너의 시선이 머무는 곳에 Episode 1-2 Review
너의 시선이 머무는 곳에 epi 1-2 review
We’ve been dying for this show to come out ever since @blworld1 on Instagram shared it on their story. A Korean BL drama?!?! Like HELLLLOOOOO, we knew we were ready for our two worlds to collide. And now it is finally here so we are going to give our thoughts every week about the two episodes airing that week.
We couldn’t even wait until it was fully subtitled that’s how excited we were! We also found this was a great way for us to practice the skills we learn and try and teach here on the site. We re-watched with subtitles a little while later to confirm what we believed to be said and we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to grasp close to 75-80% of the show. Now let’s get into the good stuff.
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT! If you don’t want to know before you watch then pause on reading, watch, and then come back to us so we can have a full-on discussion.
1화 (huwa-chapter/episode): 안 좋은 버릇 (an jueun boreut – bad habits)
The first episode had similarities to most shows. Characters were introduced, their roles to the story identified, and what we need to know for us to proceed with the rest of the show was learned. We understood from the trailers that the relationship between 한 내 주 (they call him Han TAE Joo in the romanization but his name tag read내 주) is a wealthy heir to a large company while 강 국 (Kang Gook) is his not so well off bodyguard. What we didn’t know from the trailer was that 내 주 is supposed to keep his identity unknown to the world and 강 국 is there to protect not only the secret but also 내 주.
That doesn’t go so well as in the first two minutes of the show 내 주 get’s into a fight because he keeps stealing this other dude’s girlfriends and then brags to the bully that he is the son of the president of the super big company. To be fair, if three of your girlfriends are seeking comfort somewhere else…take a look at yourself bruh.
As the episode proceeds, we find that 내 주’s father is, to put it bluntly, a dick. Like all rich parents in K-dramas are. He takes out his anger on 강 국 instead of his own son, hinting about ‘a habit’ his son has. Now this bit confused us. What habit is he talking about? Fighting? Girls? Or, does his father assume and/or know his son is gay?
To us 내 주 doesn’t seem to know he’s gay, or at least plays a very naive boy who is unsure where his feelings lie. Like he calls 강 국 “자기야” (jagiya- honey/darling). 강 국 on the other hand seems to wear his sexually frustrated feelings on his sleeve however much he tries to push his feelings aside.
For real if 강 국looked at us the way he looks at 내 주, nsfw things would have already been happening. It is evident from the second he comes on the screen that his feelings for 내 주 are not simply bodyguard and friend.
As 강 국 gives 내 주 first aid in their shared apartment (the rich father put them in a small, ‘average’ liveable space to keep up the mediocre appearance to the rest of the world) they start to rough house making quips and jokes about each other and their fighting techniques. And then that sexual tension that 강 국 so easily portrays comes to hit us head on when 내 주 plays with his earlobe. Rendering 강 국 useless and also hella turned on.
At the end of the episode, the bully who clearly has girl issues comes to apologize and 내 주 chooses to befriend the kid joking it will make it easier to not steal his girlfriends. But then he goes to grab the boys earlobe and 강 국 is not having it.
OUR FAV SCENE: When they go to grab a bite to eat and the woman who owns the shop asked if 강 국 is the attacker and 내 주 is the defense. (Essentially seme/uke top/bottom) Basically this woman is us in 20-30 years and that’s why we loved this scene.
Our cutest scene: When 강 국is taking care of 내 주 and내 주 gets all adorable saying he doesn’t want to go to England (which his father threatened him with) and starts rubbing himself on 강 국 like a little puppy. The actor does give us puppy dog vibes to begin with, so this just solidified his little doggy look.
