Rereading Potter

I love Harry Potter.

I was 11 or 12 when I first read it, and started with book two because we were reading it at school. I remember being slightly annoyed as it was already very popular and I didn’t want to pay any attention to what everyone else was interested in. But I’m a good girl, so I did what I was told and got hopelessly sucked into the magic of the Wizarding World.

I’ve read all the books countless times. My first three books are falling apart. From book four onwards, I was a release day sort of person - not as hardcore as the midnight releasers, but as soon as possible thereafter and then it was a race to try to read it as quickly as possible. I remember being particularly proud of getting through book five in 16 hours, because that was obviously my priority half way through my GCSE’s.

Recently, I decided to read them all through again. Only this time, I felt the need to note down a few points. All of the below are the notes I made as I read the books. Some make little sense.

In the style of a Buzzfeed article - Thoughts I Had While Rereading Harry Potter in my 30’s

Philosopher’s Stone
- mean to make them do Astronomy at midnight but then be in lessons the next morning.
- why did Dumbledore take so long to get to and from the Ministry. He could have flown on a broom, apparated from Hogsmeade, floo powdered it, hell even got Fawkes to drop him off, but no - did he walk there?!

Chamber of Secrets
(everything is in response to Harry being collared for Dobby’s magic)
- how does the Trace work, when do they put it on you?
- surely Petunia knows that students can’t do magic outside of school having grown up with an underage witch
- doesn’t this mean that the Ministry knows about Hagrid using magic to get Harry in book one?

Prisoner of Azkaban
- how long are the summer holidays?! 5 weeks before Harry’s birthday, which is at the end of July, they break up in the last week of June? 8 or 9 weeks off, no wonder Harry hated the summer holidays.
- Hermione missed a trick not using the time turner to sleep more. Or you know, catch up on homework or whatever.
- why doesnt Harry seem to watch the other quidditch games? What happens when a non playing house wins the cup if they present the cup at the last game?
- 200 slytherins

Goblet of Fire
- 11 teachers
- why didn’t Harry just accio the egg
- Moody’s eye can see through robes = pervert
- do all spells make jets of light
- why can’t Harry see the thestrals
- did Hermione feed beetle Rita Skeeter? Beetle food or human food?

Order of the Phoenix
- must not use magic - Tonks uses all the magic
- summer holidays = 4 weeks before rescue few days after 2nd Aug, break up beginning of July
- 6 lessons a day = single, break, double, lunch, single, double. Single 90 mins, double two hours?
- different break times on different days? Tues no break, 2x double, lunch
- Harry is so mean to Hedwig ALL OF THE TIME
- have to go outside at break
- paintings can talk but photos can’t
- lessons end 5 o’clock
- why do the Order take so long to get to the ministry. Adults only apparate when they don’t have to be somewhere quickly. Oh no, Harry is in mortal danger, LETS WALK THERE
- why don’t use memories as proof Voldemort is back

Half Blood Prince
- Stan is 21 = 19 in book three so why didn’t he recognise Harry when he was at school with him for two years when Harry was kind of a big deal?
- being arrested nowhere near as scary now dementors have gone
- why did Harry let first years try out for the team when first years aren’t allowed to play quidditch
- they say snog a lot in this book and it makes me uncomfortable
- glad Hermione spent Christmas with her family - probably last time before she deletes herself from their memories ... unless she stayed at Hogwarts to study ... which she probably did
- Hermione is a much better friend to Hagrid than Ron and Harry combined
- where are all these kids getting Dumbledore’s notes from, why can’t he just give them directly
- Dumbledore doesn’t need Harry to translate but knows what is being said - can you learn parceltongue?!
- do the teachers sleep in their offices?
- not only is a teacher giving 16 year olds alcohol, but it’s the first thing in the morning
- Zonko’s closed because Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes so popular?
- CAN SLUGHORN STOP GIVING MINORS ALCOHOL
- Dumbledore hand - why is Snape at school in the holidays?
- sword only griffindor relic - hat?
- why don’t students get train back?
- Harry could have just grabbed the broom that was RIGHT THERE to chase Snape
- where did Hagrid put Dumbledore - does Hogwarts have a morgue?
- is it automatic that a portrait of previous/dead headteachers goes into headmasters office or did someone put it there?
- Fawkes, where you go?

