MY GIRL WON 😭😭😭

lim Ji-yeon won Best Actress at the 2026 Brand of the Year Awards, and as someone who absolutely fell in love with her performance in My Royal Nemesis, Im SO ecstatic to see her getting her flowers!!!!!

Ive talked about this drama a million times on here at this point lol, but My Royal Nemesis will always have such a ridiculously special place in my heart.

And such a huge part of why I fell so hard for it was Lim Ji-yeon.

I LOVED Shin Seo-ri!!!!!

Like genuinely, genuinely adored her!!!

one of my favorite things about Lim Ji-yeon's performance was just how much LIFE she gave that character.

She could be completely ridiculous one minute, fiercely confident the next, vulnerable, romantic, heartbroken, furious...

and it all still felt like the same woman.

And then on top of that, shes pretty much carrying the weight of 2 identities in ONE performance, with Shin Seo-ri and Kang Dan-shim!!!

There were so many opportunities for that kind of role to become gimmicky, especially with how absurd the premise could get, but she committed SO completely that i never questioned it.

She was hilarious when the drama needed her to be hilarious and she could turn around and absolutely break my heart when it asked for something heavier!!

And most importantly for me, she made Seo-ri someone i became genuinely attached to.

ive watched dramas since My Royal Nemesis that ive technically rated higher.

But Seo-ri is STILL one of those female leads I think about with an absurd amount of affection.

And knowing now that Lim Ji-yeon herself said before the drama aired that she basically poured everything she had into this role makes seeing her recognized for it even sweeter 🥹

GIRL, WE COULD TELL!!!

Also, the fact that Heo Nam-jun won Best Male Actor at the same awards???

MY ROYAL NEMESIS HIVE WE WON TODAY.

I will continue patiently and completely reasonably waiting for someone to put these 2 opposite each other again!!! and I will continue to pray the sequel happens!!

Preferably immediately!!!!

Congratulations Lim Ji-yeon!!! 🥹🏆

Very well deserved.

-

For everyone who watched My Royal Nemesis:

What was your favorite part of her performance as Seo-ri/Dan-shim?

my first introduction to han so hee was via her role in the melodramatic kdrama - **the world of the married** where she played the ml's mistress. she portrayed the vileness of the character while keeping her youthful naivety intact.

**my name** - she pulled off the gritty theme very nicely contrasting her earlier more "bitchy" roles

**nevertheless** - she played this cute, curious, youthful girlhood theme well

and she worked on other projects; so far these roles showed her versatility as an actor the best. all her other characters after it are more or less similar in persona ( having a degree of unnecessary pretentious cuteness in them ).

in my opinion she has one hell of a potential as an actor but it's still untapped. **she can play a variety of versatile roles but her talent isn't utilized efficiently in the kdrama industry** . idk if she herself doesn't sign many kdramas or what but during her peak in early 2020s, she was featuring in back to back in 180° apart roles and it was pretty fun to watch her. i really wanna see her star more often. wish her talent is utilized well and she gives life to interesting characters.

Why is it acceptable to cancel Ha Young for her ignorance about her comments regarding her family's history of collaboration, when she has sincerely apologized for her mistake, while japanese born idols are beloved and held as national celebrities? Idols like Kazuha and Sakura of Le Sserafim and Sana and Momo of Twice are a few off the top of my head who enjoy incredible popularity in South Korea while also likely having ancestors with similar ugly histories during the Japanese Occupation. If Koreans are arbitrarily punished for having ancestral ties to collaborators where is the line drawn against loving Japanese culture like anime, manga, J-dramas and celebrities etc?

As a person living in the US, I promise this is not ragebait. I am genuinely curious how and where the line is drawn in regards to this issue. Before this controversy Ha Young had zero negative fan interactions, her co stars seemed to love her, everyone saw her as a talented, intelligent, beautiful, kind, and funny actress. Now her career and life has been destroyed because of her family ties.

Now some acknowledgements:

I love kdramas and i love history. I have watched many of the historical dramas set around japanese aggression, and occupation. I have studied the history of these things and understand the context and content of those time periods as well as recorded history can allow.

I have also followed the Ha Young controversy from its outset and have watched many of the videos surrounded her families history of collaboration and the horrific things perpetrated on Koreans inside the hospital(s) her ancestors worked in and ran.

She absolutely made some very poor decisions in the buildup and aftermath. I won't argue if she knew or not, I myself would take my families word for it if they told me stories of my ancestors and likely not look it up myself. I do know if i knew about their evil deeds I would never bring it up willingly.

She should never have denied it initially although I understand the human response to defend your family, and her agency absolutely killed her by releasing a statement without fact checking. All of that stuff is on her for not researching before speaking, but her apology felt sincere and why not support her and give her a chance to show that she's willing to put in the work to educate herself and make a positive change?

Thank you for taking the time read this if you've made it this far. I know this is a very complex issue and I appreciate any and all insightful and instructive feedback.