Our least fav scene: We know this sounds messed up, but any scene with the girl, who we can tell is going to be the strain in the boys’ relationship, is just not for us. She just rubs us the wrong way. I mean she walks into her first scene a legit sneezes loudly not covering her mouth or anything. We outright cringed. Like hello, pandemic? And for real…it’s just basic manners and hygiene. #sorrynotsorry
2 화 : 동등한 관계 (dungdoonghan gwangae – equal partnership/relationship)
Now here is where the story starts to get interesting. And by interesting we do mean the plot thickens, but we also mean the tension builds even more between 강 국 and 내 주. After the incident with 내 주 grabbing the bully’s ear and 강 국 not having it, our two lead boys decide to have a sparring match to prove who really is the better fighter. And now all the fun juicy stuff our ‘hard stan’ BL hearts love takes front stage. 강 국 takes off his shirt to reveal a very sexy back (yeah no abs, we were a crushed but don’t worry we’re on the mend) and 내 주 even compliments his handsome frame. Who wouldn’t?! Boy has a nice backside.
We come to find our that내 주 gave that annoying girl, who honestly we don’t even know if we got her name or not…we don’t care, 강 국’s real phone number! UGH! The nerve of him. 강 국 is not impressed and doesn’t get why 내 주 had to step in and make that move for him. As they begin to spar, (this is where our hearts started to mend) we were trying to hold back our squeals at their heavy breathing, groans, and moans. It was a struggle. And not to mention they seemed to actually have some solid moves.
강 국’s phone keeps blowing up, (GIRL can you get the freakin picture?! He isn’t interested) and while distracted내 주 starts touching 강 국’s bare chest. *Cue the hallelujah chorus on this one* But to cover up the fact he was most likely enjoying the touch, 강 국 puts the hand in a back bend that ends up injuring our rich boy lead’s wrist.
Oh what a shame. NOT! Now our lovely 내 주 needs help doing the most basic of things. “Like what?” you maybe asking yourself. Oh…ya know…cooking…cleaning…showering.
Our bodies hit the floor, our souls were sent to outer space, and then the episode ended, our souls sky rocket back into our bodies, which sat up from the floor and proceed to punch our TV screens for doing us dirty like that.
OUR FAV SCENE: The sparring scene. Do we really need to explain ourselves? Pretty sure we did above.
Our cutest scene: The shower scene. It isn’t a sexual scene at all, like one might think from us freaking out over it. The way 강 국 takes care of 내 주 is sweet. The way he tenderly moves the shampooed hair from 내 주’s ears and softly scrubs at the boys scalp… let’s say our hearts pitter pattered. It was such a soft and gentle moment.
Our least favorite scene: Once again, any scene with this girl just…ugh. Her mother, who is our spirit animal, says to not interfere with the boys relationship. SHE CAN TELL THEY HAVE A RELATIONSHIP, and yet her daughter is like, “nah, they aren’t like that. I’m gonna pursue this dude who gave me a fake number, totally on accident, because he def likes me.” Beesh BYE!
If you want to watch the show yourself and see everything we talked about and more, the show is airing on Viki. Check it out. So far we have not been disappointed and neither will you. If you want to chat about the show feel free to reach out to us on Instagram (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt). We would love to hear if you’ve started the show and what you think!
Korean BL Drama? Finally!
While there have been some Korean BL movies, and there have been a TON of BL 만화, we’ve been dying to see a solid Korean BL series. Sure, there have been some dramas that have tossed a gay couple here or there into the plot line (The Lovers, Love With Flaws, Reply 1997) and we are talking tops one or two K-dramas that were specifically focusing of BL romances. Sadly, most of the major Korean BL stories don’t have happy endings.
But guess what? We finally have it. Yes, we finally have a Korean BL drama coming to our computer screens May 22, and with names we know and are excited to see on screen.
너의시 선이 머무는 곳에 (noweeshee sonee momoonoon gusae – Where your eyes linger) is the story of Tae Joo (played by Han Gi Chan), a young heir to his family’s company, and his body guard Goo Koo (played by Jang Eui Soo), who, while protecting Tae Joo, also becomes his friend and confidant. But that friendship becomes something more. While Goo Koo seems to be more aware of his feelings, they both seem scared to admit what the tension between them really is.
