#That Winter the Wind Blows

[dangermousie]

bwahahahah the way mdl hates That Winter the Wind Blows gives me life. Per the commenters:

it is unhealthy, it is incestuous, it is disturbing, ML is not an upstanding person, people in it in general are messed up, FL has a brother kink, there is angst until the last ten minutes etc etc etc

THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THESE IS YES WHICH IS WHY IT'S GLORIOUS kindly fuck off mdl commenters. (It's not even Song Hye Kyo's first fakecest rodeo; they'd probably die watching Autumn In My Heart, there the OTP both believed they were sibs for years.)

Meanwhile, I am here for the Korean Borgia siblings:

He is so a goner...

You can tell complainers weren't around in the old days, you couldn't swing a cat without fakecest (though why anyone would want to swing a cat?)

[no-where-new-hero]

it can’t just be type-casting, this has to be type-writing at this point

[sweetunknownmanager]

That Winter, The Wind Blows (Original Soundtrack) 🇰🇷

Performed by The One

Cet Hiver, Le Vent Souffle (Bande Originale Version Française) 🇫🇷

Performed by Yoni Amar

Cet Hiver, Le Vent Souffle (Bande Sonore Originale Version Québécoise) 🇨🇦

Performed by Dumas

[rosenlily-aka-choconut]

This is how a boy kisses a girl 🥰🥰

This is how a man kisses a woman ❤️❤️

Dude’s come a long way in the last 10 years ❤️❤️🔥🔥❤️❤️

[whenthegoldrays]

December K-drama Challenge

Day 27: Show That Needed Less Episodes

THAT WINTER, THE WIND BLOWS (2013)

So repetitive! The characters' arcs keep inexplicably regressing just to fill the 16 episodes. And the ending was still rushed and confusing. This could've been 10 episodes, or with some more serious editing, a two-hour movie.

[fauxkaren]

That Winter, the Wind Blows - 7/10

I cannot in good conscience say that this is a GOOD drama. But like... it is WILD and I could NOT stop watching! This was a VC Andrews fever dream of a show that was objectively not quality TV, but also I stayed up way past my usual bedtime 3 days in a row to watch this because I didn't want to stop.

Ok, I need to get into the plot of this show because it is straight up bananas.

Essentially, there is a blind heiress, Young, whose father recently died and she hasn't had any contact with her older brother, Soo, or mother (who is also now deceased) since her parents divorced when she was 6 years old. The brother had a good friend who had the same name as him and this Soo is a gambler and conman who has found himself owing $$$ to a gangster. Unfortunately brother!Soo passed away in a car accident about a year before the main timeline of the series, so when the family lawyer thinks he has tracked down the long lost brother, it's actually the friend. Conman!Soo decides that he will pretend to be his dead friend and get the money he owes to the gangster via his dead friend's rich sister. And that is just scratching the surface of this show.

I CANNOT GET OVER HOW FAR THE SHOW LET THINGS GO BETWEEN THE LEADS WHILE YOUNG STILL BELIEVED THE SOO WITH HER WAS HER BROTHER. Like!!! They are cuddling in bed, baking romantically together, being cute and playful in the snow... Soo even kisses Young while she is asleep!!! I was DYINGGGGG like it's not weird that he's falling in love with her because HE knows that he's not her brother. But SHE DOESN'T KNOW. And she's clearly falling in love with him!!! This was some Flowers in the Attic shit.

But I couldn't look away. lmao. The melodrama of it all was TOO delicious. So many beautiful crying scenes.

Other crazy shit from this show: Young has a brain tumor that she is told caused her blindness but NOPE. The blindness is unrelated to her brain tumor. She actually had a treatable condition that her sorta step mother didn't treat because she wanted Young to be reliant upon her forever!!!! LIKE!!! WHAT!!!???

Anyway, I 100% blame Kim Bum (he's a secondary character in this show) and Song Hye-kyo (she's the female lead) for enticing me to watch this show from 2013 and NO REGRETS. It was a wild ride that I cannot say was like... quality TV but damn I was HOOKED.

[consumeronionbulletin]

That Winter, The Wind Blows (2013)

This show is not meant to be believable and is about feeling all the feels. It's not worse than other dramas I've finished, but the tricks it pulls to keep your interest are dated, and I've lost patience with this kind of show.

It doesn't help that the premise is a bit bonkers...

There's two guys with the same name. One of them is a con man who is suddenly in deep trouble with the mafia. The other guy is the (disowned) older son of a rich man who is in a coma. And on the day the second guy is about to finally meet his long lost sister and come into his inheritance—he dies in a car accident, and the con man takes his place. That works because his long lost sister is blind and no one has seen the guy for twenty years so they don't know what he's supposed to look like anyways.

