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Laura Makabresku

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Spy X Family  — The Forger’s Day Off

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The champion of the Jötnar

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Signal (시그널) Rating: 5/5 A young criminal profiler and an awkward but righteous detective become connected through the use of a walker talkie, and as they tackle unsolved cases together, they slowly uncover a deeper mystery. This was very fast paced and well written — from the use of asynchronous timelines and an ensemble cast with convincing motivations and backstories that tug at your heartstrings, speeding up to a nail-biting finale. While solving these cases, it also exposes the work difficulties and frankly often discoursing obstacles that the main leads face as they try to find justice in a system of corruption and cynicism that threatens to swallow them up. Even with the intensity of the main thriller storyline, there are soft, realistic character beats woven throughout, moments that make you laugh or make you cry as you go along with these characters’ journey. Lee Je-hoon, Kim Hye-soo, and Jo Jin-woong are fantastic in their roles. Overall: There’s a reason this show is critically acclaimed, and after watching this I can safely say without reservations that its praise is so well-deserved! It holds out strong in every aspect of its production, and now it has become a gold standard for me to compare other dramas to. A must-watch for any drama lover and has solidified as one of my favorites! Watched July 21 to Aug 5, 2021 #signal #signaldrama https://www.instagram.com/p/ChsluHvuqaQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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The King Loves Rating: 5/5 Finally finished this drama! I rewatched it from the beginning up to the part I stopped at and somehow it ended up being much better than I remembered?! Then I binge watched the rest hehe. A story of a misunderstood crown prince Won, his loyal best friend Rin, and the girl their lives become intertwined with, San. This show is misleading at first, making you think it’s a typical love triangle romance. But it’s really a coming of age story about unconditional love, friendship, and sacrifice. Has an unexpected romance, some very well written characters and plot (yay for preproduced dramas! AND coming from an iconic writer), and BEST OST (still makes my heart twist when I listen to it now). Lovely familial relationships (Rin and his sister Dan are THE sweetest). The feeling captured in the scenes has that melancholic yet dreamy atmosphere of some distant memory. Basically everything I ever wanted in a historical drama. Acting-wise, Im Siwan blows it out of the park. He’s just so dynamic and expressive. He BECOMES the character. Also, the writing must have played to Yoona’s and Hong Jonghyun’s strengths bc they were unexpectedly decent in their roles. The ending unfortunately wasn’t as strong as the other parts of the drama but it does the trick. Overall this became one of my favorites. It’s not perfect but it checks off all my favorite elements and has a lot of heart. I’m sad it’s over but it’s definitely one I’ll go back to again and again. Watched July 17 2017 to May 31 2021. #thekingloves https://www.instagram.com/p/CRQKVIHlI76/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Mount Stuart Hse & GRD, photo by phillipnotphilip

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painting parkour

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When a Snail Falls in Love My rating: 4/5 The story starts when main lead Xu Xu comes into the Violent Crime Unit as one of two new interns from the psychology department. While she lacks in physical skill (failing the required physical exam), her psychological analyses and profiles of people prove to be bold yet accurate. Right off the bat she gets off on the wrong foot with Vice Captain Ji Bai due to their different philosophies and approaches toward their detective work (not to mention his ire at her exemption from the aforementioned physical exam). But what starts off as a seemingly small everyday crime leads Ji Bai, Xu Xu, and their unit into a web of intrigue and lies involving the complicated dynamics of the rich Ye family (owners of Ye Corp) and other shady figures in the criminal underworld. I’m a bit torn on how to view this. On the one hand, the first 14-15 episodes were some of the best I’ve seen in any drama. Very suspenseful and tightly plotted mystery that had me at the edge of my seat. It deconstructed many of the typical tropes you’d expect. The filming quality and editing was on par with big budget action movies. The romance had sparks flying and the couple complement and challenge each other in so many ways. I absolutely loved their teamwork. However it decreased in quality in the last quarter of the show as the story shifts away from the Ye family storyline (this show’s major strength) and toward a run of the mill plot with villains I didn’t care for and stagnant character development (particularly for Ji). It’s not terrible, but in comparison to the stellar first 3 quarters, it’s quite a disappointment. And one of the few times I’ll say this, but this drama was too short. I felt like this show should’ve been at LEAST 30 episodes, and that’s being conservative. Overall though there’s so much that this show does right. It exceeded my expectations for the majority of the drama with plot, production, cinematography, and the amazing female lead. And snails are forever cute to me now! 🐌 #如果蜗牛有爱情 #whenasnailfallsinlove https://www.instagram.com/p/CHspS3TFX0l/?igshid=306ik2qyzdlg

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Dattebayo run run run!!!

