The promos are picking up for upcoming Coupang Play drama Cinderella at 2am. I am fine with noona-dongsaeng romances if the chemistry is there but I have strong reservations with female lead Shin Hyun Bin, not because she can’t act but because she has never shown any romantic or sexual chemistry onscreen in any drama I have watched of hers. Male lead Moon Sang Min is going down the Chae Jong Hyeob route, insanely tall and very wholesomely good looking but needs the right role and project to elevate to the next level. I’m keeping an eye out for this drama thought because its adapted from a webtoon so if the story is compelling it may be worth a watch.
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I hate age gaps. I was watching Snowfall with Nana Ouyang and Gao Weiguang and it's noticeable that he could be her father lol. They have a 17 years of age difference. The production tried hard to make him look younger with the use of filters, but it didn't work. The chemistry is not there either.
Yes, I don't like big age gaps either. In Snowfall things are worse because the FL spends the first few episodes styled like a 9 year old. Apparently later on that changes and things get better, but I dropped it so I cannot tell.
In Cinderella though, I am thinking that maybe there's a reason she's older. Of course I haven't read the webtoon,but maybe the fact that she's older is one of the reasons she decides their relationship is doomed when she find out that he's ultra-rich and technically her boss. Maybe that explains why she takes the money to lea e him, I don't know.
By the way, can anyone recommend good series from Japan or Taiwan? I have only seen movies from both countries. Honestly I've grown tired of Chinese productions, and I haven't found anything that piques my interest from South Korea so far in 2024 :(
at least try not to show your sinophobia
There are people on this blog who like to deliberately misunderstand others. I have not shared any opinion with anti-Chinese sentiment. All I have pointed out is that I have grown tired of Chinese productions because of their low artistic quality. They did fine decades before in their movies but now there is no greatness. There are series from China that I appreciate but they are few.
I highly recommend to you japan drama Kiss that kils / Todome no kiss.
I was about to recommend this too! It is harder to find good video quality of this drama with Eng sub. I wish Netflix would pick it up so I could do a rewatch of this drama.
When watching this, first ep is a little crazy and weird so make sure to try ep 2 and onwards.
@avarachika
Yes, I remember watching the last episode ongoing with machine translation.
For a while I didn't know about the special episodes, and that they showed the full ending, because it wasn't translated.
But now it seems whole drama has been translated on pirate sites.
I love weird and crazy part as well, this drama is completely to my taste. Enjoyed from beginning till the end.
So recommend it to everyone, it's worth to watch.
ohhh I finished this one, it’s quite good. I was watching it just because the trailer looked hot but the plot is really interesting
@Yuhyi
I'm glad you liked it!
I excited to recommend japan dramas, lol.
MV, if you want to found out a bit about the plot (contains spoilers):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AM4x_Zu_r88&pp=ygUSS2lzcyB0aGF0IGtpbGxzIG12
And japan drama Love shuffle. It's a good drama, but from 2009, and the plot is a pretty extraordinary:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=a8yXtqnCwZ4&pp=ygUVTG92ZSBzaHVmZmxlIG12IGRyYW1h
But maybe it's better if you say about your tastes, what kind of dramas you like
Someday or one day.
Honestly if it’s japanese, the most recent I can give is shoujiki no fudousan. It was a good drama to learn about real estate and overall enjoyable.
Taiwan… only know someday or one day dor the most recent.
For korean if you wanna try, dreaming of freaking fairytale, it was collab with korea snl director so I really like the humor
A bit old but I recommend jdrama galileo (2007) and kurosagi(2008). Galileo has a lot of science related case while kurosagi is about various scam. Since kurosagi is quite old, the scam done isn’t that relevant now, but it’s enjoyable
I watched only Hospital playlist with Shin Hyun Bin, and her chemistry with Yoo Yeon Seok was great there. I shipped their characters since first episodes and was happy when they ended up together.
So I think she can do it.
I haven't read the source material so I don't know if the age difference is accurate to it but I find the 16 year age gap off-putting. Why did they style SHB in such a dowdy manner too? It makes her look even older than MSM than she is already.
She was so pedestrian in Reborn Rich, had no chemistry with Song Joong Ki, and also looked much older than SJK. 16 year age gap to play love interests? Not a fan! I'm not ageist. But this doesn't look appealing.
Last time I found the failure of appealing in noona romance was my fave, Xiao Zhan's Chinese drama, Sunshine by My Side. Even the FL of SBMS is a much praised veteran, I still didn't find their pairing attractive although I felt their efforts to make it work on screen. LOL. Can the industry stop selling older actresses by marketing noona romance nonstop? This gets stale! Older actresses have better scripts and stories to tell.
The recurring roles that older actresses are offered: mother, and wicked stepmother. Noona romance is just the straw that breaks the camel's back. Lol. There are few dramas where I have seen them to have multifaceted roles. Can you recommend any dramas where the older women are none of the three mentioned?
