#also . . . it truly is a miracle that i only finished one kdrama this month?

[katierosefun]

somehow made it through february with all of its ups and downs, and so we’re here with another rec list! i didn’t consume as nearly as much media as i did in january because the semester is now in swing for me, but here’s the stuff i did manage to watch/listen to/read!

kdrama: 

all about my romance 

you know, i’m not the biggest fan of shows about politics, but . . . maybe i just kinda wanted to watch a fluffy rom-com and not think about much else, and so i watched all about my romance, which . . . tbh, isn’t exactly the best in rom-com genre, but shin ha kyun playing a fool in love with the idealistic and passionate representative no min young (lee min jung) was pretty cute. basically, this show is about two different politicians in different parties--kim soo young (shin ha kyun) being in what i think is meant to be the more conservative party, no min young being on the more liberal party. what’s interesting though is that kim soo young apparently used to be on the liberal party too before switching sides. of course, you wouldn’t think that these two would ever fall in love, but after some rather funny events, rep. kim falls in love with rep. no, and together, they do their best to keep a secret relationship while also pretending to be enemies in public. 

again, it’s probably not my favorite kdrama in the world, but it had its cute moments! not really sure if i would watch this again, but you know . . . shin ha kyun looked really good in this drama, so maybe watch it for that?

tv:

midnight mass 

even though i was spoiled for a good chunk of this show, i was still incredibly impressed with this story. mike flanagan truly knows how to combine horror with love (or maybe horror was always about love), and he’s really now my favorite director/creator because whoo boy-- 

but anyways, for those who somehow don’t know, this show is about a really sleepy, kinda downtrodden island town. and then the new priest comes to the town’s church: father paul (hamish linklater), who’s charismatic + influential and may or may not have his own agenda with the whole place. i don’t really want to spoil this show a whole ton, but it’s incredibly . . . powerful. granted, it’s very monologue-y (moreso than other of flanagan’s works), but given the atmosphere + the themes of the show, i feel like that was all warranted. it’s only 7 episodes, so it’s a pretty quick watch. it’s also not exactly . . . hm, even though it’s horror, there weren’t any jumpscares. i think this might actually be a good “horror” show for those who don’t really like horror--or it might be a good entrypoint into the genre. (lots of blood, maybe like one or two jump scares, so very few in comparison to other horror shows/works . . . and really, of course, rather beautiful. the last shot will always haunt me.)

movies:

i am easy to find 

this is an interesting short film--24 minutes long and unique in that it really is a very long music video of this album. i don’t really know how to describe it, except this is one of those short films where nothing happens but also everything happens. it’s just one woman living her whole life, from birth till death, and it really is something that made my head spin a little bit, because what is a life anyways? what makes a life? not surprised that this was directed by mike mills, the same man who directed one of my favorite movies of all time, beginners (2010), because these two pieces of his work are definitely in conversation with each other. (life, but now composed of so many little moments.) i don’t have much else to say except i think i’ll appreciate this short film more when i’m older, but right now, it was a quiet watch for when my brain was tired.

the present

this is a 40 minute samsung ad, but you know what? i’m not going to complain, because the whole cast was so cute, and i witnessed shin ha kyun being literally the cutest, and it was a funny feel-good short film that made me make a lot of “awww” sounds, so that’s all that matters. 

basically, this short film  is about a pair of young up-and-coming entrepreneurs oh ha neul (kim jun myon) and bo ra (kim seul gi), whose lives are temporarily interrupted by the sudden appearance of a man out of time (shin ha kyun). there’s not much more to it than that, but this short film was so cute, and it was def. made with the goal to encourage young entrepreneurs, and it made me so :’))

gerald’s game

. . . so this was a movie. that i watched. tbh, i was kinda watching it pretty fast and looking away from the most gruesome scenes (because there are gruesome scenes), so idk if i really watched the movie so much as just winced through it, but still, i think i appreciate this movie for how it so cleverly dug into dealing with trauma. also, it’s worth noting that gerald’s game, the novel by stephen king, was thought to be the book that couldn’t be adapted into a movie (easy to see why: very little change in scenery, very few characters, etc), but mike flanagan + carla gugino + bruce greenwood delivered. 

