Regrets and Hard Decisions

This is a hard post to write, possibly the hardest in the (somewhat sparse) history of BHCB and I don’t do so with a light heart.

The Empress and I (the Ambassador) will be taking an indefinite hiatus from BHCB.

We both have an insane summer ahead and a fall that will probably be at least as crazy as the summer or worse. 

When we started the blog, three 20-something girls, we had big dreams and plans.  We still have the dreams, but over the last year+, the plans have been kicked around and stomped on by life.  At some point we would love to be able to come back and make this blog into the resource we envision.

It’s just not feasible right now.  For that, we’re sorry, and we regret that we're forced to .

It’s a rather ‘open’ hiatus, in that if we randomly wind up writing a review or I find time to index more historical dramas, we will post those.  But to all intents and purposes, we’re saying goodbye for an indefinite amount of time.

Unni Maknae and Milady hope to be back to run the blog this fall, but for the rest of the summer they will also be taking a break to focus on life and regrouping.

Thank you.  Thanks to each and every one of you loyal readers who kept reading even though posts weren’t always regular.  To those who commented, and those who didn’t, thank you. 

Feel free to continue to read the reviews we do have and access the lists we did finish.

Happy drama watching to you and we hope to see you again!

WWW ~ June 2017

Welcome to the June 2017 edition of Who's Watching What!

As you will have seen last week, we've added a new contributor.  Muahahaha.  The three of us have had a hard enough time just keeping up with what little posting we have done lately, and while Unni Maknae will be home soon, the Empress and I will likely have even less time for the rest of this summer.  We're all looking forward to having Milady on board.

With no further ado, check out the June dramas!


KOREAN
~ The Best Hit
Empress: From description...no...from glimpses I've seen on tumblr I'm tempted...from what else I've heard...I really don't think it'll interest me. But...Imighthaveaddedittomylistforsomeunknownreason. XD {<-- probable reason being Yoon Shi Yoon.}
Ambassador: Well, I was going to stay that although YSY and Lee Se Young (hilarious actress + great in Vampire Detective) make it tempting... probably not, at least not until after it’s done airing.  Then I saw some trailers and read another synopsis and now it's a strong possibility.
Just sayin', watching Yoon Shi Yoon create scandals is going to be terrific.
Unni: -
Milady: Okay, while this sounds kind of interesting, it doesn't sound interesting enough.


~ Duel
Empress: Yes. Already on my list. I don't know WHEN I'll get to it...but I am very intrigued. {And Circle is killing it right now, so...Korean science fiction is going to make me happy for a while.}
Ambassador: YES.  It looks FASCINATING.   OCN usually has gritty but interesting thrillers. 
Unni: -
Milady: Okay, this sounds like a cool storyline, but it's a thriller.  Nope, not watching it.


~ Forest of Secrets
Empress: I'm a little bored with the lacks-emotion storyline...Dr. Frost I enjoyed, but...how many can you repeat...
Ambassador: Rather a typical k-storyline in many respects, it still sounds pretty interesting (and Lee Joon Hyuk plays second lead), though I doubt I’ll have time for it.  It’s the kind of thing the Empress usually tries, though, so I’ll wait and see if she says it’s good.
Empress: *sees what the Ambassador said* LOLLL okay, the title did intrigue me a little bit. We'll see if it manages to snag me and then I'll see that it gets you, too. XD
Ambassador: Ever my delightfully evil drama angel. :D
Unni: -
Milady: Sorry, this one just sounds weird!


~ Woman of Dignity
Empress: Have you guys SEEN the posters for it? I have zero interest in the plot, but Kim Hee-Seon being scary and gorgeous intrigues me. It's probably a good thing I have no time for it. XD
Ambassador: From the synopsis, I seriously doubt it, though posters are making it super tempting.  (Pfft, Empress, for Kim Hee-seon, you’d watch a lot, so you’re probably going to try it out at some point anyway.)
Unni: -
Milady: Nope.