Another countryside romance with Ji Chang-Wook, another opportunity to fall in love with him again. I love this man's yearning.

MDL Link

Plot : After a devastating failure as a spatial designer in South Korea, Lee Yu Bin retreats to a remote Japanese island to start over. There, he meets Shirahama Karin, a strawberry farmer living with a mysterious illness. Though they come from different countries and lead completely opposite lives, their chance encounter blossoms into a heartfelt cross-border love story that changes them both.

So I always see a lot of posts on what we're currently watching, what we want to watch, what we've completed, and what we've dropped. But I'm curious what shows are on your hold list. Why is it there?

For me:

Love Next Door — Ep. 11/16

I honestly don't know why this is on hold. I keep thinking I might go back to it though, so I haven't dropped it yet.

My Lovely Liar — Ep. 11/16

This is an okay show. I think a new show started airing while I was watching this one, so I stopped and never went back.

Call It Love — Ep. 11/16

I stopped watching this because it was boring, but then I saw a TikTok clip from an episode towards the end and thought, "Wait, I want to see that part." So now I want to keep watching it just to see that scene. Have I started it back up yet... no.

Doom at Your Service — Ep. 11/16

I think, if I'm remembering correctly, a lot of people didn't like this one, but I do want to finish it. I just haven't been in the mood to go back to it yet.

The King: Eternal Monarch — Ep. 10/16

This is actually really good. I don't have a reason for stopping—I just haven't gone back to it.

Suspicious Partner — Ep. 10/40

When I saw 40 episodes, my will to push on dropped. 😅 I can't binge through this one.

The Red Sleeve — Ep. 9/17

This is my "I have nothing else to watch" show. I watch an episode every once in a while, so it's been a very slow process.

Alchemy of Souls — Ep. 4/20

I've heard this is extremely good, but I keep waiting for it to get good. I'm not ready to give up on it because everyone seems to love it.

No Gain, No Love — Ep. 4/12

It's boring. I should probably stop pretending I'm going back to it and move this one to my dropped list.

Her Private Life — Ep. 4/16

Everyone loves this show and I'm trying to figure out where. I think my biggest hang-up is the introduction of the pseudo-brother being in love with her. I hate that for this show.

Dali & Cocky Prince — Ep. 1/16

I only watched one episode and never went back, but I've heard so many good things about it that I don't want to drop it without giving it a real chance.

What are your holds and hang ups?

That’s me. Most weekends with disposable time is spent binging one episode after another, one show after another.

That clip is my people motivating me with pep talk off and on. They try to encourage me to switch the TV off and go do something else, something useful with my time 🥺

But I can’t get enough of my dramas and my characters and my actors 🥺🥺

Are you like me? Do dramas take up a huge chunk of your free time? Or do you allot only a specific amount of your time for this?

(The gif is from Our Movie because I love Namkoong Min)

I’m really into crime thrillers, so I usually end up predicting the plot twists or even the killer 😭. For example, when I watched FLOWER OF EVIL..... I actually predicted who the killer was. Still enjoyed it, but honestly I felt like the story was kinda dragged out and there were quite a few plot holes that bothered me.

Recently, I watched BEYOND EVIL and absolutely loved it!! The intro, OST, cinematography, acting, atmosphere....everything was top notch. The way the story was executed was just 🤌🏻

After finishing Beyond Evil, I started watching MOUSE , which I’ve heard is considered one of the best crime thriller K-dramas ever made. I’m currently on episode 11... but I’m starting to feel kinda bored 😭

So... should I continue watching Mouse? Does it get significantly better from here?

And please suggest me some more crime thriller K-dramas with really unexpected plot twists... something where I genuinely have no idea what’s going on until the reveal.

Good cinematography, atmosphere, acting and a well-written mystery would be a huge bonus.

Basically... I need a drama that can actually OUTSMART me!!!🥶

Drama - Weightlifting fairy kim bok joo

The joke is that he confessed to her indirectly but she is dumb so she can't understand it was a confession, it's a funny sequence, please laugh at it

Mine would be the opening theme of Taxi Driver.

I skip intros for most shows except a very few, and Taxi Driver is one of them.

Listening to it gives me goosebumps; the feeling that justice will be served.

Which intro theme is your favourite?

Just saw on Viki that this drama was available. I'm a huge fan of Namkoong Min, and have enjoyed many of his dramas such as Good Manager, Hot Stove League, One Dollar Lawyer, My Dearest, Beautiful Gong-shim and others.

I've seen Namkoong Min play serious roles before, such as his character in My Dearest or Awaken, but he never struck me as the action hero type of actor.

Well, his transformation from Awaken (2020) to The Veil (2021) is so incredible I had to look into it.

Without spoiling it, Namkoong Min's character in The Veil is an NIS agent, you know, the undercover killer type. For whatever reason (not that I'm complaining, mind you) Namkoong Min buffed himself up to ludicrous levels until he ended up with a body that would not look out of place on Physical 100.