i kinda wish i liked this movie a bit more, bc it was clever, but also it made me so squeamish. basically, it’s about a married couple that go up to their lake house as a holiday (ie. fix their marriage). gerald (bruce greenwood), the husband, has a heart attack after chaining jessie (carla gugino) to the bed bc of a sex game . . . and so jessie’s stuck there with her dead husband and slowly goes mad bc . . . y’know, dehydration. also trauma. because of those super serious themes, major trigger warnings bc there’s quite . . . a lot of unsettling stuff here (gore, child molestation, etc). 

that said, i do appreciate the intense character-heavy focus on what trauma can do to a person, but also, there were some parts that i didn’t like. (specifically the weird serial killer subplot. because there’s a serial killer subplot and it doesn’t really do anything to the plot and i kinda wish it wasn’t there. but y’know, okay. i get it. also, this movie made me hate dogs. i didn’t think that was possible, but this movie really made me hate dogs.) so . . . idk, carla gugino + bruce greenwood are fantastic, and mike flagan’s fantastic in really depicting this story, but also, there’s . . . so many squicky things / elements to this story so i honestly wouldn’t watch it again, but i guess ? if you’re interested in flagan’s other stuff, then ? have fun ? (but also maybe be sure that uh . . . you don’t have anything in your stomach beforehand.)

spencer

i watched this movie on a really cloudy day, which i think was appropriate. it was just really . . . slow-moving and kind of chilling (it’s always cold) in the first 3/4 of the film, but i think it’s appropriate. this film is basically about princess diana (played by kristen stewart) and her christmas weekend, presumably the one that kind of defined for her to divorce prince charles. 

okay, so for starters . . . i didn’t really think i’d like this movie at first, in part because the beginning is pretty slow, but as i kept watching, i just found myself getting very slowly sucked in. there are some really amazing scenes in this movie (god . . . i can’t talk about them normally), and more than anything though, i just felt very sad about princess diana. that said, a really beautifully made film. the music and the writing and kristen stewart . . . everything just slowly comes together in this really phenomenal way, and when i tell you there are some excellent scenes in this movie--there are some genuinely excellent scenes in this movie (god, the dining room scene . . . the pearls . . . that whole sequence might have driven me insane). 

minari 

there are very few movies that genuinely makes me feel like a whole person, but minari made me feel like a whole person. something that was just so beautifully made and done with so much honesty and love and also made me feel like . . . a person. which is to say, korean-american. which is to say, there are very few american movies with korean american characters that actually makes me feel real (instead of a caricature or a stereotype). it’s not surprising that minari is one of those films, seeing that it’s made by lee isaac chung, himself being korean-american growing up in arkansas. 

god, i can’t talk about this movie without getting insanely personal, but basically: this movie is about a korean-american family moving out to arkansas to start a farm growing korean vegetables and fruits. the father, jacob (steven yeun), is optimistic, ready to start this new life. his wife monica (han ye ri (my BELOVED)) is much more anxious about this chapter, while their children anne (noel cho) and david (alan kim) take in this new environment like any other korean-american kid. (partial bewilderment, partial excitement, but also concern about their parents’ straining relationship in the face of this sudden shift in their lives.) in an effort to make this transition easier, monica’s mother (youn yuh jung) moves in, and the story really starts from there. 

everything about this movie is just excellent. the acting is amazing, the camerawork and the music is stellar, and the way this is very much a film about the korean-american experience is just . . . well, to be said simply, i’ve never seen a film that’s really got at the heart of being korean-american besides this one. i kind of can’t talk normally about this film because i’ll just get overwhelmed and lie down, but even if you’re not korean-american, i highly recommend this film, just because i think in general, it’s one of those insanely wonderful films that i think everyone and anyone should watch. it’s about a family, it’s about new beginnings, it’s about the hardship of new beginnings, it’s about dreams and failed dreams, it’s about a desire to have a better life, it’s about starting over and over again despite it all, it’s about what you do when you need to start over again . . . god. what a beautiful film.