There should be quite a few good ones. But most I watched were very impressive antagonists played by seasoned actresses with great acting, e.g., Lee Hye-young as an evil judge in Lawless Lawyer. Kim Sun-a was pretty good too as a children psychologist in Children of Nobody. I also like badass Han Hyo Joo in Moving. Oh well, HHJ was a mother in Moving. OK fine. LOL.
@Fandy
Most of last Kim Hye Soo dramas: Juvenile Justice, Hyena, Signal.
Kim Nam Joo in Misty, Kim Hee Ae in Queenmaker and Whirlwind.
If we're talking about actresses of 38 yo (+-):
Han Ji Min - Behind your touch;
Han Hye Joo - Blood free;
Son Ye Jin - Crash landing on you;
Jeon Mi Do - Hospital playlist and Connection;
Jun Ji Hyun - Jirisan;
Lee Ha Nee - One the woman;
Bae Doo Na - Stranger, Kingdom, The silent sea;
Kwak Sun Young - Crash.
Future dramas:
Seo Hyun Jin - The Trunk;
Jeon Do Yeon - The price of confession;
Song Hye Kyo and Gong Yoo' drama;
Jung Yu Mi - Love on a Single Log Bridge;
Jung Ji Hyun - Tempest;
Lim Soo Jung - Low life;
Park Min Young - The Confidence Man KR;
Han Ji Min - More beautiful than heaven;
Chun Woo Hee - My youth;
Kim Hye Soo - Unmasked;
Hang Ji Min - Acquaintances.
Anyway, I'm not against noona dramas and I'm okay with age gap, I just wanted to tell that dramas without noona romance, mother/stepmother trope for actresses 38+ and older are exist.
@Olesya 1 @Somebody, Lee Hye Young was good in Lawless lawyer, the same for Kim Sun A, Kim Hye Soo was also great in The Queen of office, Kim Mam Joo in Misty but also Wonderful world, but i also love all the women in Sky Castle they were the real brains , Bae Jong OK was the real star for me in Graceful Family, the 3 actresses in Avengers social club , older women are getting more interesting roles than before . Before they used to be only mothers, step mothers .
@Somebody I have already started watching Children Of Nobody. It's different from what I've been used to seeing. I liked the way the characters were introduced.
@Olesya1 Thank you for the recommendations!
Hey @Olesya1 and @cahill, I'm excited to know so many old dramas again that may be worth checking out. LOL. I think I'll come back to the lists you recommended from time to time. Woohoo, I've missed so many with just a few years of break from K drama.
@Fandy, wait! Did you change your username? I don't recall you ever mentioned to me about Children of Nobody. But someone else did. Just can't remember her username. Who are you? LOL
Do you feel the same way regarding the huge age gaps when the male leads are the older one? I'm not even trying to be sassy or sarcastic, I'm genuinely curious. Because I found the pairings of underage or barely legal girls with grown men in their late 20s to early 30s in KDramas much more disturbing. For example Kim So Hyun and Taecyeon (Bring it on Ghost), Kim Sae Ron and Yoon Shi Yoon (Mirror of the Witch), Kim You Jung and Yoon Kyun Sang (Clean with a Passion for Now), etc. Also, not underage girls, but I also found Kim Go Eun and Gong Yoo in Goblin and Kim Tae Ri and Lee Byung Hyun in Mr Sunshine pairings super icky. Do you feel the same or only for noona dramas? Because at least noona dramas never paired an underage guy with a grown woman, it's not as predatory in my opinion
Not a fan of the other way around either. I'm actually not against age gap in any pairing as long as both parties have reached legal age. I just found noona romance kinda repetitive with many old tropes, like a lot of Romcom or school romance nowadays.
I don't like it either way around and it's the main reason I dislike every single drama in your list. The age gaps were gross especially when the characters were literally schoolgirls like in Goblin🤢
I don't like it the other way around either. I had a hard time buying the romance for Goblin, especially since she was in high school in the beginning. I basically ignored it, and focused on the bromance and the second couple love line. I couldn't even watch Mr. Sunshine despite the rave reviews. I also didn't watch any of the other dramas you listed.
Here! Here! Mature actresses deserve more and better stories. It's like they think nobody cares about watching romance for mature women unless they have some eye candy half their age 🙄 Ironic because all the best chemistry I have seen is nearly always with similar age actors.
Shin Hyun Bin feels a lot like a really bad side effect of the very successful HP. If not for that drama, there is no way she’d have been cast in Reborn Rich (a drama hyped before airing due to the source material). She even beat Suzy to that role chase and in the end, that was a tragic decision. Her chemistry with SJK was in the low negatives and he couldn’t save her. Instead she dragged him down with him somehow.
She fared somewhat better - by her low standards - in the drama with JWS but it felt like he was acting circles around her. But here MSM is hardly a strong enough actor to do that. And likely can’t even count on the chemistry pulling through. Unsure why she keeps getting roles but she’s such a negative factor for me.
Shin Hyun Bin has no charisma for a lead role. MSM is cute but for now, his acting is a little bit limited. The story looks light and fun, so I will try.
In most palace dramas there are big age differences, but since the main themes are power struggles, it is not very noticeable.