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DΞΔN : WHAT 2 DO 자켓 사진 촬영 BTS

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Hospital Playlist | Winter Garden

*SEASON 01 SPOILERS ALERT*

Remember you can find all the Hospital Playlist reviews/analysis filed in “hospital playlist reviews” tag at the end of the post.

It would be very difficult to talk about Jung-won without mentioning Gyeo-wool and vice versa. Their respective journeys have been intertwined from the very beginning and in ways we didn’t even know until the end of the first season of Hospital Playlist. Theirs turned out to be a symbiotic relationship. So, I decided to dedicate a full review to them.

Jung-won’s life was one of the first mysteries in Hospital Playlist. The drama introduced his character little by little and almost always thorough other characters to give us an idea of the kind of person he is. So, when it was revealed that he is the youngest son of the CEO of Yulje Foundation and Hospital, we already got the general idea that he was a dedicated and hardworking doctor, with a very particular (and hilarious) family situation that put him in the spot to take over his father’s place. And that he didn’t want that position at all.

Still, it’s pretty obvious Jung-won has a head for business. You can tell by the proposal he presented to Chairman Ju in the first episode when he transferred his family’s hospital stocks to him. In exchange he got lofty jobs for his friends and himself, and even complete control over the money coming from the VIP ward in the hospital. This is a man that clearly thinks several steps ahead. A man that goes the distance. A marathoner.

Right after his father’s funeral (in March) and finally free of the pressure of having to run his family’s foundation, Jung-won put that determination into achieving his childhood dream of becoming a priest.

Enter Jang Gyeo-wool.

When we were first introduced to Gyeo-wool, I remember thinking she was the opposite of Jung-won. While she was presented as blunt and aloof, he was tactful and a bleeding heart. Because of this I always believed the two actually made a good team and that they could learn from each other.

Now that the first season is over, I think that was Writer Lee and PD Shin’s purpose all along: to make the viewers connect the two, at least in a professional light at first, so that we would eventually start picking up subtle hints that something else might be going on between them.

Of course, Hospital Playlist exceeded my expectations because things started to be not so subtle pretty fast. For me it really was when Jung-won said that Gyeo-wool wasn’t his “cup of tea” that I started to think about them in terms of a possible loveline. But it was the scene of the maggots that really solidify it and I told everyone “He likes her”. Not for one minute I thought Jung-won was going to go through with his priesthood plans after that.

Soon, Jung-won’s good deed of helping his friends get better jobs backfired on him spectacularly: Lee Ik-jun, MD and Certified Cupid, was trying to find ways to win Jang Gyeo-wool’s favor in order to get her assistance in the OR. And since Hospital Playlist spent the entire first season letting us know that Ik-jun always knows what’s up, naturally he realized Gyeo-wool had feelings for Jung-won. And that they might not be unrequited.

The journey was slow paced and frustrating at times. With each episode it was more and more clear that Jung-won was going out of his way to keep Gyeo-wool at arm’s length. He was resolute to keep on track with his decision to become a priest and I commend him for it… but this is when his smoking became a sign that things wouldn’t be going his way. For someone who wants to be pure and closer to the Lord, that’s a pretty nasty habit. One that to me was always a sign of doubt. Bottomline, it’s a sign of his humanity. Another sign? His headaches. He was suddenly overthinking things and questioning himself.

I’m not saying Jung-won wasn’t sincere about becoming a priest but if he had wanted to do it, a man with his kind of determination, would have got up and leave. Instead, when he talked with the priest helping him with his journey to Italy, Jung-won kept pushing the date of his departure over and over again. Always prioritizing his patients. This is when I knew that priesthood was a dream idealized from childhood and I believe that in some place of his subconscious he was choosing this path in order to runaway from the pain of not being able to help all the people he wants to help. Fact is that at some point in his life he had fallen in love with his profession as pediatrics surgeon but his soft personality put him through much pain, specially with the most difficult cases. He had given up on hobbies like photography because he couldn’t stand to see the photos of patients he lost, and almost never took time off to do any of the sports he loves so much. When he did it was to support a cause like breast cancer.