CHINESE
~ Princess Agents
Empress: Wow....I am intrigued. The odds are not good at all, but I'm adding it to my list. XD
Ambassador: I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.  YES, definitely, especially with Lin Geng Xin and this storyline.  Definitely.  Hu Bing also stars (Ice Fantasy's Fire King).
Unni: -
Milady: Whoa!!  This is quite the story, but not really my cup of tea.  Besides, I can just have the Ambassador tell me the story as she watches it.
Ambassador: I aim to please.


~ Late Night Restaurant/Midnight Diner
Empress: nawww....
Ambassador: Nooooope.  Not my type.
Unni: -
Milady: Sounds cute, but probably not.


~ Blooming Flowers Shall Send Us on Our Way
Empress:  I kinda like the title, and of course I ALWAYS POINT OUT THAT BASED ON A NOVEL INTERESTS ME, but...the rest does not intrigue me.
Ambassador: Nope, not my thing.  I’ll leave it to Unni or Milady.
Unni: -
Milady: Now I might watch this one.  I've yet to watch a Chinese drama.


~ Coffee Prince Lab
Empress: Naw.
Ambassador: China's version of Coffee Prince.  Unni, you saw the Korean version, right?  I haven't seen the Korean version yet, and probably won't watch this even after I do.
Unni: -
Milady: Ehhh, maybe.


~ Best Arrangement
Empress: ....nope.
Ambassador: How...sweet.  Not my type though.
Unni: -
Milady: Nah.


~ Advisors Alliance
Empress: *WAILS BECAUSE TIME* I'm trying to not add more dramas. Why does no one understand this?? 50 episodes??
Ambassador: A 50 EPISODE DRAMA ON SIMA YI.  SERIOUSLY??? YES, I’M WATCHING THIS.  TOTALLY.  THE MINUTE IT’S SUBBED. ALL THE PRETTY.  BLOOD.  POWER.  POLITICS.  CATFIGHTS.  Gimme.
Unni: -
Milady: Uhhhhhhh....NO!!


~ Stairway to Stardom 
[Orlando Bloom and Wang Ziwen will cameo.] 
Empress: I'm going to find the Orlando Bloom cameo on youtube and call it good. XD
Ambassador: Not really my thing, but if the synopsis is correct and Orlando Bloom will be cameoing, then I'll find out what episode that is and watch it or part of it.
Unni: -
Milady: I see 'Orlando Bloom' and I say, YES PLEASE!!!  I'll probably watch this.


~ My Ruby My Blood
Empress: a) so sick of poor girls with terrible families...can we have a poor girl where everybody is trying hard? and dump the loser boyfriend? b) A jewelry manager who discovers a talented designer actually makes sense, unlike a lot of these rich/poor dramas. c) I like the title, weirdly. d) Positives do not outweight the negatives in my case. XD
Ambassador: Nicky Wu sure makes this tempting, though as a rule I don't go for rom coms, Chinese even less than Korean or Japanese.
Unni: -
Milady: Jewelry, maybe.


~ Love ’til the End of Summer
Empress: That sounds so depressing.
Ambassador: Nooooope.  Not my type.
Unni: -
Milady: I don't think so.


~ My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
Empress: That sounds like a total mess. XD No, thanks.
Ambassador: At first I thought it might be a Chinese drama version of the American movie (which was amusing).  But this sounds like the latest retelling/adaptation of the manga ‘Absolute Boyfriend’.  I have no plans to watch it.
Unni: -
Milady: I saw the title and immediately thought of the American movie.  But I don't think I'll watch this.


~ Angelo
[Cversion of the kdrama Thank You from 2007, with Jang Hyuk and Gong Hyo Jin, also Shin Sung Rok.]
Empress: Gah. No. Marriage Contract was way plenty enough outside my usual, and sad enough to last me several more years. I'm not going to watch a similarly heartbreaking Chinese drama.
Ambassador: you want heartbreak?  WATCH THIS.  I’ll probably check it out for Liu Shi Shi at some point.
Unni: -
Milady: This sounds sad, but sweet.  Maybe.