Deathly Hallows
- why didn’t Moody’s curse on Grimmauld Place break when he died?
- Harry overly harsh on Scrimgeour - blames him for actions of Fudge and Umbridge, doesn’t appreciate that Ministry has helped keep him safe too. Ministry is corrupt but not Scrimgeour
- why did Snape lock the door after searching Regulus’s room?
- Ministry witch called Wakanda
- how did Hermione have time to disfigure Harry, Ron to turn out the lights and for them to listen to the voices get nearer but not to disapparate? All sat next to each other within touching distance, 15 seconds of dialogue, Hermione could have just grabbed the boys and disapparated before a word was even spoken
- Bill is his own secret keeper = why get anyone else involved? Whole faff with Pettigrew pointless
- but awkward, spending 1000 years with the guy who stalked then killed you
- I get that Fred dying with the ghost of his last laugh etched on his face is supposed to be poetic, but picture it, it’s hella creepy
- what happened to all the bodies in the Great Hall when the fight moved there?

And on that cheery note ... that’s it!

Absolute Boyfriend

So I’ve just found out that SBS is releasing a Korean remake of Zettai Kareshi, and I am very confused. I am simultaneously excited and heartbroken.

The Japanese version was one of the first dramas that I really loved, and certainly the first to have a lasting impact on me. Even just looking it up on Instagram threw up an absolutely devastating screen cap and I wasn’t prepared for. My heart dropped and my eyes started to prick with tears. This blog tells me that the manga had a similar effect. I had forgotten how sad it was - or maybe I’d blocked it from my memory. Poor Night ...

However, it was also 8 years ago, and  Zettai Kareshi was only the second drama that I watched. I have watched 100-odd other dramas since then. Yes it made me cry, but I never even considered it for a spot in my top 5 Asian dramas. I never considered any Japanese drama to be honest, and that’s probably because, with the exception of Buzzer Beat, the barbie kisses were just too lame.

I’m definitely going to check out the new Korean version though. I just hope they do it justice.

In other news, while trying to find if I wrote about the original Japanese version in this blog, or whether it predates my reviews (it does), I found a post called How To Find Love (According to Asian Drama), which I think totally deserves a part two. The 2012 version basically requires you to be an antisocial and scary cross-dressing high schooler. Cool. That’ll be why I’m still single then.

BOA Day 11

I am B A D at blogging every day in April.

Therefore, I hereby rename BEDA BOA, Blog Occasionally in April, which amuses me because of the korean singer, and we all know how SM biased I am.

I was just about to go to sleep, but suddenly remembered that I hadn’t posted for like a whole week, so thought I should probably put something up. Here follows a load of random things that I have been thinking about.

I want to rewatch Healer. Having recently rewatched DOTS, I feel a little inspired to rewatch all my other old favourites. Top of the list are definitely Healer and W Two Worlds, but also Secret Garden and Chicago Typewriter. I think this is mostly because I am so not bothered about Mr Sunshine. I’ll finish it, but it is just not inspiring me to power through.

Despite my earlier claim of being so SM biased, I have been playing Mino’s Fiancé A LOT lately. I wasn’t bothered by it at all the first time I heard it, but somehow, months later I heard it again and now it’s got to the point that I’ll just listen to it on repeat. I don’t even know how, I’ve never really paid any attention to Winner before, let alone their solo acts.

I kind of feel like this post has a korean favourites feel that I should continue with. I’ve covered music, and drama, so I guess now it’s beauty?

