Hey everyone!

Like what we did for the past couple of years, we’re having guest posts from the lovely folks on Patreon, to help us take stock of our drama years, yay! 🥳

We’ll be seeing about 2 guest posts per week, and this will unfold into January 2023, and that’s perfectly ok.

My annual year-in-review, which usually comes out in December, will also come out in January (or thereabouts 😅), after all the guest posts have been published.

If you missed our earlier posts, you can check them out as follows: Ele, Natalia, JJ, Sean, j3ffc, Uyen, MC, Elaine, lotusgirl, ABV.

Today, I’m pleased to announce that learjet is sharing her drama year.

learjet’s been a part of our little Patreon community for a while now, but we don’t see her around super often, so this feels like a great chance to catch up with her and see how her drama year went, in 2023.

Of course, whenever she does show up, she’s a pleasure to have around – here’s hoping that you get to hang out with us more in 2024, learjet!

I do find that learjet’s taste in dramas is often similar to mine, so if your drama taste is similar to my drama taste, you might be extra interested in what learjet has to say about the dramas she’s checked out. 😉

Thanks learjet, for taking the time to write this post! 😘

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

Learjet’s year of dramas: 2023

Another year is over.

I find it a helpful way of taking stock of my life to look back on what dramas I enjoyed in the year, as my drama choices reflect the internal me. It’s been a tough year for me personally and dramas have been both an escape and a source of support for me.

A little about my drama journey: I came to Asian dramas via My Holo Love because of Netflix’s recommendation. This interested me enough to try to CLOY and it was love at second sight.

About six months later, I tried my first C-drama, a few months later got a Viki subscription and it was all downhill from there.

These days, I watch a mix of Korean and Chinese dramas, usually have about a Thai drama on the go and watch the occasional Japanese and Taiwanese drama.

Top Korean dramas of 2023

According to a detailed analysis of my year on MDL, my top two K dramas (and indeed Asian dramas) of 2023 are Twinkling Watermelon and Moving (both 9.5/10). Uncontroversially.

I loved the past and present family of mum, dad and son in Twinkling Watermelon, the band and music, the journey of discovery of the son and growth of his (young version) parents. It was a joy throughout and I looked forward to it every week.

I got a subscription to Disney+ for Moving (and Call it Love).

It’s not my usual genre and I had to do some fast forwarding through the violent scenes but I loved the cleverness of the writing; how each thread in the past and present connected.

The young characters were adorable and the romances were swoony. It was one of those dramas that had it all and did it all excellently.

Dramas which made 9/10 were My Perfect Stranger, the first drama of 2023 that gripped me every week, DP S2 (especially the Nina episode) and My Dearest (oh the glorious angst!).

Another level down, other favourites were Call It Love, Love to Hate You, The Good Bad Mother, Tell Me That You Love Me and Castaway Diva.

Top Chinese dramas of 2023

I had four dramas that I rated 9/10 this year.

Yes, Hidden Love was one of them. This was in 2023 what Lighter and Princess was in 2022 to me.

I got a YOUKU subscription so I could be up to date. I watched the episodes as they dropped (handily living in a favourable time zone for airing Chinese dramas).

I literally felt dizzy and giddy over the middle episodes. Very satisfying.

I watched When I Fly Towards You on the same one-month YOUKU subscription.

A youth drama like many others on the surface but I thought that it avoided many of the usual pitfalls (the ultra-annoying love triangle, the focus on the ML starting a business and conquering the world, with the assistance of the FL for the last few episodes – yawn).

Angst was real but handled well, nasty characters (e.g. his parents) were dealt with quickly and largely from ML’s perspective, and the friend group of five were all fleshed out characters. Special mention to the grandmother.

The drama took off around episode 3 and then I loved it to the end.

A Journey to Love recently finished and I loved this despite, cough {the ending} cough.