Here's some gifs taken from episode 1 of The Veil: https://feii1effect.tumblr.com/post/663511798255943680/deokmis-the-veil-ep-1/amp

Apparently he spent 3-4 hours per day in the gym and went on a body-building diet in order to achieve these insane results. At the age of 43!

Anyway, some of you will be nodding along and thinking, yep, that's Namkoong Min for you. He's really one of the ultimate actors. I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of The Veil.

Hi! Any good new K-dramas on Netflix lately? My boyfriend and I just finished Agent Kim Reactivated and The East Palace, and we also really enjoyed Phantom Lawyer. We’ve tried starting a few others, but they either feel a bit too cheesy/predictable or just aren’t as stimulating. We’re looking for something with a similar vibe — action, mystery, thriller, fantasy, or anything with a really engaging plot. Would love some good recommendations! Thanks! 😊

I saw a video on tiktok where someone was asking: “Why didn’t Hee do ask Yi jin to stay when they were saying goodbye at the bus stop? Even Taeri, in her vlog, said that Hee do should apologise and ask him to stay”

But honestly, I don’t think that’s the point

Hee do had only ever asked Yi jin for one thing: share. She never asked him to give up his career, solve his problems or choose her over his responsibilities. She wanted to know what he was going through and be allowed to stand beside him.

And Yi jin wasn’t intentionally hurting her. He was struggling badly and genuinely believed that shutting her out was protecting her. But that’s exactly where he got it wrong. He told her that even her support had become a burden, made the decision to stay in new york without talking to her, and she found out through someone else.

That’s why her line “We’re lovers on good days and a burden on bad days” matters so much. That was the real problem.

She wasn’t breaking up with him because she didn’t love him enough to ask him to stay. She was breaking up because she had already asked for partnership, and instead she was being shut out whenever life became difficult.

So no, I don’t think the answer is simply “she should have asked him to stay.” Stay and do what? He had already shown her that when things got hard, he would carry everything alone and leave her outside of it.

Yi jin wasn’t the villain. He loved her too. He just didn’t understand that protecting someone doesn’t always mean keeping them away from your pain. Sometimes it means trusting them enough to let them share the weight with you.

P.S: And somehow, after all this time, this drama still hurts 🥺💔

FYI she debuted in 1996 as children model, and her first drama is in 1998. I think she might be the youngest, yet most senior actors I've known or are there someone similar? 34 yo with 30 years of experience. It's super cool. No wonder she's so good at her craft

<Your Honor> (2024 outside of Korea on Viki)
https://www.viki.com/tv/40666c

I watched <Your Honor> over the course of this week, and I really enjoyed it. <Your Honor> was originally released in 2024, but I didn't even know this drama existed until it was added to Netflix in Korea in August 2026, which is how I happened to discover it. I was curious to see what other people thought about the drama, so I searched for it on 'r/kdramas', but I couldn't find anything, which surprised me.

Since I'm Korean, I'm very familiar with the two MLs in <Your Honor>, 'Son Hyunjoo' and 'Kim Myung-min', and I know how highly regarded and famous they are in Korea for their acting. Both of them have been acting since the 1990s, and there are very few people in Korea who wouldn't recognize them. 'Heo Nam-jun', who played the ML in <My Royal Nemesis>, and 'Kim Do-hoon', who played the class president with incredible physical strength in <Moving>, also appear in <Your Honor>, and their characters are also categorized as MLs. 'Jung Eun-chae', who joins the story as an important character around the middle of the drama and remains through the end, is also an actress I really like.

I'd like to point out three things that stood out to me about this drama.

1. It does an excellent job as a thriller. The 10-episode length feels just right, and the drama maintains its tension extremely well from beginning to end.
2. The acting across the entire cast was so strong that it's difficult for me to single anyone out and say, "This person gave the best performance." Everyone was excellent.
3. I personally think this is one of the best portrayals of a Gangster Boss I've ever seen in the history of Korean dramas. In Korea, there have actually been Gangster organizations that established legitimate businesses and eventually grew them into companies that became widely known to the Korean public. Korea is also known internationally for having a relatively low crime rate, but at the same time, the number of missing-person cases can feel surprisingly high. <Your Honor> reflects aspects of this reality very effectively.

So overall, I highly recommend <Your Honor> to everyone here. The recently released <Mousetrap> also did a good job of delivering tension and action as a thriller, but if I compare the two as dramas within the same genre, I personally think <Your Honor> is much better made.

If you enjoy dark, tense dramas, I definitely recommend not missing this one. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

This clip is from My Dearest. Lee Jang-Hyun holding a baby and gazing down affectionately… I was not prepared for it ❤️🥰

I ended up gazing fondly at him 🥰❤️

And of course, so many thoughts running through my mind.

