Robin's Random Rambles

Spring in my town is gorgeous thanks to all the blossoms, so it's apt that my Spring viewing highlights were mostly from the land of the sakura.   SEPTEMBER This Thriving Land (2025) 8.75/10 This was the first C-Drama of its type I've watched: An historical Drama set in relatively modern times (starting in 1926) and providing a more or less straightforward historical retelling of the history of the period. It was a CCTV Drama and the subject matter was inspired. I say that because the story of China's emergence from the chaos and brutality of the warlord era and through into the savagery of the Japanese invasion meant that the ever-present propaganda had the virtue of being largely factual. There was no need for heavy-handed out of place insertions ad nauseam of "China is great, the CCP doubly so" (I'm looking at YOU, Go Go Squid ) because the actual, real history makes it hard to argue against the assertion that what China became was bet...

 We baked through the hottest mid-late Spring on record here, so it's fitting that this final installment is full of sizzle of various sorts   OCTOBER She and Her Perfect Husband (2022) 9/10  Another C-Drama jia-didi romance with way more right than wrong. I started this one after loving the very unglamorous dirt-poor and dirt covered Yang Mi in T his Thriving Land , after several SNS mutuals praised her very different appearance and role in this earlier Drama.  They were not wrong. The most important element of a noona-dongsaeng (old habit) romance is the chemistry. Do th couple work? Do they sell the relationship? In this case, the answer to both questions was an emphatic "Yes!"  Yang Mi's VERY glamorous and successful business woman character her was parsecs from her poor peasant in This Thriving Land , but she was just as convincing. That she also looked AMAZING did not have a negati...

 As Winter gave way to Spring, I followed the Sun, with Korea left behind for places further East.  AUGUST Destiny (2025) 9.5/10 I'm a real romcom junkie, so most of my C-Drama viewing feels like prospecting for gold: Sifting through enough stony rubbish to rebuild the Great Wall, hoping to find the occasional nugget. That bitter experience meant I started this one with low expectations, and was thus delighted when it surprised me. It had a lot going against it: VERY formulaic story, voice dubbing that was not a great match for the cast (a real bête noir for me!), but it overcame those by being funny, very sweet, and surprisingly intelligent. The dialogue really surprised me at times, much better than most of the 20 million High School/University C-Drama romances I've tried. The leads worked well together, and, possibly because it was a short Drama, there was good skinship. That last is not a given in full length contemporary C-Drama romances which are ...

2025 has been a very good year for me in East Asian drama viewing. I've completed at least 93, and the average score has ended up just over 8.1/10. So I'm taking a journey through the year's viewing, highlighting twenty-five dramas that were highlights of my 2025 viewing year. Around 40% of the Dramas I watched in 2025 were released in 2025, and that ratio is reflected here, with eleven of the twenty-five being from 2025. The year of release is in brackets after the title, along with the score I gave the Drama in my personal database.. JANUARY Good Partner (2024) 9.5/10 This was the second drama I watched in 2025 and it got the year off to a promising start. I scored it 9.5/10 because the story of female friendship and personal growth was a joy to watch. The two lead actors had real chemistry together - first as mentor and pupil, as colleagues, and finally, in a move that really impressed me, as strictly professional adversaries. I couldn't give ...

My Drama viewing got underway in real earnest in mid-winter , starting with   JULY    After School Doctor (2024) 10/10 This drama was a reminder of why I love J-Dramas. The premise was straightforward: A grumpy, blunt, tactless pediatrician gets reassigned from the hospital to fill in at an elementary school infirmary after a patient's parent complains about his handling of a case. The basic arc was predictable, but the nature of the journey was still remarkable. Especially in the first six episodes of the drama, the uncompromising, unsentimental and clear-eyed approach to serious health issues faced by the children was outstanding. From a first grader dealing with a congenital heart defect to a sixth grader having self-harm issues, this drama did not flinch. It did not talk down to the children, or about them, and the doctor's blunt honesty didn't change, even as he learned to broaden his perspective on what it took to look after children. The ...

   It's December 2025 and Dean Street Press have once again given me something to celebrate. The wonderful Liz Dexter's   hosting a FOURTH  Dean Street December , and this year my theme is symmetry. For the inaugural Dean Street December , I managed to read and review 27 books published by Dean Street Press. For Dean Street December Deux , and Drei I opted for a much saner 15. This year I'm aiming for a nice round ten. Ten books from ten different authors for the (nominally) tenth month, shown below:   As in previous years, I plan to read the books in the left-to-right order of the screenshot. Mystery, murder and mayhem dominate again with seven authors, including one writing pair. Just as in 2024, the Sara Woods is a brand new release from DSP, only becoming available in December 2025. Molly Clavering and Margery Sharp return, representing team Furrowed Middlebrow .  All my reviews will be posted at The StoryGraph again, but I will also update ...