When we heard a Korean BL was coming we knew we were going to be excited. But when we heard a contestant of Produce 101 was going to be one of the leads we knew we had to watch. Now all we can pray for is that this has a happy ending.
We are hoping to cover this drama as it progresses but since it isnt’t released just yet, here are the two trailers they have dropped. This will be available on VIKI May 22nd.
Our Top 10 K-Drama Kisses
We like kisses ok? BL or otherwise. Kisses are kisses and as romance obsessed humans, kisses are important. We can lose all interest in a show if the kiss lacks in emotion and decent kissing form. Yeah. We take kisses that seriously. Sometimes if we haven’t watched a drama we will go to our girl @kdrama.kisscene on Instagram to see some quality kisses and make the decision to watch the drama.
ON TO THE KISSES!
10. The Liar and His Lover (그녀는 거짓말을 너무 사랑해)
We are kicking it off short and sweet with this kiss. Now this drama…well tbh wasn’t good at all. The concept lacked a LOT, and it was just…just not good. The one thing we did love however, was the band that was the best friends of the male lead. Shockingly we will see the kissing ability of one of the other members of the band in a future number in this chart. But this kiss was between the band leader who is also the lead singer, and sexy mf, played by the god who is Sung Joo of UNIQ, and their old high school friend who became their manager. They always flirted and when they are hanging out they realize their romantic connection. Only problem is she believes he doesn’t like her because he never received her confession letter when they were in high school. After the misunderstanding they share a very adorable kiss.
9. She Was Pretty (그녀는 예뻤다)
This was the first drama we learned we had to wait for episodes to come out every week like normal tv shows. Seriously, it was rough. And while we disliked the concept of the show, Park Seo Jun being a douche to the not so attractive girl until he realizes it’s the pretty girl he was in love with when he was younger, we have to admit their relationship after that fact was shockingly cute and adorable. This kiss comes when he is trying to convince her to stay the night at his place. Nervously she declines, but once she leaves, she realizes she doesn’t want to go and so she knocks on his door to make up an excuse to stay. He pulls her back into his apartment for the bow chika wow wow and this kiss was our first look into the slightly steamy kissing K-dramas had to offer.
8. I’m Not A Robot (로봇이 아니야)
If we had started this website earlier, and started making these lists earlier, we would of made lists for top dramas of every year since we’ve started watching dramas. And this drama would probably be in the top 3 of 2017-2018. It was fun, cute, romantic and all around adorable but heartfelt and made us cry a few times. Our kiss is from when our two leads have finally resolved their problems, which tbh are A LOT, and she is making him her super-secret recipe, which is just covering up the fact she can’t cook well. He knew about the recipe due to her young niece telling him about it. And he sees how much she loves him, and how much he loves her and smooches the heck out of her. It is a solid kiss and when he pulls her closer…oof!
7. Mistress (미스트리스)
We didn’t watch this show. I know we said kisses can make us watch shows but we did try to watch this drama and shockingly with all the steamy scenes in it, the plot wasn’t for us. But this scene? The biggest of oofs! This scene is by far the MOST sexy scene we’ve seen in a k-drama. No lie, we watched the scene several times, and at one point drooled. We admit that to all of you. We drooled. Sex in a car. IN A K-DRAMA?! Seriously we can’t even describe how hot this scene is so just watch for yourself.
6. 1% of Something (1%의 어떤 것)
Clearly dudes pushing women against a wall really sends us. This drama was an example of the total cliché rich guy, poor woman, thrown together by a contract, and fall madly in love with each other, but someone tries to stop their love from thriving. But it was cute, and while cliché, sometimes we need clichés in our lives. This kiss is one of our favorite scenes in the show as well. It was just a funny little feel good kiss when he realizes he wants more than just a kiss. And she looks like she is all for it. He presses her against the wall after she just gets out of the shower (don’t worry she has a robe on. He isn’t a total horn dog), and just makes her melt. She’s gonna need another shower after he’s done with her. Too much?