Two wonderful leads, including an extremely strong but likeable FL, and a skilled, smart yet emotionally intelligent ML (for the record, I think he’s very attractive). A prince(ss) who showed amazing character growth and a wonderful band of comrades. Fabulous OST.

Not so great, somewhat unbalanced SML (the weak link among some excellent performances) but I’ll forgive this.

Ray of Light is number four: a youth drama depicting the final year of high school for a group of kids and their unconventional teacher.

This is a drama that most international viewers missed but I think was fantastic, especially if you enjoy your youth dramas more ‘realistic’, less rose-tinted and delving into several issues faced by young people leaving high school.

Top of my hidden gems of 2023.

A late addition to my top C drama list is The Hope. With one episode to go, I’m calling this as 9/10 as well.

Like Ray of Light, this is a deep dive into the final year of high school in China and the dreaded gaokao (college entrance exam).

Comparisons are inevitable.

Although they seem similar in content and depth (both involve inspirational teachers who have faced personal challenges, and kids with complex family circumstances), they are very distinct from each other.

The Hope focused in on fewer students, with more morally and ethically ambiguous subject material, and more creative cinematography and editing.

I highly recommend them both, but watch them a few months apart 😊.

Dramas that got 8.5/10 included My Journey to You, Lost You Forever S1, Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Meet Yourself and The Bionic Life (hidden gem alert: thriller about humanoids and exploring what it is to be human).

Some other hidden gems from this year if you want to try something different and thought-provoking:

Ripe Town: historical murder mystery that shines the light on the darkness of human nature – in almost every single character.

Why Try to Change Me Now: murder investigation leads a young police officer to his childhood friend as a possible suspect and events that occurred several years before.

Gritty, unexpected, fascinating characters. Very different.

Under the Microscope: historical about a land dispute and taxes. And politics. And social inequality.

Surprisingly riveting with excellent performances from the very talented Zhang Ruo Yun (Joy of Life – also the teacher in The Hope!) and Wang Yang (you’ll know him when you see him).

Top Thai dramas of 2023

I’m very much a part-time Thai drama watcher and I’ve seen some very weak dramas this year but three were head and shoulders above the rest (all happen to be BLs).

I Feel You Linger in the Air, a time travel drama.

Excellent performances, great chemistry and intimacy between the leads without showing me more than I feel comfortable with seeing on my screen, and a look at a different time in Thailand.

My School President. Yes, yet another high school drama but the two leads (Gemini and Fourth) were barely out of high school IRL and both are very talented young actors and singers.

The school president has had a crush on the band leader for two years and steps in to help him when the music club is threatened with closure in their senior year.

The relationship was well-developed, supportive and wholesome.

The music (at least two songs per episode) was great. Two songs in particular, helped me through some difficult days this year.

Moonlight Chicken. Two established actors did a great job with this story of a relatively privileged young man who falls in love with the slightly older, poor, disillusioned owner of a chicken rice restaurant who is also bringing up his teenage nephew.

The leads from My School President play the nephew and the deaf, rich young man that he meets. A bit different.

Top Taiwanese  drama of 2023

Oh No! Here Comes Trouble: put this off because the synopsis didn’t sound like anything I could identify with then I tried it and loved it.

Had a feel that you can only get from a really great Taiwanese dramas – a rawness and sense of reality (despite the content).

The lead, Tseng Jing Hua, is excellent (and has a truly memorable mullet in this).

You can currently find three of his movies on Netflix (Australia) that are worth watching and he’s in the final episode of At the Moment, the anthology drama on Netflix.

Note, I refuse to reproduce the hair so have chosen something infinitely more flattering (below).

Top Japanese dramas of 2023

I don’t watch a lot of J dramas and didn’t find much that stood out this year but I’d like to highlight a movie and a drama starring the ML from last year’s Silent (one of my top dramas of 2022).

Meguro Ren, part of the Japanese boy band, Snowman, also led Trillion Game (now on Netflix) and As Long As We Both Shall Live (the live action movie version of the light novel and anime My Happy Marriage).