I don’t really have a Korean Beauty favourite at the moment, but my current YesStyle order is at like £150 and I honestly feel like I need all of it. I’ve been using the Banila Co Clean it Zero, and while it is FINE, I much prefer the Heimish All Clean Balm, purely for the scent. The Clean it Zero smells so sweet, and while it’s not unpleasant, I like the slightly medicinal freshness of the All Clean Balm. The rest of my skincare is much the same, and my make up is ok, but I’ve yet to find anything that I really love enough to talk about. I’ve got some Pony Effect in my current YesStyle order, which I have very high hopes for.

Finally, korean language. I’m still sticking with my 1 hour a day, and feeling pretty proud of myself. I’m about a quarter of my way through level 2 of TTMIK. I wish I had a language partner but I’m scared and have nowhere near enough knowledge to even try attempting a conversation. It’s ok, I have a year to practice!

That’s enough now, I’m going to watch the video I embedded above and then go to bed myself.

BEDA Day 5

What do you mean, where’s BEDA days 3 and 4?

It’s not exactly surprising, although I was hoping to remember for a little longer than just two days. I’m doing well on my other resolutions though, apart from the cleaning schedule, where I’ve just kept to my old routine rather than implementing the new one.

There’s another new thing I decided to implement this month that I didn’t mention before, and that’s playing the lottery. I decided that I really want to win it, and while I recognise the likelihood of winning is slim, the chances are much higher than if you don’t play it at all. So I’m playing just one line on Saturdays and Wednesdays for the month, with a lucky dip set of numbers. My team at work have been talking about a syndicate too, so maybe that will start up after easter as well.  I might try to talk them into going for the euromillions, as it would be more to share. A couple of million between like 8 people wouldn’t really feel like hitting the jackpot as much as a share of £50 million would.

It’s 2 minutes until tomorrow, I should probably post this.

BEDA Day 2

I finished Level 1 of Talk To Me In Korean today. This is very exciting to me, especially when I could follow the dialogue in the review sample that was in 100% korean. Sure, there were certain words I didn’t know, and I couldn’t have said most of it myself, but I could understand it, and that is definitely progress.

Learning a new language is hard, especially when you are trying to self teach. I skipped around a lot of different methods, and I honestly don’t think any of them are really particularly great.

App wise, I preferred Memrise over LingoDeer, but both only really focus on memorising vocabulary or phrases. Memrise was great for helping me to get to grips with Hangul, but from that point on, especially into level 2, there was a lot of guess work. It also mixed up the honorifics quite a lot, which is confusing to a new learner. I did like how much it made you review though, as I think that really helps you to remember information. If I opened Memrise now, I’m sure that it’s been long enough that I would have to review absolutely everything. LingoDeer I found I flew through, but when it came to testing that knowledge, I had retained very little and struggled to move on. I have heard that it’s no longer free so I doubt I will be returning to LingoDeer any time soon.

In terms of books, I have the whole collection of Go! Billy -  Korean Made Simple, which I will work through. I’m about half way through the first book, but have taken a little break to try and work on what I have already learned rather than starting anything new. This book was perfect for helping me to learn to write Hangul, especially the importance of the stroke order, and I found it worked well in conjunction with Memrise for the pronunciation. He also has a YouTube channel, which is helpful too. Billy focuses more on the 니다 form and explains his choice, as it is better to be too formal than not enough, which does make sense.

More recently, I’ve been going down the TTMIK route, and while I really want all of the books, they have plenty of information online for free. Level 1 consisted of some 25 lessons, each taking around 20 mins to half an hour long to complete. There is a podcast and PDF for each lesson, and each lesson is easy to follow and understand. They also have a very popular YouTube channel, although there is nothing very obvious to match up with the lessons. So far, TTMIK has used 요, but I don’t think they have really touched on the differences in honorific forms, but I do think that learning with TTMIK is much slower and more simple.

I don’t quite know how this has happened, but apparently this post is a review of how to learn korean. Obviously my favourite way is by watching korean drama. I like to think of it as listening practice. Viki has a learn mode, maybe I need to try that out next!