5. Clean With A Passion For Now (일단 뜨겁게 청소하라!!)
We loved this drama. We feel it was very underrated and needs more appreciation. And this kiss was one of the ultimate kisses of the show. She makes it clear she is going to spend the night in his house and then kisses him to make her meaning known. When it truly clicks in his head what she is implying he lifts her up with ease, endlessly kissing her before placing her on the counter to continue their make-out session. We wished they continued to the bedroom but ya know, we take what we can get. Oddly one of our favorite things about this kiss was their outfits. Sounds weird, we know, but they complimented each other so well that we took note.
4. Search:WWW (검색어를 입력하세요)
TWO kisses in this drama deserve the #4 spot. We couldn’t choose between the two so we chose both! We really loved this drama and the strong women it provided for us to be inspired by. They all had their problems, but dealt with them and came out stronger. Two of the leading women had some pretty adorable relationships. And also shared some great kisses. A kiss shared by that #10 other band member, Jang Ki-young, we mentioned. The coffee making scene was super adorable and the ASMR killed us. The only things heard are the coffee maker and their smooching lips. Amazing. The second kiss, a confessional kiss between a fangirl and the man she has fangirled over. A true fan fic moment right there. She surprised attacked him and he got her right back. We should also mention the man she kissed is also the second lead in Extraordinary You. And we were very excited to know he had some solid kissing abilities with those nice lips.
3. Suspicious Partner (수상한 파트너)
Ji Chang Wook is bae. That is all you really need to know for this kiss. But if you need more than that, this kiss is steamy, steamy, steamy! We weren’t expecting that kinda make-out session from a lawyer drama. But this lawyer drama wasn’t like many lawyer dramas we’ve watched. Possibly why we liked this one more than most. We loved this kiss so damn much we can’t even describe it. And while the kiss was amazing in the drama, we attached the behind the scenes of the kiss because…WOW. They really went in. It made a lot of sense why people thought the two were dating in real life.
2. W: Two Worlds (더블유)
Our number one K-drama has the number two spot in our kisses list. We think this kiss is what sold us on Lee Jung Suk as an actor. And once again the fashion during this kiss made us sweat. That teal suit with the white stripes at the cuffs, oh my lawd. *chef kiss* The kiss. Let’s focus on the kiss. This one was emotional as he finally admits his feelings for the woman who holds the key to his destiny. Not only does he lift her out her seat to drop her on the table, it involves handcuffs.
1. What’s Wrong Secretary Kim? (김비서가 왜 그럴까)
Park Seo Jun makes his second appearance on this list and it so happens to be the #1 spot! Yes, he is THAT great of a kisser. I mean we could make a whole top 10 of his kisses. Maybe we should? Let us know what you think. But back to this particular kiss. The #1 kiss. Why is this #1? Maybe it’s the pressing her up against the wall, maybe it’s the heavy breathing, maybe it’s her pulling off his tie, maybe it’s them tumbling onto his bed, or maybe it’s him pulling off his shirt and dropping down to tell her he loves her. It could be any one of those things. Or all of them combining to make a glorious sexy make-out to the bed scene. Yeah, it’s definitely all of them.
What do you think of our top 10 kisses. Have you watched these dramas? What are your favorite K-Drama kisses? Let us know!
Our Top 10 K-Dramas
This Tuesday’s list is brought to you buy our love of what helped create this website. K-DRAMAS! Hopefully all you BL-er’s aren’t disappointed, we promise to have more BL goodness in the future so please look forward to it. But back to the list that is this list. During this stay-at-home, don’t leave EVER, quarantine, you may be wondering, “What can I binge today?” Solid question. And in a large, very general way, we will respond, “K-dramas DUH.”