the secret life of walter mitty 

i watched this movie for the first time in theaters when it came out. i was probably 12, maybe 13 years old, and back then, i didn’t really understand the entirety of the movie. i just thought that the music was cool, and i liked the settings, but that was about it. then i rewatched it when i was 13, 14 in a hotel room, and i remember i was sick that day, and i was feeling really alone, but i found myself falling in love a little more with this movie. 

i watched it again, now at 22, and i discovered that i couldn’t really move after the film, just because i felt really. emotional. basically, for those who don’t know, this movie is about this kinda ordinary guy named walter mitty (ben stiller). he seems to zone out every now and then, fantasizing all these dramatic and cool moments in his mundane life. then something happens at work, which leads him down this wild goose chase to find a guy that he’s been working with for the last 16 years. this goose chase leads him to all sorts of places: greenland, iceland, afghanistan . . . and yet while this film is very much about being brave and doing something stupid and impulsive, it’s also very much about finding something beautiful even in the quieter moments of your life. or like. what makes a life a life. 

music:

laurel hell by mitski

god. how do i describe how this album makes me feel? i was writing my first paper of the semester (my first paper of the last semester undergrad, no less) when this album came out, and i just kind of felt myself get swept away. as always, mitski really is this poetic force. her sounds and her lyrics are just so interesting to me in that all her songs are so short, but i still feel so full after listening to them, which i think is the sign of really good songwriting. jarring, cutting straight to the bone and yet able to fit so many complex emotions . . . god, that’s mitski. anyways. my favorite tracks are love me more and i guess, both of which absolutely wrecked me. also there’s nothing left for you. i cried a lot listening to there’s nothing left for you. and i guess. and love me more. just something about burn out, something about feeling like everyone’s moving on, and you’re moving on too, but kind of in this tired way. something about feeling thankful but also a bit sad because there’s some chapter ending or your life’s moving in a direction that you’ve predicted for a while now, but it’s finally becoming a reality and you don’t know what to do with all these feelings. 

even if things fall apart by lee seung yoon 

so, i knew lee seung yoon first from his fantastic song we are on the law school ost, and then the touching the giving tree from the our beloved summer ost, but when i came back home for break this month, my mom showed me a bunch of lee seung yoon’s videos from his time as a jtbc show contestant, where he made his big hit. my mom really loved his story (33 years old, singing not inside cafes, but outside them because cafes didn’t accept him . . . going on this show as one last attempt on his singing before finally calling it quits on his dream), and i found myself so pleasantly surprised by his voice and my personal connection to him as an artist (i was like “EOMMA I WAS APPARENTLY ALREADY LISTENING TO HIM?”). he’s so incredibly versatile, and this album of his really shows that. there’s something so . . . satisfying about his voice, and he’s able to touch different styles so well. he can do the teasing growl, the soulful mellow thingie (besties. ... i’m not a singer idk) . . . his songs are so sweepingly optimistic and soft and bright, despite his own hardships, and i think i would rather like to hear his music forever. a true gem. even if you don’t understand korean, i recommend giving his stuff a listen, especially his title song even if things fall apart. 

sleep well beast by the national

you know, i was familiar with some of the national’s songs, but i got properly into them this month, maybe because i watched i am easy to find (and they did the soundtrack for that short film). i was already familiar with some of the songs from sleep well beast, but i gave the whole album a real listen and just quietly fell in love with them. the national is just one of those bands where the lyrics and sounds weave into this really long, really beautiful poem, and i just found myself getting really lost in the music. there were lots of cloudy days this month, so i found myself sometimes just waking up and listening to them for hours during those days and nights. my favorite tracks include nobody else will be there and guilty party.

books: (because oh my god, i actually read a book this month? thank goodness, because i missed reading) 

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone 

i think someone reviewed this book as just poetry disguised as genre fiction, because that is exactly how i can describe this book. poetry, but disguised as genre fiction. something to do with a war in time and space. two different people, presumably women, who are apparently the best of the best and writing letters to one another from different sides of the war. 