BEDA 2019

Today is the First of the Month. It is also a Monday. It is the perfect day to start new habits, as everyone knows that you can only start new things on a Monday or the First of the Month, and when the First of the Month is a Monday, you will have a 100% success rate. Therefore, naturally, I’m starting a load of new habits today.

The first is that I am going to try and do 30 minutes of exercise every day. Hang on, screw that, I AM going to do 30 minutes of exercise each day. Luckily my workplace has a mini gym now so I figure I can just sneak in and use that for the most part, or else go for a walk or whatever, and the fact that it’s only half an hour won’t put me off too much. I had a shitty end of the day today, and then I did 10km on the bike with Kpop blasting and then I wasn’t so pissed off anymore. Success!

Secondly, I want to do 1 hour of Korean study a day. I don’t think I am very good at self motivation when it comes to my language learning, and have looked into courses, but the only place that seems to do it is Leicester Uni, and not only are they far away, but it’s also a little expensive. So back to TTMIK and Go! Billy it is. I did two lessons over an hour and a bit today, so so far so good.

Lastly, I want to get back into blogging. I thought really hard about whether I wanted to commit to BEDA again, but thought, why the hell not, it’s not like anyone expects me to succeed anyway. I don’t know what I’ll post about, as my life is very boring and I haven’t even posted reviews on the last three dramas I have watched (My Secret Hero, My ID is Gangnam Beauty, rewatched Decendants of the Sun and currently am watching Mr Sunshine) but we shall see. I suspect this one is the one I’m mostly likely to fail, as already I’m leaving it until the last minute when I’m in bed and sleepy.

I have a few other little day to day aims, like being 90-95% vegan, not spending unnecessary money, following my cleaning rota and trying to be a better person, but these are just your bog standard ones, not important enough to warrant the magic of the First of the Month being a Monday.

See you tomorrow, hopefully.

Encounter

I’m writing this post right after having finished the one for Defendant, but might schedule it to publish tomorrow or something instead. I don’t really know why, it just doesn’t feel right to post twice in one day.

So I started Encounter before Defendant, and was actually really quite enjoying it, until I ran out of episodes. Then I watched Defendant and pretty much finished that series in the time it took two new episodes of this to come out, and I don’t know if I just lost the flow, or what, but I just didn’t enjoy this series so much from then on. I think it had a really strong start, and I particularly liked the Cuba scenes, but it just fizzled for me to the point where I just wasn’t really invested at all at the end, and couldn’t really have cared less if they stayed together or not. I’m not sure if it was just me, but the last episodes sound mix was shocking, which if it is how it was aired, just proves that they lost their way a bit at the end. Also, my Korean is good enough to realise that the Korean title for this drama is Namjachingu (남자친구), which means Boyfriend. Can we all agree that Encounter is a significantly less lame title?! I mean, sure, it sums up the plot well but still, lame.

Soo Hyun is the divorced daughter in law of a chaebol family who still lives under their thumb due to her fathers debt, but runs a successful hotel chain. One day, while on a trip to open a new hotel in Cuba, she has her bag stolen and falls asleep on top of a wall, nearly plunging to her death until luckily, the only other Korean there, Jin Hyeok, catches her. After a little nap, they walk back to the town together and she makes him spend literally all his money on dinner, wine, shoes, and salsa clubs. None the less, it’s very sweet and they definitely have a spark, but as chance would have it, they don’t see each other again .... until .... Jin Hyeok randomly gets a job at her hotel, realises she is the CEO and they start their love story.

I mean, it sound ridiculous now I’ve written it down, but it was a really sweet start.

