KILLING TIME JOYOUSLY | Throwback – The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog

When I went home for winter break and saw The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog broadcasting on television for the twentieth time since its first airing in 2005, I still felt the nostalgia that only certain dramas can evoke in me. The plot is quite cliché and unrealistic at times, but it is one of those classic dramas that unknowingly makes you accept the impossible for the hour that it broadcasts just so you can immerse yourself in the romantic fantasy of the drama. As expected, The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog revolves around the love story between a poor girl and a rich man – you know the gist. But their relationship is actually much more complicated than you think, with Shan Jun Hao, the CEO of a hotel chain, constantly getting into accidents and losing his memory and Ye Tian Yu, an ambitious gold digger, falling in love with the contrived identity she gave Jun Hao when he first loses his memory. Not to mention, Jun Hao was already engaged with his childhood friend Fan Yun Xi when he falls in love with Tian Yu after Tian Yu takes care of him while he remains clueless about his own past.

Killing Time Joyously | To the Dearest Intruder

In more ways than one, To The Dearest Intruder reminds me of The Fierce Wife, as both are Taiwanese dramas that revolve around the themes of family, love and the taboo of adultery. But while the former irritates me more than the latter in terms of the fake mustache of the male protagonist and many other little details regarding the actors and actresses – yes, I am an extremely judgmental person – I still find To The Dearest Intruder pretty intriguing. The Fierce Wife was, in 2011, a popular drama about a naïve mother named Xie An Zhen who lets her cousin Li Wei En temporarily live with her family of three, only to regret her decision tremendously later on when she discovers that her husband Wen Rui Fan has begun to cheat on her with Wei En. She receives guidance from Lan Tian Wei on how to become a more attractive and independent woman in hopes of winning Rui Fan’s love back, but slowly realizes that his love is no longer what she desires for. Similarly, To The Dearest Intruder also illustrates the life of a married couple and the female protagonist’s discovery of her husband’s infidelity, but what makes this particular drama different from The Fierce Wife is that the intruder is, in fact, the female protagonist’s own best friend.

KILLING TIME JOYOUSLY | What is Killing Time Joyously?

As you may have noticed, I have finally given my blog a name – Killing Time Joyously. It definitely isn’t the best blog name out there, but I guess I am just really desperate to have one so this is what it’s going to be until I can think of a much more creative and meaningful name. I hope I didn’t give the impression that this name has no meaning, though. Of course, this blog is about how I, literally, kill time joyously by watching, and then recommending to you guys, various East Asian entertainment shows – but there is more to it. As some of you geniuses may have guessed already, the first letter of each word actually represents a specific country that I plan to focus on in my blog: Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

CHOU | What the Pineapple!

By VICKY CHOU

Two weeks ago, I blogged about how I was distracted from my studies because of the drama that I was watching. Today, I am going to blog about how I am – again – distracted from my studies, but this time because of a certain YouTube channel a K-pop idol created. Sometime over the summer, f(x)’s Amber announced that she was launching her own YouTube channel, namely What The Pineapple!, in which she and her friend Scott would vlog about pretty much anything they felt like. When the news about this first came out, I, honestly speaking, ignored it because I didn’t think it would be anything special. Good thing one of my friends from high school sent me a link to one of their videos last week, because Amber and her friends are hilarious.

CHOU | Recent Addiction: High Society

By VICKY CHOU

Korean dramas can be really addicting – I know that for a fact. Which is why I do my best not to start a new series unless it is the beginning or end of the school year, when the amount of time I spend watching the series and daydreaming about what is going to happen next is not that harmful to my studies. Unfortunately for me, however, I have failed myself this year. Before fall break, I really craved a cliché, romantic Korean drama – like, really craved. And because I prefer watching dramas that have just recently finished airing, I searched up a list of 2015 K-dramas on Google, read each of their synopses and landed upon High Society’s teaser on Viki to which I was ecstatic to realize that it was exactly what I was looking for.