i don’t really know how else to describe this book other than insane. but a brilliant, exciting insane. i am reading the letters between lovers, and what’s weird is that i think a lot of these kinds of books (the epistolary novel) can get boring rather quickly--or they can attempt to stuff in some kind of plot, although it doesn’t always work (at least not for me). 

but this book really gets away with it in that in these letters themselves, there’s not so much plot as there is just really witty, really lovely banter but also, somehow, miraculously, you can tell these characters are growing fonder and fonder for each other. their letters to one another are snappy, quick to the bone--and then you’ll read a line that’ll just make you sink and hold your breath because ah, that’s what it means to be truly in love with someone. and i dunno--i suppose i truly am a hopeless romantic, because i am and always will always find something so lovely and endearing about falling in love with someone’s voice before actually hearing it first. 

i don’t really have much more to say about this book other than that if you really want to read a book that’s relatively short (and this book is really short--only 200 pages!) and just full of incredibly lyrical writing, then i highly recommend this book. 

[universetwo]

92 Question Tag

I was tagged by my #1 boo @stan-the-best-stan-monsta-x also I would love that too if your cute ass would be living here with me in New York. The city would be less boring for sure. AND I LOVE YOU TOO 💗

THE LAST …

1. drink: coffee (i visited my grandma and she made nice coffee for me and my mom)

2. phone call: my grandma yesterday

3. text message: From my close friend from high school

4. song you listened to: EXO - Lucky One

5. time you cried: today while watching Lonely by Sistar I teared up a little bit. These are emotional days

HAVE YOU EVER …

6. dated someone twice: almost but thank god my high school friend and my mom stopped me from it 

7. been cheated on: not that I know of

8. kissed someone and regretted it: lol yes and it was my “first kiss”

9. lost someone special: yes, like physically as well but emotionally too

10. been depressed: Junior year of high school was the lowest point in my depression phases but I have those moments still

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: thank god no, so far it seems like I’m good with alcohol

LIST THREE FAVOURITE COLOURS (12, 13, 14):

every shade of blue

mint

rose quartz and serenity 

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU …

15. made new friends: yes a few in college and a few online :)) 

16. fallen out of love: not in the last year

17. laughed until you cried: it happens a lot of times because I’m easily impressed even with the stupidest jokes ever and I like to laugh a lot

18. found out someone was talking about you: yes, and about my crush, it was embarrassing

19. met someone who changed you: yes and most of the times positively

20. found out who your true friends are: yes

21. kissed someone on your facebook list: no

GENERAL STUFF

22. how many of your facebook tumblr friends do you know in real life: only my bestie. I have tumblr, twitter, and facebook friends too but I haven’t met them in real life yet

23. do you have any pets: still just the stray cat :// but we are progressing, last time she came to my window and meowed in until I didn’t greet her, I felt touched 

24. do you want to change your name: only while I was living in Hungary but since I moved to the US I feel it’s more unique than I thought

25. what did you do for your last birthday: I actually don’t remember lol I don’t even know what day it was on 

26. what time did you wake up: around 8 because I was having some weird dreams

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: I was definitely not looking at pictures of SVT members’ exposed abs I was being pure and pretending the world doesn’t hate me

28. name something you cannot wait for: to get a scholarship for my next semester and to go to the Monsta X concert 🙏

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: a few seconds ago

30. what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: actually there are many things but foremost I would like to be more productive and not leaving important things last minute. I would also like to travel more and see my bestie more often

31. what are you listening to right now: DAY6 - Letting Go and I’m becoming an emotional mess

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes

33. something that is getting on your nerves: right now it’s my financial situation and how fucked up the US health care is

34. most visited website: YouTube and Twitter

35. elementary school: a small school in my hometown where I was in an art course and I met so many of my good friends there including my quality trash queen @stan-the-best-stan-monsta-x

36. high school: International high school in Brooklyn

37. college: City College of New York in Harlem, I just finished my first year

38. hair color: Light brown with blonde highlights

39. long or short hair: kind of in the middle but I want to cut it shorter soon

40. do you have a crush on someone: as being a kpop and kdrama trash I have many crushes but my main crush is this rude extremely cute boy now