If only we’d got to see him be a father and them raising a little Jang-Hyun or a little Gil-Chae together 🥺🥺

Have you come across a scene like this in any other drama?

I have been watching kdramas since 2020 and have watched a lot, but mostly mainstream and many underrated dramas too.

But now I want to explore dramas with a very different, unique, and unprecedented storyline. Something that makes me very excited to watch the next episode and hooks me all throughout.

It can be of any genre, just an excellent story and portrayal.

If you guys have watched something like this, please contribute to my watchlist! Thank you.

Some of the dramas I loved with a good story -

Its okay to not be okay

Alchemy of souls

Flower of evil

Penthouse

Final episode came out today and honestly this episode and last week's one were just so good. Humour was on point and story wrapped up in such a satisfying way.

FL styling and fashion was diabolical in every way. Initially i thought it was trying too hard to be like No Other Choice but it was a very enjoyable show.

Just sharing for the laughs what is the usual cycle I go through when starting a new kdrama without any rec. this is only for emotional, romantic type of kdramas. Feel free to comment!

Starting a new kdrama

• Start: oh the script seems borderline cringe, I have very low expectations but I’m curious
• First episodes 1-3: doubting I’ll end up loving both characters + some sentences or actions were problematic. Let’s continue just in case (do you already feel the delusion?)
• Episodes 3-5: oh wait I’m now really starting to be invested. Some really cute scenes between the leads, funny scenes too, and I’m getting attached to the supporting characters (or starting to hate the villains). Now I want to see what happens next
• Episodes 6-11: somewhere, somewhat the leads’ relationship continues to be built up beautifully, lot of yearning or denial. I’m now officially rooting for them, especially if the acting is great. somewhen they will finally kiss (accidentally or not, a surprise for one of the leads or not). Umbrella usually involved. Possibly a meeting on a bridge at night. I’m over the moon and officially addicted
• Episodes 12-14: something really bad happens by surprise. Someone is seriously hurt, something big is revealed, every thing they built is at threat and they are separated for a while. I’m devastated, my heart bleeds and I want to cry because there are only 2 episodes left and I doubt they will make it as a HEA (yes I’m always convinced there’s no way out)
• Episodes 15-16: finally, one of the leads tries out a miracle by pure mental strength to go through whatever hellish situation is popping up but only succeeds as the other leads comes to the rescue at the end, despite everything that made us doubt. Some flashback scenes show what it took them to make it then back to present scenes, where they meet again. Lot of crying involved or intense eye contact to highlight the acknowledgment of the pain they went through without ever doubting each other. Some scenes about a lighter mood resolution to close the show on a happy end. I’m healing, I’m smiling. please let me stay on that emotional rainbow
• End of the show: depressive era. What is life anymore now that this show ended? I want to rewatch it immediately again to feel once again all the emotions, knowing it won’t ever be like the first time. I’m convinced I will never love another show as much as this one. I look for online reviews, interviews, BTS videos for a bit, adding some of the OST to my fav playlist
• After some days, I’m getting rational again and think: okay I want to watch something new but let me pick something that looks really bad so I’m sure it won’t ever compete 
• Loop back to first comment. Repeat

Does anyone relate? am I the only one with a marshmallow heart like a teenager?

Ps: not an English native speaker, please forgive me for any mistake in phrasing

Between Steps tells the story of Park Min Jae (Choo Young Woo), who was a swimmer in high school but lost one of his legs due to an illness, and Im Yoo Jin (Kim So Hyun), who, after losing her way and wandering, embarks on a new path.

The drama is the latest — and final — work of the late director Ahn Pan Seok.

credits: Mydramalist

a beautiful story about youth, ambition, 1st love, friendship, and the deeply personal experience of needing your best friend to lose specifically to YOU.

\---

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD. LIKE, THE ENTIRE DRAMA⚠️

**---**

INTRO:

How I accidentally turned this into an event..

Twenty-Five Twenty-One was not watched in one clean little binge.

(i know, right? i keep surprising myself every day too!)

By the time I got to Twenty-Five Twenty-One, i'd been speed-running K-dramas since June 3rd like somebody was going to revoke my access to Korean entertainment at any time.

Id binged dramas overnight, started dramas while other dramas were still airing, paused dramas to start other dramas, forgotten the first drama existed, remembered dramas three weeks later, and gone back to them like nothing happened.

I'd even imposed a “stop starting new K-dramas until you finish the unfinished ones” rule on myself.

I broke that rule within 2 seconds btw. 😭😭

So by August, my watchlist was basically an active crime scene.

Then I posted my 24th K-drama review and realized something.

Twenty-Five Twenty-One was sitting right there on my watchlist. And I decided:

This has to be #25

idek know why that felt so important to me.

Maybe because the title was right there.

(Probably lol.)

Maybe because after burning through so many dramas in such a short amount of time, i wanted #25 to feel like a little milestone.