But there are wayyyyy too many K-drama’s out there and if you’re new to the scene, you might feel that the sheer amount of decisions can be discouraging you from even starting. Well fear not! We are here to provide our top 10 k-dramas. Think of it as the entry into finding what you like, and from here you can venture out into the vast k-drama world and not feel so frustrated.
10. Healer (힐러)
Coming in at #10 is a show that has everything someone could want from a show. Hilarity, action, murder, mystery, and romance. Oh, it also has Ji Chang Wook. So that’s a thing. He is a super-secret ‘deliveryman’ who gets paid bookoo bucks to make special deliveries to people. He is known as ‘Healer’. He doesn’t know what he’s delivering but, he knows that it most likely isn’t the most legit business dealings. People begin hunting him down as he’s been delivering very important blackmail information. His badass self goes undercover as a nerdy, socially awkward journalist and meets a woman who is determined to make name for herself in the world of news. They team up to find out who Healer is, obviously he knows who he is, and suddenly a dark underbelly is uncovered that threatens to tear apart corrupt businessmen and politicians alike. This really is a drama to get you into all sorts of dramas.
9. Save Me (구해줘)
If romance isn’t your thing…then why the hell are you getting into k-dramas? WE KID! WE KID! But also, think about it. Almost every k-drama has some sort of love plot line. No matter how big or small. But this drama has probably the SMALLEST amount of romance. This drama is dark AF and revolves around a religious cult that takes a small farming town by storm. Brain washing citizens into believing in some higher being that will bring them enlightenment. But only if they buy what the cult is producing and work for no pay because it’s what the higher person says is a good thing to do. A girl moves into town with her family and her brother is instantly the boy bullies choose to make miserable. She is not about to let it slide and while trying to fight them off meets a group of four best friends, two of which form a crush on her. But while trying to save the brother from the bullies, the brother chooses to end his life. Fraught with grief the father tries to find solace and ends up finding it in the cult. Crazy shiz goes down for the rest of the show and you will never be bored. We were on the edge of our seats every episode.
8. My Love From Another Star (별에서 온 그대)
We always have to put what started it all on our lists. And this drama is just that. This drama started off strong, got a little boring in the middle, and had a stellar finish. It’s about an alien- hold up, hold up, let us finish. It’s about an alien, who had been stuck on Earth for hundreds of years, unable to get home, when an obnoxious, and very annoying k-drama actress moves in next door to him in his luxury apartment building. Since he is an alien he has super sonic hearing (obviously) and can hear through the walls as she constantly complains and just all around of her jackassery which pushes him to a breaking point. But then weirdly they form a friendship, which inevitably grows into love, and well you’ll have to watch the show to see how everything transpires.
7. Circle (써클: 이어진 두 세계)
Another drama where romance was not the focus and also our introduction to actor Yeo Jin Goo and the acting abilities of Gikwang of Highlight. Two men who inspired characters in our K-drama book Seoul Searching. This is a sci-fi drama that takes place in two different time periods but focuses on the same people throughout. One world is the one we all know as present day while the other is this bizarre future where everyone is implanted with this weird chip that erases bits of your memory. Not that people realize that’s what they paid for. And throughout you are unsure of who exactly the story is following. It is full of suspense, mystery, and aliens. The plot is so out of the ordinary we were sucked in by the first episode and couldn’t escape. You will never see major plot twists coming, and you will most likely scream at the end, but that’s life my dudes.