I mean, there's a few other twists to it, but that's basically it. And over the course of the series we learn lots of terrible family secrets and have crazy plot shenanigans happening. I stopped watching after five episodes.

The Good:

The two leads are great, both separately and together. Jo In-sung puts in a great performance as a con man who has just enough of a moral compass to get caught when he ends up doing the decent thing a few too many times. Song Hye-kyo put in an amazing performance as someone who is strong outside and in complete emotional turmoil. The sidekicks are fun, too. There's a weird faux-cest plot that kind of keeps things entertaining for awhile. The tragic backstory is suitably tragic and gut wrenching in places.

I'm starting to see a pattern in the roles Song Hye-kyo has been cast in. She starts out playing this coldly competent character that is missing something in her life. And once she finds a good man, then suddenly she'll be complete and all the trauma and bad stuff will finally be healed. She's played that kind of character in every role I've seen her in, and this is where that started. Overall, that's not a bad kind of character, and I enjoy watching her play it, but it seems like the rest of the show has been hit or miss.

The Bad:

The plot doesn't make sense. It will never make sense. From what I've read, the ending won't make any sense either. I can put up with alot of lapses in logic, depending on the show, but just know that going into it.

The Ugly:

Oh Young (Song Hye-kyo's character) keeps trying to kill herself. For reasons that kind of make sense. And Oh Soo (Jo In-sung's character) decides that slapping her is a good idea. I just cannot be cool with that. All the other toxic masculinity BS in the show—stuff that is supposed to be smoldering and show how much the man cares—just feels dated and tired.

I know where the show is coming from—I just can't keep watching when that kind of thing happens in a show. I've got a three wrist-grab limit, at this point (though I do subtract from that count for reverse wrist-grabs; it's a complicated system). I know some of this is cultural, but some of it isn't... and I'm tired of seeing it.

TL; DR:

Don't go into this show expecting logic. Don't expect it to be objectively good. But it can be entertaining for some people. Just not me.

[gina025]

Morning breeze

[nemainofthewater]

In honour of the fact it is the evening preceding the birth of a religious figure best known for rising from the dead please have this poll.

They are alive in our hearts 😭😭😭😭😭

There are SPOILERS

SO MANY SPOILERS

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

Write-ins, propaganda, and images are welcome!

[adventuresofalgy]

Although it was unpleasantly cold, and Algy worried about the creatures who lived within the water, he was always intrigued when the surface of the pond froze over and the ice was sufficiently thick for him to walk – or perch – upon its surface without risk of a drenching.

Alighting on the shimmering surface with a sideways slip and a slide, Algy stabilised himself as best he could and peered down through the ice, but he could see no sign of animate life. He wondered what kind of wee creatures might be hiding safely in the mud at the bottom of the pool, and he hoped that they would survive the freezing weather, which in fact was quite likely, for temperatures seriously below freezing were rare on the wild west coast of the Scottish Highlands, where the proximity of the great Atlantic Ocean ensured that the environment remained what the experts liked to call "mild", although Algy felt that if his tail feathers were anything to go by, what they really meant was "jolly cold"…

Glancing up at the sky, he could see a huge yellow-grey cloud approaching from the north, and before long he felt the tickle of the first tiny flakes of snow on his face. Algy thought of all his wee fluffy friends around the garden, and was glad that his assistants had a dilapidated old barn in which his feathered cousins could take cover… which reminded him of an old nursery rhyme he had learned as a very young fluffy chick:

The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will cock robin do then, poor thing? He'll sit in a barn, And keep himself warm, And hide his head under his wing, poor thing! The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will the swallow do then, poor thing? Oh, do you not know That he's off long ago To a country where he'll find the spring, poor thing! The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will the dormouse do then, poor thing? Roll'd up like a ball, In his nest snug and small, He'll sleep till warm weather comes in, poor thing! The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will the honey-bee do then, poor thing? In his hive he will stay Till the cold is away, And then he'll come out in the spring, poor thing! The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will the children do then, poor things? When lessons are done, They must skip, jump and run, Until they have made themselves warm, poor things!

[Algy is thinking of the old, traditional nursery rhyme The North Wind Doth Blow, first recorded at the beginning of the 19th century, or perhaps even earlier, and subsequently published in a number of different versions.]