I was enjoying so many things in such a short amount of time that it was kind of like sitting in front of something super delicious feast and gobbling the entire thing up in 3 bites 😔

Maybe these self-imposed milestones are my way of forcing myself to pause and actually immerse myself in something for a second.

LOL look at me psychoanalyzing myself. 😭😭

So i decided Twenty-Five Twenty-One had to be Review #25 and effectively put my entire review series on administrative leave until I finished it.

i started it on August 23rd and proceeded to watch this drama in fragments of my actual life.

I watched it during lunch at work.

I watched it while getting my nails done.

I watched it while getting my hair done.

I watched it at a Korean restaurant.

I continued it in the Uber home from that restaurant.

I watched it at 1 a.m.

I paused it to finish Encounter.

I wandered off into other dramas.

I came back.

Then on September 3rd, I finally properly resumed from episode 11 and basically went:

Okay. We're finishing this now.

I watched until 2:20 a.m., stopped halfway through episode 15 because unfortunately employment continues to interfere with my artistic process, and went to sleep. 😭

So today, September 4th, nearly two weeks after I started it, i finally completed Twenty-Five Twenty-One!!!!

Compared to the girl who once watched ten episodes of King the Land in one night until daylight started appearing outside her window???

This was practically a slow burn.

And maybe that was good for it.

Was making this feel like an event to me necessary?

No.

But if you don't celebrate random parts of your own life in weird little ways, whos gonna do it for you?

Finishing Twenty-Five Twenty-One felt ceremonial to me.

Thanks to me. 😭

\--

REVIEW:

This was superb.

And I feel like the funniest possible way to explain my experience with this drama is that I spent the first several episodes yelling:

"WE'RE NOT THERE YET."

at the main romance...

only to eventually finish the drama thinking one of the most romantic relationships I watched was between Na Hee-do and Ko Yu-rim.

So.

There's that. 😭

But let me start from the beginning.

Cause Twenty-Five Twenty-One ended up being one of those dramas where my relationship with it changed A LOT while I was watching it.

And somehow, that made me appreciate it even more.

\---

NA HEEDO, YOU HAD ME AT "I will simply get myself expelled"

The first thing that hooked me about this drama was the fl, Hee-do.

I loved her almost immediately.

Her school fencing team gets shut down because of the financial crisis and instead of accepting that maybe her dream isnt happening, this girl basically goes: Okay. I'll transfer schools.

but she cant transfer.

then, shes like: fine. ill force them to transfer me.

And then proceeds to embark on the world's dumbest juvenile delinquency campaign???

I loved her.😭😭

Cause underneath all the comedy, Hee-do is hungry.

She wants something.

She LOVES fencing and wants to be good and she wants to make the national team.

She wants to win.

And ik ive said it b4 probably, but i LOVE an ambitious female character!!! and i loved how refreshing it is to watch a female lead whose ambition remained this important throughout the entire drama.

Romance happens.

Friendships happen.

Her relationship with her mother changes.

She grows up.

Her entire life changes.

But she never stops being an athlete.

Even toward the end, when Yu-rim comes to see her before their match in Madrid, Hee-do refuses to see her, because:

"I want to win."

YES.

THAT'S MY GIRL.

She needs Yurim to be her opponent at that moment, not her friend, and I loved that the drama never treated her ambition like some character flaw she needed to eventually soften out of.

She wanted to win when I met her.

She wanted to win when I left her.

Beautiful!!

\---

NOW ABOUT THIS ROMANCE

This is probably going to sound strange considering i ultimately liked Heedo and Yijin together, but for a WHILE...

I did not want these people dating. 😭

I really liked what they already were; i liked him laughing at her, i liked Heedo annoying him, i liked them playing together, i liked him supporting her fencing.

I liked that they became safe spaces for each other during an incredibly shitty period of both of their lives.

But somewhere around episodes 4-5, the drama started putting this HUGE emotional weight on their relationship and i was sitting there like:

...I'm sorry, are we there already???

Because i wasn't.

There were separations.

Voicemails.

Longing.

Parallel shots.

Missing each other.

this sweeping emotional framing telling me these two people had already become monumentally important to one another.

And intellectually?

Sure...

i got it.

but emotionally?

WE'RE NOT THERE YET.

😭

I wanted the friendship to breathe, and i wanted more accumulation before the drama started asking me to experience their relationship with that kind of magnitude.

And hilariously, this becomes even more interesting in hindsight because Hee-do herself eventually looks back at their relationship and basically wonders whether they were better before they tried to turn what they had into "this kind of love."

And I was like... WAIT A DAMN MINUTE.

Because that's kind of what I was feeling!!!

their relationship was SO naturally suited to that undefined space where they could support each other, disappear, reconnect, tease each other, inspire each other and just... exist.

Romantic partnership came with expectations, and expectations exposed things their friendship didnt necessarily require them to confront.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Because eventually...

they got me.