For the most part, it was well done. You could really see the character development in Song Hye Kyo’s Soo Hyun, in that she started very sad and serious, and slowly, as she fell for Jin Hyeok, started to smile and laugh more. I mean, who wouldn’t, Park Bo Gum was absolutely adorable. I have to say though, that I did much prefer Song Hye Kyo in Descendants of the Sun, and thought her chemistry with now real life husband Song Joong Ki was much more ... chemistryish. The only thing that really bothered me about this series, other than it’s predictability, was how they didn’t do more with Woo Seok, Soo Hyun’s ex husband who literally faked an affair so she could divorce him because he loved her so much. You all know (ha, ‘all’, like I’m talking to anyone other than myself, let’s be honest here) that I love me a second male lead, and they just made him totally pointless and pathetic. It was such a shame, because he was really pretty and had real potential to properly shake up the story.

TLDR
It was ok.
New kdrama fans will probably like it, or those who like the samey romance style as 90% of korean drama.
I probably won’t watch it again.

I was probably going to watch My Strange Hero next, another currently airing series, but I’ve decided to rewatch Game of Thrones, so that will take me a while. I have also found myself with access to a Netflix account, which means I have subsequently found myself with access to shows such as It’s Okay That’s Love, Hwayugi, and My ID is Gangnam Beauty, as well as many other series not available on Viki, so that might complicate things somewhat.

Defendant

You know, there is a very good chance that all of my posts in January are going to be about korean dramas.

After finishing Reply late 1980’s - 1990’s, I started watching Encounter. However, being a show that I started while it was currently airing, based on my high hopes due to the Song Hye Kyo and Park Bo Gum combo, I soon found myself caught up and with days before the next episode. So naturally, I started on a new show to watch as a filler, and ended up much preferring. This show was Defendant, another high ranker and one that I had avoided for looking a little too serious. I remember it coming out, and thinking that while I love Ji Sung, the idea of a drama set in a prison just didn’t appeal.

I don’t know why I don’t learn that the high rated non-romance dramas are almost always absolutely amazing.

Park Jeong Woo is a successful prosecutor with a perfect life - he runs around catching the bad guys and then goes home to his loving wife and adorable daughter. He is just starting to crack the case on a suspicious CEO who he thinks is actually his criminal twin brother who apparently committed suicide, when he wakes up in a prison cell. Somehow, it’s four months later, and he discovers that he is on trail for having murdered his wife and daughter, has admitted to it, and has absolutely no memory of any of it.  Slowly, he starts to regain his memory and figure out who has framed him and to plan his revenge.

Firstly, I love Ji Sung. He is the lead in of my favourite films, My PS Partner, and played the main role in the slightly forgettable Protect the Boss and in Kill Me Heal Me, which was amazing. He was great in this too, able go from stony seriousness to goofiness to heartbreakingly sad. The guy who played Cha Seon Ho was really good too, in that he made me hate him for being such a despicable person, although Seok his dirty work assistant person also did horrible things and I kind of just crushed on him, so take that as you please. Kim Min Seok from DotS and Because This is My First Life was also in it as Seong Gyu, and he bloody well broke my heart and didn’t deserve anything but a happy ending where he was adopted by Jeong Woo as a younger brother and Ha Yeon’s uncle and they all lived happily ever after.

It was interesting actually to learn a bit about the prison system in South Korea. I found out that people are still sentenced to death, although these sentences haven’t been carried out in decades. People on trial wear beige, those who have been sentenced wear blue and those on death row have their identity numbers in red. They aren’t referred to by name in prison, but instead by number, and live in small rooms with six other inmates, unless they are rich, in which they get a private room which looks more like what we associate prison accommodation to look like.

It was a really good series. It kept you guessing, and while you kind of know it’ll all end up ok in the end, the constant twists and turns and cleverness of the plot does make you doubt it occasssionally. There was zero romance subplot, which is rare, but you really don’t miss it, and I think anything of the sort would have totally ruined the key aspect of Jeong Woo’s character. I enjoyed the comic relief of the cell mates, and that they all got their happily ever afters - apart from Seong Gyu who I actually think I had a bit of second male lead syndrome about, in that while he was only a supporting role, I did root for him hard.

