My choices for the #chinguchallenge here will often be different from Bsky, as now
Day 3: Favourite Modern Romance
the VERY FIRST Drama that I thought of is one where the best romance arc involves the SECOND leads, and it's an all-time favourite .
in #cDrama #TheTaleOfRose , the romance between the eponymous lead's brother & boss is stunning. Far & away one of the most grounded, realistic, cliché-free romances I've ever watched also sweet and moving. So good I rewatched just their arc
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 4: Drama friendship
When I thought about Dramas that were really all ABOUT friendship, these two came to mind first, and both are easily the highest scoring Dramas that I've listed as having "friendship" as their primary theme
#cDrama #DearEnemy
#kDrama #DivorceAttorneyShin
Friendship is absolutely at the core of both these very different Dramas and what elevated them both.
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 5: Villain
S1 of #ForestOfSecrets WAS my fave but I learned years later the actor was ALREADY a convicted sex offender then.
SO, onto happier stuff
Day 6: Family
The first #kDrama I ever felt moved to blog about, in a post longer than any of my current Drama blog posts.
#YeahThatsHowItIs
Everything about this family Drama was near-perfect Good luck finding it though: When I watched it, Kocowa had it, last I looked, no one did
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 7: Revenge Drama
#MarryMyHusbandJPN
I didn't even CONSIDER this one until someone selected it for this day on bsky, but of course it is a revenge Drama. But so much MORE than a revenge Drama.
NOT strictly a remake of the #kDrama version - because both were in varying stages of production at the same time, this one ended up a co-production. And a VERY different beast by all accounts. A journey from revenge to personal growth.
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 8: Enemies to lovers
The Song Joong Ki #kDrama #InnocentMan qualifies, as does the #twDrama #BehindYourSmile but since this is about favourites, the 9.9/10 I gave to #LoveToHateYou makes it a clear winner:
A FUN romcom with just about everything right - including lots of on point social commentary, and the complete absence of serial killers
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 12: Comedy
Possibly the MOST subjective genre. The first Drama that comes to mind whenever I see this even after 12 years, is the 2014 #jDrama #Date - whoever wrote it shared MY sense of humour almost perfectly.
BUT, hooray for the extra characters here, because #kDrama #TheDivorceInsurance surprised me by how FUNNY it was. I already knew Giraffe as a great comic actor but the whole core cast made me laugh, a lot.
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama
Day 13: Found family
Glad of the extra characters here as #cDrama #jDrama & #kDrama have all produced great examples. the first 3 that came to mind for me are #jDrama
In 1 'found family' is a BIG spoiler. So it's #KotaroLivesAlone for a stunning performance from the then 7yo lead, who had to really ACT.
AND #GiboToMusumeNoBlues - a #JDrama I dropped after 2-3 eps then went back to MANY years later and scored 9.5/10
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama
Day 14: Favourite trope
This one was really tough. I have several tropes that really push my buttons, but thinking of a trope I really like was tough.
I love it when tropes are flipped/inverted, but the closest I could come to a trope happens so seldom I'm not even sure it counts as a trope. That said, I love it every time I see it and perhaps because it's not that common, the scene is often really well done
Asking consent for a first kiss
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama
Day 15: Favourite time travel Drama
time-travel #cDrama are literally not allowed HEAs, so they're a nope
My fave is the 2017 #twDrama #LoveTimeless I've watched 5 times, 4 times focused ONLY on the arc of the 2nd pair.
Elements of the OTP relationship remained problematic to the end for me, but the Groundhog Day time travel gave real growth to the STP.
Good luck finding it though, so a good runner-up is
#kDrama #QueenInHyunsMan
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama
Day 17: Mystery
So MANY great options here,
#kDrama
#ForestOfSecrets
#Doubt
#TheVillageAchiarasSecret
but my favourite mystery is #jDrama
#OkitegamiKyōkoNoBibōroku - that I've watched 5 times in the last 12 years kinda proves that 😀
A case of the week mystery series, with a sweet slow/no burn romance (and the greenest of green flag MLs) , the REAL mystery of the series is "who is she, and how did she end up as she is? NEVER answered. 😢
chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 19: Comfort/therapy - a field dominated for me by #jDrama -
#ShinyaShokudo S1-3 (especially s2)
#NekoZamurai S1-2 (SO cute!)
#Alice-sanChiNoIroribata #HannariGiroriNoYorikoSan (a love song to Kyotro)
BUT the clear winner is a #kDrama #OneDayOff
It seems to fit the very definition of what (afaict) Koreans call "healing" - NOTHING happens and it's MAGIC 😍
(Also, imo the English title is better than the original, cf. #Doubt )
chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 21: Rewatch
Both the Dramas I've rewatched most often feature the same female lead actor, so having already featured silver-haired Gakki in my list (5.5 watches total), this time I'm going with dark-haired Gakki in #FullTimeWifeEscapist (4 watches total)
Of course, those 4 watches don't include all the times I've watched THIS 😍
chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 22: Character
Picking A favourite character is absurdly impossible so here are 5 leads
#kDrama Go Eun Chan #CoffeePrince
#jDrama Moriyama Mikuri #NigeruWaHaji
#cDrama 2= Zhong Qing Cheng #DearEnemy Chang Yu'Er #LegendOfTheMagnate
#twDrama Li Da Ren #inTimeWithYou
All real faves, memorable and in many cases now iconoic.
And now the Mastodon-only bonus
#CDrama #TaleOfRose a truly memorable support character with an awesome arc
chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 23: kiss
Another impossible category, so here's one of my earliest faves. That they were an IRL pair at the time likely helped make this so real
#KDrama #QueenInHyunsMan
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 24: Love Story.
This one was surprisingly easy. Many great romances in 13 years of 600+ East Asian Dramas, but this one came to mind first.
#cDrama #TheTaleOfRose is 38 eps long, time enough to fully develop a rare 30+ love story love story between the FL's brother and her boss. An arc as much about their individual personal growth as their romance
And in a Mastodon-only exclusive, the full clip of imo the most swoonworthy part
#chinguchallenge #cDrama #kDrama #jDrama #twDrama
Day 25: Favourite Drama
A big reason I did this here & at bsky was to share less well-known Dramas ESPECIALLY as a reminder that East Asia is so much more than JUST #kDrama. #jDrama & #cDrama have SO MUCH to offer
If this one is available, I REALLY hope some try it out.
I'm into my SIXTH watch, most of the 5 rewatches have been slump-breakers to get me back into the joy of Drama-watching
#OkitegamiKyōkoNoBibōroku
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuZW2N-lHTs
"Happily Ever After"
@JillsJoy @bougiewonderland Exactly. They are literally forbidden by PRC broadcast rules. Actual time travel #cDrama heavily frowned on, the rare examples must end with no altered timeline. Transmigration dramas are the common way to skirt the "no time travel" rule, but almost without exception they too end with 'reality' unchanged. "It was all a dream” a common ending.
I ain't investing my time watching an OTP grow together only to be destroyed by bureaucracy
Ronsboy67
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