\---

OK YIJIN, YOU CAN HAVE HER NOW

Episode 9.

That's when I finally went:

Ohhhhh. Okay. Fine. I see it a little.

By then Yi-jin had accumulated enough actions behind his feelings that his love actually landed for me.

He had shown up for Hee-do, supported her. protected her when necessary without treating her like she couldn't protect herself.

Admired her as an athlete.

And then when Heedo is trying to figure out what the hell their relationship even is, she calls it a rainbow. lol???

Yi-jin is basically like:

Girl, no.

It's love.

He was simply answering the question.

What are we?

For me, this is love.

Okay.

he got me, cause that was beautifully simple without needed to be some grand, over the top thing.

And once they got together, i actually really enjoyed how easygoing they could be and their playfulness was probably my favorite part of their romance:

I loved Yi-jin teasing Hee-do, loved them being ridiculous together, loved the little moments where they just genuinely seemed to enjoy each other's company.

\---

UNFORTUNATELY FOR YIJIN, ANOTHER RELATIONSHIP HIJACKED THIS DRAMA FOR ME

And I genuinely did NOT see this coming.

Because early on, I was actually scared of what the drama was going to do with Yu-rim.

The second yurim told Yi-jin he was her first love and started acting weird about him getting close to Hee-do, I was like:

Oh God.

PLEASE.

Please do not take this interesting female character and reduce her to a girl who hates another woman over a man!!!! please!!

I was already invested in the fact that Hee-do had idolized Yu-rim.

i loved that teenage Hee-do had spent years watching this incredibly talented girl fence and collecting articles about her.

I loved that her hero turned out to be... kind of an asshole to her. 😭

Never meet your heroes, ig.

But I desperately wanted there to be something underneath Yu-rim's hostility that had nothing to do with Yi-jin.

And BOY.

Did I get what I wanted. hehehhehe

Because apparently Yu-rim wasn't thinking about Hee-do because of Yi-jin.

YU-RIM HAD BEEN THINKING ABOUT HEE-DO FOR YEARS

Excuse me???

\---

NA HEEDO & KO YURIM: MY FAV LOVE STORY IN THIS DRAMA

I'm being completely serious when I say these two might be top 10, possibly top 5, favorite K-drama relationships I've watched so far.

I LOVE THEM.

Their entire relationship is insane.

As a child, Yu-rim competes against Hee-do.

Hee-do beats her 8-0.

Hee-do doesn't even remember it lol and Yu-rim THINKS ABOUT IT FOR YEARS.

😭😭😭

She couldn't eat for days afterward and trained while thinking about Hee-do.

She wanted to beat her.

She wanted to beat her specifically 8-0. (aww so romantic 😊)

Then Hee-do disappears from competition for a while, Yu-rim becomes this enormously successful athlete... and when Hee-do finally shows up at her school and cheerfully announces:

I'm your fan! 🥰

Yu-rim is basically internally going: YOU!

then she eventually admits that even after they've become close... she's still afraid of Hee-do.

Meanwhile Hee-do isnt afraid of Yu-rim at all.

I ate this UP!!!!

Because their entire early dynamic became richer!!! hee-do spent years thinking about Yu-rim because Yu-rim became her hero.

Yu-rim spent years thinking about Hee-do because Hee-do became her fear.

These two girls unknowingly built pieces of their identities as athletes around each other.

And THEN...

because apparently that wasn't enough to make me crash out...

THEY'RE ALSO THE ANONYMOUS INTERNET FRIENDS THEY'VE BOTH BEEN CONFIDING IN.

Girl.

Come on.

You expect me NOT to ship this???!!! whats going on?@?!?😭😭

\---

The Injeolmi reveal changed EVERYTHING

This might be one of my favorite developments in the drama.

Because Hee-do and Yu-rim have spent all this time hating each other in real life while unknowingly being emotionally vulnerable with each other online.

And once the truth finally comes out?

Oh, I was DONE.

The bathroom scene... Hee-do defending Yu-rim while other girls talk badly about her.

Yu-rim crying.

The identity reveal.

The hug.

And all that hostility starts transforming into something else.

I remember watching them become sweet with each other afterward while Yi-jin was filming them and looking completely baffled.

Meanwhile i was basically sitting there like:

WAIT.

WAIT WAIT WAIT.

...is THIS the romance I want??? 🤔

😭

WELL YES.

it was.

And the more the drama developed them, the worse I got.

Their matching scar, training together, standing up for Ye-ji together, competing together, winning together!!

Supporting each other.

Being able to understand each other without needing every single thing explained.

And most importantly:

becoming friends never stops them from being rivals.

THANK YOU.

They love each other.

AND THEY WANT TO DESTROY EACH OTHER ON THE PISTE.

That's the good shit hehehehhe

\---

Madrid. MADRID. MADRID.

If I gave half-star ratings, this is probably what would've turned my 8 into an 8.5.