I just can’t fault it, really.

Tldr
It made me cry - like a fair amount. That means it’s good.
You should watch it, but maybe only if you’re a non squeamish adult.
I’d totally watch it again, but would wait a while to forget it first.

Having said all that, I don’t think it will knock any of my Top 5 off the list. It is probably safe in my Top 25 though.

Luckily, I finished this and only had to wait a day until the finale of Encounter came out and was subbed, so expect that review shortly.

Reply 1988

This drama has sat high up on the rankings for long time, yet like Six Flying Dragons, is one that I have avoided. I don’t really know why, it just didn’t appeal to me, which is surprising when a few of the main cast are actors I’m familiar with. However, I decided to trust in the high ratings and watch it.

Essentially, Reply 1988 is about a small neighbourhood and the families that live there, namely five childhood friends going through the end of their high school years and growing up. Deok Seon seemed to be the main character, being the only girl, and is kind and bright, although she struggles in school. Sun Woo is a model student and perfect son to his recently widowed mother. Taek is the baby of the group, somewhat spaced out and clumsy so that the others all feel protective about him, although he is a child prodigy baduk player. Jeong Hwan and his family became rich overnight, and although he may seem emotionless, he is really very sweet. Dong Ryong is a geek more interested in girls and having fun than studying. Together, they are the closest of friends, and all their lives intertwine. Taek and Jeong Hwan both have a crush on Deok Seon, but she likes Sun Woo, who is actually in love with Deok Seon’s sister. There is a nice side story about Jeong Hwan’s brother and Deok Seon’s best friend getting together, and lots about their parents and their friendships too. It was quite funny, although jokes being punctuated with goat bleats was weird to start with.

Firstly, the episodes are long. Like, 40 to 50 minutes longer than normal. That’s basically like watching a whole other episode. It took me a long time to get through the series because of that, because I would often have to split the time up, taking me two or three days to watch an episode.

Secondly, I think this series isn’t really for international audiences. It is filled with references that made absolutely no sense to me, although sometimes I could get it when they talked about western imports, such as Hollywood films. For the most part though, a lot of the humour was centred around reminiscing about Korea in the late 80’s and early 90’s, from adverts and comedy shows, to home life and politics. Much of it went totally over my head. Although I did enjoy their little tribute to Secret Garden, which made prefect sense, being a show that aired in 2010 ...

Thirdly, the Rui Effect was strong in this one, and totally confusing as to who was actually the second male lead. I thought for sure that Deok Seon and Jeong Hwan were going to end up together at the end, and that Taek was the Rui in this case, but apparently not. Also, side note, I was not bothered at all about Jeong Hwan until I saw him in his Air Force uniform. Thinking about it now, I’m kind of angry that Jeong Hwan didn’t end up with Deok Seon from how much I was sure that he would, although I think I would have angry whatever. There was just no winner in that scenario.

I feel like Dong Ryong was sort of the forgotten main cast member as his story didn’t get padded out nearly as much as the others. It seemed like he was thrown in for comedy value, and to prevent all scenes of the boys at school just being of Sun Woo and Jeong Hwan studying like the good kids they are. I also feel like they forgot about Jeong Hwan a bit at the end too, instead focusing more on Sun Woo, Deok Seon and Taek. The last episode tried too hard to be sad and sentimental, and while we all know how much I love a series that makes me cry, everyone at a wedding getting all happy emotional just doesn’t do it for me. Also, while we are talking about negatives, why is it called Reply 1988 when most of it happens in 1989, and fair portion of it in 1994 and ending in 1996. I think there was more screen time of the flash forwards to Deok Seon and her mysterious husband in 2015 than anything in 1988.

TLDR
Although it was good, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I were a 35 year old Korean person.
Don’t be put off by the long episodes - so much happens it’s easy to break them up.
I would watch it again purely for a couple of the kiss scenes and Jeong Hwan in his uniform.