My point is that I understand why Jung-won wanted to quit: he is overworked, stressed and tired of having to carry on his shoulders an understaffed pediatrics department. Add to all that he was also running the Daddy Long Legs program by himself, getting calls from hospitals all over the country, and that he was in a passive aggressive fight with his Mother that didn’t want him to become a priest. The only down time he was getting was when he played the drums with the band and went out with his friends. But even then we saw him get up and help the people running the restaurant. Yeah, he clearly couldn’t go on like that. Something needed to change.

His first move was to delegate the Daddy Long Legs program to Song-hwa. A wonderful idea and the first hint that he was up to something. Like I mentioned before: Jung-won thinks several steps ahead. And this was also around the time he had his heart to heart talk with Ik-jun. At this point of the story, it was clear to Jung-won that his feelings for Gyeo-wool were not going dispel and that spending time with her, watching her work through her hardships and getting to understand her, were only making him fall deeper in love with her.

In return, Gyeo-wool spent that time growing as a doctor, learning from Ik-jun and Jung-won on how to talk to patients and their guardians. Something none of the other doctors bother to teach her before because they all considered her competent enough due to her OR technique. She shed off some of her shyness and started to show her warmth, became bolder and more proactive to try to find ways to connect with people around her. She went from eating alone to always share a meal with other residents and/or Dr. Bong. She sassed Min-ha on her make up, kinda told off Jun-wan and behaved like a cutie pie around her honorary big brother Ik-jun. Gyeo-wool remained steadfast and composed through every professional and personal hardship, and her bluntness was no longer a weakness but a strength. I honestly believe that by watching Gyeo-wool in action, Jung-won learned a thing or two about perseverance and not running away but facing your troubles.

I also think Ik-jun didn’t tell Gyeo-wool about Jung-won’s feelings for her because he didn’t believe it was his place. Sure, he had his fun trying to get reactions out Jung-won and giving his support to Gyeo-wool but, at the end of the day, he knew it was Jung-won and Gyeo-wool the ones that needed to take matters into their hands and have a proper talk about their feelings.

When Mama Rosa witnessed that sweet, sweet, moment all the shippers were waiting for between Jung-won and Gyeo-wool, she saw her last hope. A last-minute Hail Mary. And while I think Mama Rosa put Gyeo-wool in a terrible position by asking her to stop Jung-won from becoming a priest, this was the first time Gyeo-wool got any indication that maybe her love could be successful. That her heart and instincts were in the right place. And despite the uncertainty that followed her through the entire first season, she went for it. Like the complementary sprinter she is to Jung-won’s marathoner. Watch out Usain Bolt.

What none of us knew by the time episode 12 started is that Jung-won had already made the decision to stay after the family of a patient thanked him for going the extra mile for their daughter. The past months of being able to have the 99ers as a support system at Yulje and having Gyeo-wool around to help him with his work, made him felt happiness and a new sense of fulfillment. For the first time in years, he was feeling the weight on his shoulders was lighter and his good friend Song-hwa could see it in his face. She knew all along he was in a crossroads about his profession. That scene in Song-hwa’s office was significant because it was the first time he voiced out his feelings and to his surprise, just like Ik-jun, Song-hwa knew all about his Lady Winter.

So, when Christmas arrived and Gyeo-wool finally musters up the strength to go to his office, everything comes together. Even though she thinks Mama Rosa is wrong about him having feelings for her or that she knows it’s not her place to interfere with his decision of becoming a priest, she still can’t let go of him. Meanwhile, he had decided weeks ago to stay at Yulje, in no small part because of her, and remained silent. He held back. Again! And fret over how, when or what to say - just like he did in front of the ER’s door- because he didn’t know how to start the conversation. Why? Because the fool himself put them in a strictly professional relationship by refusing to have any kind of interaction outside the cases they shared or the hospital.

But in that final scene at his office, Jung-won sees a vulnerable Gyeo-wool. Suddenly her emotional resilience is nowhere to be found and she is wide open for him to witness how much he has put her through over the past nine months. Even worse he realizes that she knew all along about his plans and said nothing. Gyeo-wool’s bravery makes him see himself for the coward he has been for the past three weeks. For the first time in the whole season, he stops overthinking, FINALLY does as his heart is telling him and jumps into action. Jung-won answers Gyeo-wool’s confession and request with tender affection, longing looks -that communicate he too has been struggling-, kisses and a hug. He didn’t need to say anything. Like Gyeo-wool taught him: actions speak louder than words.

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commission for wingnutxlv on twitter ❄️

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