People Who Mistake Impulse for Love (Song Translation)

Sometimes, your life just sucks. And you don't want to analyze it. You don't want to talk about it. You just want to curl up in your bed and just be. This drama did that for me. It's called I'm So Smart (我叫郝聪明 - the English translation is a play on words of the original Chinese title, which I will explain in another post). I loved loved this drama, but because it's a web-drama, it didn't get much publicity in either mainland China nor the international online community. As such, I'm going to do a review of it, and maybe even a recap if I feel ambitious enough. But, small steps right? First, a teaser of sorts - the ending theme song replete with a music video including scenes from the drama and a translation of the song. It's really sweet in both the melody and the lyrics - it's actually been receiving a lot of plays on my phone ever since I watched this drama almost a year ago in early 2014 (!!!).

New "favorites" series: What's Making Me Happy #1 (myspiffyrosegirl)

Okay, my belly is full now, meaning I can happily finish this post. This will hopefully be the first of a series called "What's Making Me Happy," which was inspired by a segment of the same name on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. It's basically a space for us to talk about favorites and recommendations. So, I'll just go right into some recent and some longstanding things that's been making me happy--

READS

What can be more perfect than to start off a "What's Making Me Happy" series with this book called Feeling Good by David D. Burns, MD? It's essentially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in book-form for depression and anxiety. To put it simply, this book has been revolutionary for me. It's made me realize how much my depression/anxiety has affected me and how pervasive they are in my everyday life. But more importantly, the book and CBT itself depart from the Freudian philosophy and all the psychotherapy that was founded on it. What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means 3 basic things - (1) depression is not a mirror to human nature's true form, so it's not something that people have to suffer with, (2) a lot of your feelings including your strongest ones are based your thoughts - hence cognitive based therapy, and (3) so the way to fight your way out of your depression/anxiety is to first change your thoughts in order to change how you feel. Simple, but amazing.

Misaeng Episodes 3-4: Striving towards a complete life

I knew it. I couldn't stay away. Misaeng returns with more uplifting episodes in its second week while staying true to its realistic portrayal of everyday struggles in the workplace, this time with more tangible lovely parallels from baduk. I love that the story doesn't stagnate or linger on Geu-rae's sad, unlucky lot in life, but moves on to unfold more of his story...

K-variety of our lives

Hello everyone! myspiffyrosegirl and mongolkhana are coming together for our first joint posting. And what better topic than Korean variety?!

This will be more of a brief recap of the shows we are currently watching, and our thoughts of the current seasons. One of us will briefly summarize the show, and the other will chime in with additional thoughts or comments. In this first round, we'll tackle Running Man, Roommate, and Superman is Back.


1. Running Man (SBS)

myspiffyrosegirl: Running Man (2010) is one of the "older" K-variety shows that is still going strong in its 4th year running (harhar) that has a competition-game set up. Each episode features a series of short games that are related to a central theme/mission where players compete to win points, hints, or some kind of favor that will help them in the final game at the closing of the episode. There is only one winner - either individually or as a team for the final game and they are essentially the ultimate winner for the episode, which can be bitter for some and redeeming for others. Sometimes, there a specials that last for multiple episodes, like the Asia Race Special that took them across Macau, China and Vietnam - this remains as one of my all-time favorites. This show is one that has kept its regular cast pretty consistent especially in the later years - Yoo Jae-suk (MC), Ji Suk-jin, Kim Jong-kook, Haha, Lee Kwang-soo, Gary, and Song Ji-hyo. More often than not, guests are invited ranging from actors to idols to athletes, from the well known to the up and coming, sometimes as a single guest, sometimes as a huge group like in their Idol Olympic specials. The show isn't split up by seasons because they don't change their regular cast; they've been airing every weekend since its inception with 219+ episodes now.

Before Midnight: A finale in real love

I wrote this right after I watched the movie a year ago. I'm reposting it here, since it seems an appropriate post with all our other reviews for shows...As I skim it while re-formatting it, I notice it's more of a personal reaction, but that's okay. Just a more personal, less objective "review." I hope it sways someone out there to join the "Before" series cult. :)

Just a little introduction to those who have never heard of this series: Before Midnight came out in May 2013 and is the third in a series of movies featuring the relationship between an American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a Frenchwoman named Celine (Julie Delpy). The actors themselves are of the same nationalities as their characters, not coincidentally I believe. (Although Delpy became a U.S. citizen in 2001, so technically she is now a French-American actress.) The first movie, Before Sunrise, came out in 1995, and is the story of how they first met on a train through Europe's countryside and their impromptu adventures through Vienna over 24 hours before Jesse boards a plane to leave for America at sunrise - hence the movie's name. Before Sunset came out in 2004 and picks up their story in real-time, so also 9 years later. Nine years after that is this movie, Before Midnight, with the actual story again in real-time. As far as public knowledge goes, the two sequels were never planned, and each time, the question of whether or not to do another sequel was left up in the air. Luckily for us fans, they have kept up with the sequels and at the regularly spaced 9 years. It's a very unique set-up since the movies are spaced out so far apart, and unlike other series, it's completely not known (or rather disclosed to the public) if the 3 (director Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy) are planning another sequel.