6. Tempted (The Great Seducer) (위대한 유혹자)
If we are being 100% honest, this show is not the best show there is out there. BUT we will say Woo Do Hwan, the inspiration for Hwan Soo in Seoul Searching, is the sexy lead of this show who was the reason we watched until the bitter end. He is a bad boy, with major daddy issues, and two friends, who are not the greatest of people. In fact, his best girl friend is the absolute worst and loves to destroy people’s lives since her mom destroyed hers. This show is straight drama. ALL DRAMA. ALL. THE. TIME. Just when you think something good is happening, a car hits a bish, parents have affairs, and people come to kill your love. But we have to say Woo Do Hwan’s sensually deep, slow, voice makes everything ok. The lead girl is played by Joy, of k-pop girl group Red Velvet. We aren’t the biggest fans of her acting, but we have to say we saw major improvements in this drama from previous ones. This is a drama for people who who love to say “I am not someone who likes drama in my life. I like to be drama free.” Because we know you’re lying through your teeth, so grab some popcorn and much to your hearts content.
5. Extraordinary You (어쩌다 발견한 하루)
This drama was one that took us totally by surprise. We tend to avoid high school dramas. They are sometimes too dramatic, cliché, and don’t target at people our age. Hence why we don’t watch them. But when we saw Rowoon from SF9 and one of our newest k-drama actor obsessions, Lee Jae Wook, were the male leads, we threw our previous conceptions aside and watched a high school drama. But this truly wasn’t like any other high school drama we had ever seen. In fact, the reason we love it so much is because it thrives off making fun of high school plot lines while also creating a totally insane, romantic, heart wrenching, funny, and life altering show that had us praying for the next episode to come out. Lucky for you guys it’s binge-able. All shows on this list, minus one, are completed so during this quarantine you can go ham and binge to your hearts content. This story focuses around a girl who seemingly looks to have a good life. She’s pretty, her family has money, she is well liked in school, but she does have a heart condition that causes some minor issues here or there. Suddenly she starts to notice odd things happen around her. Time passes but she doesn’t remember what happened, her friends constantly repeat themselves but don’t realize it, she thinks her heart is causing issues in her life. FUN FACT: It’s not her heart. She is a character in a 만화! Once finding out she is determined to change her plot line, but it comes with some costs. Find out when you watch. You won’t be disappointed. (PS we told our friend at Forbes about this article and she binged the whole show and wrote and article about it. #justsaying)
4. Love Alarm (좋아하면 울리는)
And now for the only show that has yet to be completed. And with this whole coronavirus craziness we don’t know when it actually will. This drama is when Netflix tried to make k-dramas like all other shows in the world and create multiple seasons out of a show that could’ve easily been one. We’ve noticed, for now at least, they’ve realized the error in their ways and have been providing a normal season length. Anywho, this six episode ‘season’ revolves around a girl, fairly normal school life, but an ugly step sister (actually her cousin) and an evil step mother (her aunt) who are making her pay for the debt of her dead parents. Trust us, the shiz is messed up and her aunt is a piece of crap, but that isn’t the main focus of the show. The main focus is the fact a new app comes on the market that shows you if someone within 10 meters of you is in love with you. ‘JoAlarm’ aka Love Alarm. She refuses to download it and it catches the attention of the sexy new boy in school. He chases her, and falls in love. Too bad his best friend has been in love with her for ages. Oh well the Love Alarm sounds off when the Love Alarm sounds off.
3. Crash Landing On You (사랑의 불시착)
A show that we have been able to convince even non interested parties in is Crash Landing On You. Yep. People who didn’t want to even start k-dramas have binged and fell in love with Captain Ri and his band of merry men as they navigate the worlds of North and South Korea. This drama is in the top three for so many reasons. The love story is one for the flipping ages, the friendships that are created between all the characters sends us, and well the plot line is refreshing, fun, filled with love and action and tear jerking scenes that everyone can love this drama. A well-known CEO decides to be the test subject of a new paragliding suit. Too bad a freak storm sends her whirling around and landing in a tree stuck until someone can find her. Luckily someone does. A North Korean soldier. She landed in North Korea! Trying to escape proves fruitless and the soldier does what he can to help her escape not only to keep her safe, but to keep him and his team out of fire for failing to do their jobs. But since North Korea doesn’t come to play, other officers start to get involved and things start to take a turn for the worst. Corruption, murder, and the CEO and soldiers past all come to light and well…we really don’t want to spoil this story for you guys. Just trust us, this is one that you will not soon forget.