[dangermousie]

When they aren't doing close up scenes and so aren't using a box for her, the height difference is INSANE

[no-where-new-hero]

✣ Blake Wrapped: KDrama Edition 📹

Almost exactly a year ago, I watched Goblin for the first time and loved it, as I knew I would (I am so very much the target audience for that show it’s not even funny). And when I started retagging the gifs and stuff I had reposted from that time, I saw that I tagged something with “I’m not in a kdrama phase per se, but…” Reader, I lied. The kdrama phase was just waiting dormant for its moment to overtake my life. Here’s my rough ranking of what I saw this year.

#1: Coffee Prince (2007)

It’s a little dated, but it also has worn tremendously well considering its contemporaries, and the bones are flawless: great writing with well-rounded characters, a gorgeously evocative soundtrack, a lovable cast. It has recognizable tropes (rich boy/poor girl, second leads, deceptions, etc) but never feels cliche. Also, it’s incredibly queer. Yes, the endgame of the main pair is happily heterosexual but the male lead works through a gay awakening and the female lead is basically non-binary. Even the second couple challenge gender roles in a refreshing way. I’ve only seen it twice because of platform difficulties, but it has compelling rewatch value.

#1’ : Goblin/Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (2016)

This show is a masterpiece. It has its weak moments here and there (one dreepy song in the OST, the female leads could be fleshed out more, some of the mythology is spit and string), but it’s such a stunning production in the whole that you don’t really get stuck on that. The cinematography is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in any piece of film ever, the instrumental music is unmatched, it engages with deep themes, and the interpersonal dynamics are gorgeous (I love the three-of-us-in-this-marriage feel among the mains). It’s also incredibly moving, especially in parts that you don’t expect. I’ve seen this five times and I’m still not bored of it.

#1.5: Tale of the Nine Tailed (2020)

Considering how much I’ve yelled about this, you���d think it would be higher, and I think my overall complaint about it is that, on a craft level, it’s telling two stories: the overt story is an immortal romance, but the underneath story is about family and redemption, and that’s the story that’s the compelling one. Unfortunately, unlike the first two I listed, the theme and plot don’t always cohere as well as they could. That being said, the characters are top-notch, the cinematography and effects are great, and the atmosphere always feels just a little bit off to be properly otherworldly. It gave me my OTP and set off an obsession. I need to rewatch it and suffer all over again.

#2: Hidden Identity (2015)

Of course, this drama is flawed, as viewers always seem to like pointing out, but I also did watch all sixteen episodes in less than 48 hours during a school week, which tells you something about its gripping pacing and structure. The episodes are, well, episodic, but the cliffhangers are fantastic, the various threads build well to the final boss, and It was also just a really well-produced show? The cinematography and fight choreography were masterfully executed, the cast really made the most of their roles, and the theme music was addictive. I was also, of course, watching it for the Plot (Kim Beom).

#2.5: Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 (2023)

It’s hard for me to evaluate this objectively because so much of it was fan-service, but since I was the fan being serviced, how could I not like it? It lacked the chic sexiness of the first season, but it was full of sincerity and incredible characters making heart-breaking and meaningful connections with each other—the writing improved, thank goodness—and the mix of fantasy, historical drama, and western made for a really fun setting. I enjoyed the shortened structure of having only 12 episodes instead of the standard 16 since it seemed to hold the pacing to a tighter rhythm.

#3: Special Labor Inspector Mr. Jo (2019)

Would I rewatch this? Probably not. Did I enjoy the heck out of it the first time? Absolutely. It’s a sharp, smart satire whose virtue lies in its breezy ability to entertain as a tall tale while keeping the themes and social commentary incredibly grounded. It’s amazing how a show with such cynicism could also be such fun. The cast was excellent and the plot deliberately uses familiar tropes of rich families, hired gangs, and love struggles to push through its message: Power destroys. Heroism is kindness. Sometimes all you need is one very angry and very tired gym teacher turned bureaucrat to make life better.

#4: Boys Over Flowers (2008)

This should not be as high as it is, but there were moments I still haven’t stopped thinking about and want to see again, which means it must have had something going on, even though I’m not sure what it was. I could never tell whether it was being ridiculous and outlandish on purpose or the show runners really thought they were making serious television. Exactly two songs in the soundtrack were good, and you also had that theme song as proper paratextual warning, and the outfits were what conservative people probably thing Queer Eye is. I do see why people like it. It’s just the kind of liking you have to do while mildly intoxicated.

#5: That Winter, the Wind Blows (2013)

This one was melodramatic to the hilt, but somehow weirdly compelling, both through the elaborate ruse that sets up the plot and through the outrageous beauty of the two leads. This is the kind of overdramatic and indulgent nonsense you sometimes want in fiction, especially when its gorgeous to look at. The male lead goes around in suspenders and nice pants looking like a 1930s gangster. His sidekick’s hair and outfit anticipates David Tennant’s Crowley by six years. The female lead’s disability was pretty sensitively portrayed. Sometimes that’s all you can ask for.

