🪵 september media roundup + thoughts
Oct. 1st, 2021 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonrusts
(gif source)
time is fictional i want to die also it's been a terrible month and it seems like a downward spiral. welcome to a depressing post nobody asked for :D
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📽 movies
- shang chi — ⭑⭑⭑⭑
- big eyes — ⭑⭑⭑.5
- ⟲ doctor strange — ⭑⭑⭑⭑
- ⟲ shawshank redemption — ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
- ⟲ chef — ⭑⭑⭑⭑
- ⟲ pursuit of happyness — ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
shang chi
i LOVED this film. yes, this is a biased opinion i simply love the usage of asian mythology and asian characters in the film that it may have blindsided me from objectively thinking about it, i rated it purely on how much i enjoyed it (the big screen contributed a lot too). the gay panic i went through watching xialing was palpable, and i'm glad my housemate is not straight and panicked with me bc otherwise it would've been very awkward bc i was literally sitting there, saucers for eyes, as a :heart_eyes_brain_empty: gay clown. the action scenes were SO FUN. the dragon? SO FUN. the friendship between shang chi and katy? hell YEAH. the WOMEN IN THIS FILM. YEAHHHHH. also the humour was top notch, the filmatography was so pretty. yeah i have no objective thoughts it was a very pretty film with good fighting and badarse women and i enjoyed it thoroughly.
big eyes
it is left to speculation WHY i watched this film, i sort of wanted something to mess with my head enough that the life that was falling apart around me seemed bleak in comparison, and this did the job. i don't know how to put my thoughts about this film into words? it scares me that this is a real story bc it tells you how far a con can be taken and how individual rights to your own art in any form is so so so important, but also the eyes were creepy. that's my intelligent opinion i'm glad it worked out irl.
as for the rest — i am simply a marvel head and sometimes you also need to watch your comfort films to feel better about life, is all.
📺 shows/dramas
- dr. john — ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
- devil judge — ⭑⭑⭑
- strongest deliveryman — ⭑⭑⭑⭑
- squid game — ⭑⭑⭑
- brooklyn nine-nine s9 — ⭑⭑⭑.5
- ⟲ oh my venus — ⭑⭑⭑⭑
- hospital playlist s1 — ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
- hospital playlist s2 — ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
there's so much to talk about here, because i watched some TRULY GOOD dramas, and honestly went back into watching new kdramas after almost a 6-7 month hiatus. i'm going to try and keep my thoughts as short as i can because there's so much to talk about.
dr. john
oh. my. god. my return to kdramas started from this masterpiece and i loved it to BITS. i think you might know i'm a big BIG kwak jisung fan. i trust him with my whole heart and will watch absolutely everything he appears in. i'd been waiting to switch to viki premium for a while just so i could watch this drama and this month i finally did and it was the best decision. the drama deals with so many moral arguments — euthanasia, can someone who doesn't feel pain treat pain, what makes a criminal, what is justice vs what is law, what can a doctor be allowed to do, and each of these were handled so gracefully within the plot. i fell in love with every character, every backstory, and i was rooting for everyone to be okay — even the supposed villains bc the drama dealt so much with the grey area, there were no inherently bad or good people, only decisions. also the characters were so mature? even the love stories, which didn't exactly play a main part in this drama, were well thought out and NOT unnecessarily complicated — very real and based on mutual trust and understanding. the side couple was also so adorable and so smooth sailing. no weird politics or parents intervening or love triangles. it was just such a neatly wrapped drama that gives you everything you want, and it was super pretty to watch too. the actors did a SPECTACULAR job portraying all the nuances that our moral questioning brings up to. definitely a highlight of the year.
devil judge
oh this drama. i'm quoting myself from a text i sent to my best friend after i finished this drama (she'd watched it before me) — "if it wasn't for jisung and the girl who played elijah, i would've ruled this drama as a bad drama". don't get me wrong — the ideation is very very fascinating to me, again dealing with some grey areas and moral conflicts. NONE of the people in this drama are good people, and yet there's people good at heart who use unruly means to achieve what they need. you can't absolve them, but you understand. that being said, everyone apart from jisung and elijah were so DUMB. and i say this as someone who ults jinyoung — his character was truly so dumb. as was very politician at the core of the drama. every plotline that started seemed super interesting, but then somehow was taken in a completely different and unsatisfying direction each time. honestly this drama just felt like a collection of potential that was wasted. i did enjoy the found family aspect a lot, jisung truly DELIVERED, and his and elijah's relationship truly mattered to me so much and that's the only reason i made it to the end. all in all — it was a drama with great promise but it didn't deliver.