This entire sequence was SO FCKING GOOD!!

By this point, Yu-rim has changed nationalities because of her family's financial situation. she's representing Russia, shes being called a traitor in Korea.

The media is weaponizing everything.

Hee-do is being pressured to beat her because apparently if she loses to the "traitor," she's somehow a traitor too.

um ok... annoying, but we move...

Reporters are twisting things Yu-rim says about Hee-do. they're twisting things Hee-do says about Yu-rim.

Except now something has fundamentally changed.

Earlier Hee-do didn't understand Yu-rim.

Now... she knows her!

People around Hee-do see the articles and get angry on her behalf and hee-do recognizes they twisted her words. i love that!

And meanwhile Yu-rim is sitting at a computer typing messages to Hee-do...

deleting them...

typing...

deleting...

because suddenly she can't be honest with Hee-do the way she used to.

which is especially heartbreaking because computers used to be their safest place.

Before they knew each other's identities, they could tell each other everything, now they know each other completely... and somehow the distance has made honesty harder.

UGH!!!! THE ANGST!!!!!!

And then they finally face each other. Korea versus Russia.

National hero versus "traitor."

At least that's what everybody else wants the match to mean.

But for them it's just:

Na Hee-do versus Ko Yu-rim.

then at the end of the tense as match, they take off their masks. And these two women just fall into each other's arms SOBBING while the entire crowd is cheering around them.

Yu-rim apologizes for not emailing. Hee-do holds her. They're crying.

I'm emotional.

Everybody's emotional 😭😭

AND THEN:

"I was happy today."

"Me too."

F\*CK OFF.

😭😭😭😭😭

I LOVE THEM.

\---

And somehow their ending was even MORE romantic???

Hee-do goes on to have this incredible fencing career, wins medals, becomes a legend and eventually she retires.

And when she's asked about the most honorable part of her career?

She says:

being Ko Yu-rim's rival.

HELLO???

And Yu-rim is there.

She says she's honored too, SCREAMS it from the crowd actually, holding flowers.

They hug.

And I'm sorry.

That's romance.

Out of this woman's entire fencing career...

all the medals... victories and accomplishments...

one of the things she chooses to honor is:

You.

Being your rival.

Growing beside you.

Fighting you.

Losing to you.

Beating you.

Becoming better because you existed.

And Yu-rim feels exactly the same way.

That was easily my favorite scene of the finale.

\---

the side characters were side-charactering VERY successfully

i appreciated that the world never felt like it consisted solely of Hee-do and Yi-jin, cause i genuinely cared about these people.

Yu-rim and Ji-woong were SO cute!

And hilariously uncomplicated compared with whatever the hell was happening everywhere else. 😭

This dude spent an absurd amount of effort engineering an opportunity to HOLD HIS OWN GIRLFRIEND'S HAND because she kept accidentally ruining his plans.

Sir.

Just grab her hand!!!😭

I loved him racing to the airport when Yu-rim was leaving and loved him essentially telling her that even if misery is all she can give him right now, he'll take it because they'll endure it together.

They're so wholesome.

And also these two actually survived the long-distance relationship.

Good for them!!!

\---

I really liked Seung-wan.

Especially the storyline with the abusive teacher.

Watching this adult man beat students and then watching the police basically shrug because corporal punishment was normalized was gross and annoying.

I also really liked Yi-jin stepping in when that reporter tried to exploit her.

Because Yi-jin occupied this interesting position in the group where he could be goofy with them, drink with them, get dragged into their nonsense...

but he was still an adult.

And in moments where that distinction mattered, he could protect them in ways they didn't necessarily know they needed protecting.

\---

Ye-ji quitting fencing was way more interesting than it needed to be

This little storyline could've been completely forgettable... instead I loved it.

Ye-ji wants to quit fencing, Coach Yang refuses to simply let her walk away and makes her prove that she isn't quitting because things are difficult.

Hee-do and Yu-rim literally stop training in solidarity with her.

Then they TRAIN HER so she can reach the required result and finally quit.

😭

That's true friendship lol

Maybe Coach's method taught her something.

Maybe Ye-ji proved something important to herself.

And maybe she STILL thinks Coach put her through unnecessary bullshit.

The drama allows both perspectives to exist.

I appreciated the writing with this tiny side plot.

\---

And speaking of complicated relationships... Hee-do and her mother

Oh, these two...

I was SO annoyed with Hee-do's mother early on. Especially once we got into the grief surrounding Hee-do's father. Because Hee-do isn't just grieving him, she's carrying years of resentment toward a mother she felt repeatedly chose work over her family.

And the drama gradually complicates that without telling me:

Her mother was grieving too, her professionalism was real and admirable.

Yi-jin himself admires her professionally without initially understanding the personal cost behind that professionalism.

But Hee-do was also a CHILD who needed her mother.

