas. This first episode covers 2003 and 2004, the earliest years from which I've watched qualifying Dramas. They are listed below grouped by year of release and sorted by the order in which I viewed them. As the title indicates, I have a simple mind, so compiling the list was a lot of fun. It was VERY nostalgic, with some "awww"-inducing entries, and some "eww"-inducing ones. Some of the Dramas that wowed me as a neophyte I would n...
Comments
Post a Comment