strongest deliveryman
oH. let's talk about a heartfelt drama now. strongest deliveryman is my return to cliche, romance-first dramas since almost february, and i'm glad it is because i really enjoyed it. the characters were likable and to some extent real, i loved the concept of the drama, the actors did a REALLY good job portraying the characters, the chemistry for both the main and side couples was cute, i liked the humours. all in all, it ticked all boxes and i enjoyed it a lot. i also love the david and goliath concept even if it's so overused and this drama did very well in using it as a consistent underlying plot device.
squid game
uh. what do i even say about this? i binged it in a day and sort of kind of blacked out after? i really can't form coherent thoughts about this other than it was disturbing. clever, but disturbing and idk really if i needed to watch it. i WILL die for saebyeok, i'll say that much, but other than that this drama seemed sort of pointlessly gruesome to me, and the celebrity cast didn't do much for me given i felt like there were several plotholes. anyways, saebyeok. also jiyeong. best girlfriends and i mourn them. they should be sipping piña coladas in jeju they were done dirty.
b99 s9
oh god. i have no objective commentary. as someone who RELIES on b99 during anxiety attacks (it's the only thing that calms me down, and i've rewatched the first eight seasons almost 10-15 times), this show is very special to me, and i was very emotional that this is the last season. i think objectively it was a little bit worse than the older seasons but my objectivity is out the window, i cried like a baby at the end and i'm still very sad and i think i'll be very sad for a long time i'm going to miss it so much.
hospital playlist s1-2
oh this show. OH THIS SHOW. so perfect to me, really <3 i was watching this w my mum (she's still not done, she's much slower than me, lol) but this show is just so REAL and RAW and HONEST and HEARTWARMING, i loved it to pieces. it's a little bit slow on pick up, but it's heavily character based and once you get attached, that's it for you. the friendship at the core of this show has my whole heart, the main five squad is truly friend group goals. the professor-mentee relations, the senior-junior relations, the doctor-patient relations, the parent-child relations, the romantic relationships — everything was so realistic and so heartwarming to me. this isn't a binge drama, it's just a real drama. like these people can be around you, all of this can really be happening. made me think a lot about life. also the integration of hobbies re: the band and using songs to propel and and show plot was such a masterful device in this drama, i absolutely adored it. the romantic relationships <333 so real! even the SIDE pairings had my whole heart. here's to wishing for season 3 because i will gobble it up.
apart from this, i'm watching hometown cha cha cha ongoing w my mum and best friend and it's !!!! SO GOOD SO FAR (ep10 as of when i'm writing this post). sometimes cliches are okay !!!! also bisexual panic over shin min ah and kim seon ho is Real !!!!! i'm a mess !!!!! also watching an episode of a long night with my housemate and it's been super interesting <3 i didn't really consume any kpop content this month, i just hyperfixated on binging, schoolwork, and work and did nothing else.
🎧 music
scrobbles: 610 ▲ 129
artists: 81 ▲ 3
artists: 81 ▲ 3
top tracks:
- whale: sejong (29)
- going crazy: treasure (28)
- away: eunji (27)
- pinwheel: seventeen (26)
- hate that: key ft taeyeon (25)
- swim away: sejong (23)
- a little braver (23)
- dear dream: nct dream (20)
- baby: astro (17)
- loco: itzy (17)
top artists
- nct dream (72)
- kim sejeong (68)
- seventeen (59)
- txt (32)
- treasure (32)
do you see the variety? who is SHE???? hehe this month i made an effort to listen to songs other than my usual suspects, and ended up creating new usual suspects because i'm me. but i think making a playlist of 10 or so new songs per month might be a good idea! also am i a carat/teume/mitzy now? probably. HELP. also i love sejeong i can't believe i didn't listen to her music seriously until now. queen eunji making a comeback in my life, as did astro! unsurprisingly, dream and tx are still dominating the board though. so deserved!
📚 reading
fics
i'm just going to say i read only friend fics this month and you should always check them out because they're amazing. some were fics for nomin fest, others for alw. just gonna mention my friends' ao3s here if you wanna check all those amazing fics out — moon (ao3 moonseul), mint (ao3 mintdrop), fran (ao3 chenjisthisandthat), gee (ao3 notmarklee)
i also am about halfway through the audiobook of little fires everywhere and i already know it's gonna be a five star. i ADORE celeste ng's work and what i've heard/read so far has been spectacular. i'm taking my time with it, listening as i go on walks.
💻 writing
????????? writing block sucks :DDDD just trying to get this dream exchange fic out and i'm probably gonna go on a writing break.
💌 misc thoughts
if you don't see me next month you can assume uni destroyed me, but otherwise, see you next month (maybe)