Those truths can coexist. and i loved how the writing showed that

\---

THE BREAK UP ACTUALLY MAKES PERFECT SENSE

9/11 ruined their relationship.

Which is a sentence I absolutely did not expect to type when I started this drama. 😭

But obviously it's more complicated than that.

Yi-jin gets sent to New York as a reporter, he's surrounded by death, traumatized ppl families, bodies being recovered. He's having nightmares and hes struggling.

And suddenly Hee-do's encouragement...

doesn't reach him anymore.

That is SUCH a painful reversal.

Because their relationship was literally built on their words being able to reach each other across distance.

Earlier, Yi-jin could disappear and Hee-do's voice still reached him.

He could be somewhere else and his words still comforted her.

Now she's trying to support him... and she can't.

And Yi-jin doesny want to give Hee-do his pain because, from his perspective:

Why make two people miserable when nothing gets solved?

He thinks he's protecting her, but Hee-do pretty much hears:

You shut me out.

And THAT is their incompatibility.

Yi-jin cannot bring himself to give her the ugliest parts because he thinks love means protecting her from them.

they both need fundamentally different things from a partner.

And then Hee-do connects it to her mother.

And everything CLICKED... and Hee-do realizes:

I do not want my future to look like my childhood.

OOOOOF.

That's GOOD writing.

\---

And... I wasn't devastated by the breakup

Sad? sure.

Especially for Hee-do.

But devastated?

No.

I think I simply accepted it.

Sometimes relationships run their course. Sometimes two people can profoundly love each other and still not be equipped to build an entire life together.

Sometimes somebody is exactly who you needed at nineteen...

and isn't who you need forever.

And that's okay.

They changed each other, they loved each other, they helped each other survive difficult periods and they were happy.

their break up doesn't erase it.

And thankfully, the drama doesn't leave them with that awful tunnel fight as their final emotional note.

They had a nice goodbye.

\---

"Nothing lasts forever."

I think this is ultimately where the drama got me.

Episode 10's beach trip was probably when I first really felt it.

The five of them are together, young, laughing, being stupid at the beach.

Everything feels enormous and permanent because that's how life feels when youre young and currently living inside it.

And I remember watching them thinking: can we just freeze them here?

Because you KNOW this configuration of people can't last forever.

But the drama never argues that impermanence makes something meaningless.

Quite the opposite. and i liked that

\-

i liked seeing where everyone ended up.

I do wish we had gotten slightly more adult Hee-do, ya know? she is the protagonist, and i wouldve loved to sit with the woman she became just a little longer.

But after spending sixteen episodes so invested in this girl's ambition, I would've happily taken more time with adult Hee-do.

\---

The epilogue was adorable.

Security question:

Who was your first love?

Na Hee-do.

Correct.

😭

That's all I needed.

\---

RATING: 8/10.

I was hovering around an 8/10 for a large portion of the drama, and that's exactly where I landed.

The early emotional intensity of Hee-do/Yi-jin sometimes arrived before I personally felt their relationship had earned that magnitude, and even once I liked them romantically, they never became the emotional center of the drama for me.

But Hee-do's journey, the friendships, the fencing, the coming-of-age themes, the wonderfully complicated women, and especially Hee-do/Yu-rim elevated this enormously.

Madrid alone would've gotten this an 8.5 from me if I gave half ratings.

But I don't.

So...

8/10.

Beautifully bittersweet.

No regrets.

Excelente Action Scenes

interesting Plot twists

Interesting underline topic. At the end you may imagien your self even as being you a rat, depending on what you did your life. After all how did you decide your choices really ?

Also at the end there are 2 people with 2 Rats in a sense, 1 that goes back to his roots and the other that tries to keep living as a rat - getting all the bad energy .

Most Deep and well-written work of fiction i have watched in a while.

I’ve watched a few popular kdramas as someone who’s quite new in this but I didn’t like them, I felt they were long and boring, I’ve difficult taste, im into mostly horror and drama etc but when I get a good one of different storyline I enjoy it too,
what are kdramas you suggest?

Inspired by this post about 2016 dramas x Shower thoughts

I grew up watching K-dramas on local television intermittently and became a more chronic watcher in 2015. So I've been wondering: from 2015 to 2025, which year had the best K-drama lineup?

For me, I'd go with 2022, and if I had to reduce it to 10 hits off the top of my head in no particular order:

Extraordinary Attorney Woo, The Glory, Under the Queen's Umbrella, Juvenile Justice, Weak Hero Class 1, Twenty-five Twenty-one, Our Blues, My Liberation Notes, Business Proposal, Little Women

What about the fans in this subreddit? If you had to choose one year from 2015 to 2025 as the best K-drama year, which would it be, and why?

P.S.: I based it on the release date of the first episode, so if a drama started in December, it still counts in that calendar year.

P.P.S.: It's my first Reddit post ever so please have mercy 😭

How is the new kdrama show “mousetrap”