Pass or Play: Filing For Love, Zhan Zhao Adventures & Coroner's Diary.

Filing for Love

K-drama, Melodrama, Comedy, Office-Romance
Watched ep 6/12
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Auditor colleagues falling in love at the office? The premise sounded a bit boring at first but from the start this show has been the biggest surprise! Shin Hye-sun is one of my favourite actresses, she can transform herself to play so many different types of characters in different genres and make it believable. Her character here is not the typical rom-com FL that we often see; she is a highly competent and domineering boss who is a bit of a mystery to the audience and the ML, No Gi Jun played by Gong Myung, so we discover the story twists and new character revelations through his eyes as he investigates his boss. This show delivers a highly entertaining, sharp-witted workplace rom-com with magnetic chemistry between the two leads. This is my first drama with Gong Myung, he is so funny as the "fallen corporate superstar" with a warm heart and I'm really enjoying his comedic performance as he chases after the FL. It's a good balance of romance and comedy with an interesting developing story involving company politics...perhaps a possible love triangle, I'm definitely intrigued to see where it leads.

Zhan Zhao Adventures

Wuxia, Historical, Mystery, Adventure
Watched ep 10/37
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So far, this is a fine enough performance from Yang Yang as the legendary fictional character in Chinese Wuxia literature, Zhan Zhao. Famous for his incredible swordsmanship, the show instantly throws us in to an intense and intriguing plot with good fluid fight scenes. I like the chemistry between his trusted crime fighting team, flamboyant swordsman, Bai Yu Tang known as the "Golden-haired Rat" and runaway bride turned Jianghu adventurer, Huo Ling Long. The sidekicks are entertaining with their contrasting personalities that complement Zhan Zhao's straight-laced, righteous and a little rigid character. I think this will be a slow leisurely watch for me, the investigation is slow developing and still in the early stages so I'm hoping the story gets a bit more interesting as I really enjoyed the fast moving opening episodes.

Coroner's Diary

C-drama, Historical, Mystery, Crime, Drama
Watched ep 6/38
▶️ PLAY

Adapted from the web novel, "The Powerful and Favored Coroner Imperial Concubine" by Bu Yue Qian Zhuang - think of it as the imperial-court version of CSI and a Chinese female Sherlock Holmes. The story moves along at a good speed, in the first episode we immediately enter a highly intense chase scene where the FL narrowly escapes death as the sole survivor of her family's massacre. Returning with a disguised identity and extraordinary medical skills (perhaps a little too extraordinary), she's on a mission to seek justice and clear her falsely accused father's name.

Landy Li is enjoyable to watch as the calm and controlled demeanor of Shen Wan, the way she conducts the autopsies, nothing too gruesome, are also intriguing to watch. As is the case with a lot of FL in these kinds of revenge dramas, they can often be ridiculously infallible especially during these historical times; although it's a bit too soon to tell how flawless her character will be but so far I am enjoying her confidence and forensic skills.

The first major case was genuinely interesting to follow and resolves fairly fast within 4-5 episodes. Exploring a dark themes of revenge, family betrayal and a scandalous secret love affair; this show clearly isn't just a love story between the leads, in fact it feels more in the background and their teamwork is more the forefront of the drama which feels quite refreshing from the usual C-dramas I watch.