Imada Mio is a major supporting actress of the former and the FL of the latter.

Trillion Game is just this crazy, over the top story about making money.

Meguro Ren is unrecognisable from his characters in Silent and My Love Mix-Up. Totally unrecognisable. It’s worth watching for his crazy, infuriating, charming character. Just try one episode even if the synopsis doesn’t appeal.

As Long As We Both Shall Live, which I watched at 1am on the plane on my way to Taiwan recently (and a second time on my way home) was an interesting fantasy, about a mistreated young woman who is engaged to a stoic, talented young man who softens upon meeting our heroine (yes, you’ve seen it before but it’s very well done).

And lots of other interesting fantasy stuff packed in.

Worst dramas of 2023

The contenders are:

Strong Girl NamSoon. The first couple of episodes were so much fun. Then it dipped and then plunged into a boring drugs plot, 2D female leads and not enough screen time for Ong Seong Wu. The occasional glimpses of him are probably the only reason I finished this.

Jun and Jun. Short but felt so long. Boring office stuff. The lead is being chased by three different guys but he had no charisma and the personality of a slice of bread. Why did anyone like him??? So. Bad.

Finished because it was so short that I felt I might as well finish it. And I was wondering if the lead might develop something resembling a personality. But I should have dropped after three episodes.

Only For Love. The drama that convinced me that I need to drop more dramas. The drama that made me want to never watch Bai Lu again despite enjoyed her hugely in Arsenal Military Academy and One and Only.

Overlong. Objectification of the female lead. Which she seemed to relish. Boring. Too long. Poor communication. I actually hung in there for the third couple, despite disliking the TFL for the first half of the drama. AVOID it.

I will not waste your time by adding images for the above time-wasters!

Best OTP

Fake It Till You Make It couple.

Despite the rather boring start (push through to episode 3 please!) and rather too much office politics, this was the stand-out couple of the year for me.

The ML started out as a bit of a flirt but became a contender for boyfriend of the year. Plus he looked great in his white and blue stripped pyjama pants and white t-shirt, draping himself over his motorbike in his apartment!

Strangers to friends to best friends to lovers. Very swoony and great communication.

Special mention to the Meet Yourself couple.

Best actor (tied)

Namkoong Min for My Dearest. Wow! I’ve seen him in several, very different roles and been really impressed but he was outstanding in this. A bit of a rake at the start. Swoony and romantic. Heartbroken. In pain.

Kim Young Kwang for Call It Love. I’ve seen him in a couple of dramas before such as The Secret Life of My Secretary and I thought he was…competent…but not memorable. But he was a revelation in Call It Love. His posture. His eyes. My heart ached for him.

Best actress

Ahn Eun Bin for her roles in the Good Bad Mother and My Dearest. I remember her from Hospital Playlist but she really blew me away with both these roles this year.

Wonderful to see an actress already in her 30s starting to get lead roles and doing so well.

Special mention to Shin Eun Soo for the younger version of the mother in Twinkling Watermelon. I enjoyed her in Summer Strike last year and was impressed with her in this. And she’s only just turned 21!

Best OST

Warning: I love music and what I listen makes a huge difference to my mood. Reflecting the type of year I’ve had, my selection leans to the comforting or melancholy rather than edgy this year.

(in no particular order – links for Spotify)

1. My School President especially this song and this song. Cheered me up when I was down. Many, many times according to my Spotify Wrapped.

2. Gypsophila from Crash Course in Romance. Excellent after surviving a day’s work and cooking a meal to help me through washing the dishes.

3. This from Lost You Forever.

4. This from My Ingenious One.

5. A Journey to Love especially this by ML, Liu Yu Ning.

6. Oh No Here Comes Trouble especially this song by Ozone.

7. Various from A Good Day To Be a Dog including this and this.

8. Hidden Love song which brings back the swoon.

In conclusion

At long last, I’m done.

It’s been cathartic for me and I hope I inspire someone to try something a bit different!

~learjet