TAIWAN
~ Q Series: A Boy Named Flora A
Empress: Nope.
Ambassador: Nah, I don't watch the Q series.
Unni: -
Milady: Sounds boring.



THAI
~ Game Maya
Empress: ....I am intrigued....I will probably wait to hear about it from somebody else, but maybe. XD
Ambassador: Sounds pretty interesting, actually.  I'll probably check it out if I ever get a spare minute.  Ha.
Unni: -
Milady: At first I thought, nah, but then I re-read the synopsis.  I might watch it.



RECAP: Our Top May Picks
Empress:
DUEL. Given how many May dramas I'm in the middle of, nobody else gets to be top picks XD

Ambassador:
Duel
Princess Agents
Advisors Alliance

Unni:
--------

Milady:
Blooming Flowers Shall Send Us on Our Way
Stairway to Stardom
Game Maya



What June dramas will YOU be watching?

My Black Hole to Another Galaxy

  Before introducing myself, I would like to thank the founders of this Club for inviting me to join. It is a great honor and I hope I will be able to live up to it.  Thank you.

  I was exposed to Korean dramas long before I ever watched one.  My older sister, the Ambassador, started watching them in 2013 and she was obsessed!!!!  Like seriously obsessed!!  She talked about them all the time, played the soundtracks and was finally able to convince Mum to watch them, I thought “okay, whatever”.  I do remember at one point saying, “I’m never going to say that I won’t watch any” because I had said that about Les Miserables….and I watched that.  

The summer of 2015, I was going through a rather rough time and one afternoon Mum and the Ambassador got to talking about the kdramas they had seen.  They told me the basic outline of City Hunter, Healer, a few others and decided that I needed to watch kdrama.  That weekend, we began watching You’re Beautiful.  I loved it.  It took me a while to remember the characters' names (and to actually be able to pronounce them), but it was so much fun.  After we finished You’re Beautiful, we moved onto Boys Over Flowers.  November came, and the Ambassador became too busy with NaNoWriMo to watch kdrama with us, so we wound up stopping in the middle of episode 7 and just stalled there for months…in fact, we still haven’t finished that drama, though I think we’re now on episode 11.  The Ambassador and I spent New Year's Eve 2015 watching the Korean movie Pirates that was hilariously funny, but we didn't go back to watching dramas.  

February of 2016 came and I really wanted more kdrama, I just didn’t want to watch BoF.  However I did very much want to watch Healer.  We watched it and I fell head over heels in love with kdramas!  (Before, I had just liked them a lot.)  I laughed, cried and cheered my way through it, glowering at Mum and the Ambassador when they would talk about spoilers in code, using puppy dog eyes (and promises of treats)- which didn’t always work- to see more episodes then we had planned to watch in a night. It immediately became my favorite drama.  It is still my favorite (I’m listening to the soundtrack while I write this) and I think I’ve re-watched it at least twice...and particular parts way more times then that.  From Healer we moved to City Hunter and that drama absolutely killed me, wrenched out my heart, trampled it, stabbed it, sliced it.  It was so beautiful, but so heartbreaking.  

While we watched that, the Ambassador was also watching Descendants of the Sun and giving the family weekly updates (generally at the supper table) and we decided that it was definitely next on the list.  DotS became my one of my second favorite dramas (City Hunter is the other) and from there it kind of snowballed.  I watched more dramas with Mum and the Ambassador, watched some by myself, watched them with just one or the other, but I’ve yet to find a drama I didn’t enjoy.  Even though I think The K2 could have been a lot better and was very disappointing because I expected so much more, I still enjoyed it.
 

 Now I watch them whenever I can, tell my friends to watch them (I’m quite proud of my gradually growing list of ‘casualties’ in that department!) and listen to soundtracks a lot.  

I found that kdramas feed me in a way that American TV/movies don’t. They tend to have deeper plots and characters, even the rom-coms, then most American drama.  I still love lots of American TV shows and movies, but now there are times when only kdrama will do!

 It is a great pleasure to meet you all and I look forward to sharing my kdrama experiences with you.