41. what do you like about yourself: my eyes and my height as in terms of looks but I think I have some good qualities in my personality too

42. piercings: just regular earrings

43. blood type: A

44. nickname: Timi, Timcsi, Squirrel

45. relationship status: committed to kpop idols

46. zodiac sign: scorpio, which means I’m a sexual predator with an evil laugh and will definitely destroy you after I told you my deepest secrets *sigh*

47. pronouns: she/her

48. favorite tv show: Doctor Who, Sherlock, Game of Thrones (and these are only the non-Korean ones so a lot more)

49. tattoos: None for now but I think I will have later

50. righty or lefty: Righty

FIRST …

51. surgery: Adenoids surgery when I was like 8?? 

52. piercing: regular ear piercings when I was a child

53. best friend: the person who is still actively supporting me and pretends to like my lame jokes

54. sport: soccer with my dad

55. vacation: 2010 to New York and even then I was hoping one day I can live here and two years later it happened 

56. pair of sneakers: Converse, pink

right now …

57. eating: nothing but I want to eat a hot dog (actually since I watched SVT in LA vlive with Mingyu’s cookings I want to eat a hot dog)

58. drinking: nothing but I want to drink water lol

59. i’m about to: work on my Harry Potter - Kpop Au

60. listening to: Monsta X - Rush *vroom vroom*

61. waiting for: Monsta X concert

62. do you want kids: yess two at least, and cats and puppies who will be my kids too

63. do you want to get married: yes but definitely not in five years, ten maybe

64: what career do you want: Well because I have many interests and hobbies I would like to be many things in life. For now, I want to direct/edit movies and music videos, while continuing with blogging and vlogging. I also want to publish my books that I’m writing. And when I get tired of a busy life I want to be a teacher to pass on my knowledge to younger generations and to help out less fortunate kids. 

WHICH IS BETTER …

65. hugs or kisses: hugs, I love hugs TT

66. lips or eyes: eyes, eyes are my weaknesses

67. shorter or taller: taller, but it doesn’t really matter

68. older or younger: older and same age, but younger by a few years is okay too

70. nice arms or nice stomach: I really like guys who have nice arms/hands where you can see their veins and such, the good thing is that I know I’m not the only one in this world who likes that even if it sounds weird lol. Also a good example is Yoongi, okay, bye

but like I don’t really care about abs and all, said me who was looking at SVT members’ abs last midnight but hey that was just for science

71. sensitive or loud: Both, because I can be both too

72. hook up or relationship: relationship

73. troublemaker or hesitant: oh well is there an in-between

HAVE YOU EVER …

74. kissed a stranger: nope

75. drank hard liquor: yes

76. lost glasses/lenses: no thank god but my glasses did break before while I was on the soccer field and it made me so sad rip

77. turned someone down: yes

78. had sex on the first date: no

79. broken someone’s heart: yes

80. had your heart broken: yes..

81. been arrested: yes lol by fangirl police @kawaii-hedgehog along with @stan-the-best-stan-monsta-x and I can’t believe you said you have never been arrested

82. cried when someone died: yes

83. fallen for a friend: yes, sort of

DO YOU BELIEVE IN …

84. yourself: not on Sundays and Mondays

85. miracles: kind of

86. love at first sight: as I go more for personality than looks, the answer is no to that as not even in a month you can truly know a person’s personality and I need time to fall in love, but I can develop cute crushes easily

87. santa claus: I caught Santa too early in my childhood, I wish I would have had that childish belief for longer

88. kiss on the first date: I mean if the two of you are really feeling it, though I’m not that type who would do it. Unless if I went on a date with someone that I have known longer and developed a deeper crush

89. angels: You mean Yoon Jeonghan? Because yes

OTHER …

90. current best friends name: RÉKA, MY BOO I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND I MISS YOU

91. eye color: kind of like forest green?

92. favorite movie: too many to choose from, I just like science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and spy movies

I tag @photosynthesizingparkhyungsik @kawaii-hedgehog @hobiplz You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to ^^ also if anyone wants to do this tag just let me know and I can tag you. Thank you for reading through this, it’s a lot :D