Bonus (movies): You all know my thoughts about Flight. Also going to mention Hellcats, which was absurd but also deserves full points for having a main character come out as gay for her best friend).

[sweetunknownmanager]

Ese Invierno, El Viento Sopla (Soundtrack Original en Español) 🇲🇽

Performed by Henry Bracho

Ventos de Inverno (Trilha Sonora Original em Português) 🇧🇷

Performed by Henry Bracho

[whereifindsanity]

Daniel Ernst

[vampire-named-gampire]

COC day 3 - AU

And so she walks in, 3 and a half years later, holding a pathetic little On thin ice update. If there's anyone still in the fandom who was reading this fic back in the day, I promise I'm still writing it and I'm sorry I ghosted y'all 😭 For everyone else, this is a figure skating AU that absolutely consumed my whole heart and soul during the pandemic.

Anyway this is actually not OTI but a sequel! Love writing a sequel before I finish the original fic. Maybe it's a little spoilery, but also I feel like it's pretty heavily implied in the original that this is going to happen. Anyway here's some Baz at the airport

Rated G, cca 400 words

BAZ

“Attention passengers! This is an announcement for passengers on flight 348 to New York. Due to bad weather conditions, the flight has been delayed until further notice. We apologize for any inconv—”

I shove my earbud back in my ear, cutting off the woman on the speaker. In the four hours we’ve been here, the announcement has rolled at least fifty times. New York, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, all delayed. It’s just our luck that we had to travel to the Olympics on the day London was struck by snowfall for the first time in years and Heathrow airport simply isn’t equipped to deal with it.

It would have been a smarter move to have gone with the rest of Ebb’s team two days ago, from Vancouver. But I had to make a stop in England first. Some would argue that it’s career suicide to go frolicking in England two weeks before the biggest competition of your life, but this was really important. And besides, I took Nicodemus with me. There is no way I could have slacked off under his watchful eye. (Nicodemus became my second coach this year, despite it putting him in the public eye, something he spend decades trying to avoid. He said he owed this much to my mother.)

Now Nicodemus, Fiona and I are stuck in Heathrow airport, waiting on a flight to Beijing, when we should’ve been somewhere above Russia or the North Pole by now.

I sigh and pull my earbuds out. My ears are starting to hurt after ten hours of having them in. Everything is starting to hurt. I wish I was in bed. More specifically, in bed in the Olympic Village in Beijing. (Even if they decided to go for cardboard beds again.)

“We should’ve taken the flight from Vancouver,” Nicodemus sighs, as if reading my mind.

“No one could have predicted this,” I mutter.

“Clearly not. Listen, I’m going to get some food. Do you want anything?”

“No.”

“You should still get up. Stretch your legs.”

“Then who’s going to watch over Fiona?” I joke. Fiona is curled up on a bench opposite of us, using her brand-new Great Britain Olympic Team jacket as a blanket, fast asleep.

“Eh, she’s going to be fine. Go on and walk around a bit. You don’t want to be arriving in Beijing all sore.”

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

are you feeling invigorated by the recent rumblings of twow surrounding worldcon and the recent notablog vagues? i think for a lot of newer fans this is their first major twow incident (and i say this as a relatively recent fan, just 2017 lol). do you feel the same hope or have yours been thoroughly quashed? apologies if this is one of those asks you're sick of

Oh, I still feel hope, I'm just extremely jaded to the sort of thing people think are "clues". "Words of Wisdom" = "Winds of Winter" is nonsense (do y'all not remember blowing up his last quote post 3 months ago to no result?), and the deuxmoi blind gossip about GRRM getting a dragon cake party catered was lying nonsense (the submitter confessed on twitter they were half trolling, and also later admitted the catering was for June 16th). If GRRM is done, he'll say so, this isn't an ARG.

And well, as for Worldcon, I went to the one in Chicago in 2012 hoping for a preview chapter read, and got plenty of details about TWOIAF! 😂 Several of my friends have been to other GRRM-attended Worldcons since-- and they're fun, as long as you keep your expectations low. Like, some years ago I was told by a [BNF] friend he had heard from [major BNFs] that he really ought to attend the 2019 Dublin Worldcon, which he thought was a suspicious comment... and welp. 🤷‍♀️ At least he had a good time in Ireland!

Of course I'll keep an eye out for news out of Glasgow in August, or any actual info before then, but I'm not going to make myself crazy about it, lol.