2. Reply 1988 (응답하라 1988)
The first drama we got Sammie’s mother to watch is this beautiful masterpiece of a semi-historical drama. When you think historical you think anything before the 1900’s so let’s call this a throwback masterpiece. A story of four neighborhood friends growing up in half block radius, whose parents are just as close, and how they navigate life in South Korea during the late 80’s and early 90’s. While the teenagers were filled with comedy, love and heartbreak, the parents were really an amazing plot line as well that left Sammie’s mom sobbing, both laughing and heartfelt, along with us. We also learned some crazy laws like, did you know that people with the same last names couldn’t marry? We sure as heck didn’t.
We couldn’t find a trailer but we decided to share one of the funny scenes that legit had us rolling at how embarrassing it was.
1. W: Two Worlds (더블유)
If you follow us on Instagram (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt) we have mentioned our love for this show. Not even just this show but a very specific episode. If you remember, wow, you’ve been here awhile! Thanks for staying with us! This show wasn’t initially a favorite of ours. In fact, we didn’t watch it when it came out because we, don’t come for us yet, didn’t find Lee Jong Suk all that attractive. We have since taken that back and are very loyal to our boy. We aren’t even sure why we chose to finally watch but now it’s here at the number one spot so clearly it was good. We have a love for 만화 , obviously since two of the titles here revolve around the concept as well as our last list was all about BL 만화. This story is even crazier than Extraordinary You. What if you liked a story so much, but didn’t like the plot so you got sucked into the story so you could change it? And then the lead of the story falls in love with you, and the story begins to change, and characters begin to disappear and people in the story and outside are trying to kill you both? And then you have to constantly change the story so that it can fix itself and your 만화 love ends up in the real world? Yeah, this drama is all of that and a bag of chips and we can re-watch until the cows come home. (We mean that literally we live in farm country lol) Also the orchestral scores are so epic. OST solid but the ORCHESTRAL SCORES ARE THE MOST AMAZING!
So what do you think? Have you watched any of these dramas? Are you going to? What are some of your favorite dramas? We want to know!
Our Top 10 BL 만화
WARNING! If we marked the last list as 18+ NSFW this is SOOOOO NSFW that we are glad we are sharing this in the middle of a quarantine. Seriously some of the images shared are extremely sexual. If you are not comfortable with such scenes this list is not for you.
Another Tuesday, another list. And this list is a doozy. Now that we introduced you to BL Dramas, we are going to introduce you to another BL genre. We had brough it up in the last list. 만화, are in the simplest terms, a comic book. And while not many BL drama’s come out of South Korea, 만화 are a totally different story.
Another thing you could gauge from our last list is that we like the sexy stuff. Fluff is nice, but the down and dirty is what we’re about for the most part. This is what we call Yaoi. All Yaoi is BL but not all BL is Yaoi.
These are our favorite BL 만화’s. Let’s Go!
10. Window to Window (창 너머 창) by Lee Aru
This was the first series we ever read, finished, and wished we had more. Ginu and Yubin were best friends ever since they were little kids. But Yubin is in love with Ginu. And does *ehem* to himself while thinking of Ginu. Bad part is Ginu see’s him doing it from his window across the way. Which turns out to be not so bad as Ginu is curious about what Yubin was doing and why and a friends with benefits relationship starts. What Yubin doesn’t realize is that Ginu has liked him since even before they really knew what “being gay” meant. And while their friends with benefits continues, things start to change between them. This was our first experience with yaoi. We were more so into the BL dramas before we knew yaoi and bl 만화’s existed. So our eyebrows raised, our temperatures rose, and our hearts pounded as we read through these sex scenes. We were hooked. The roll play one got us the most. So fair warning.
9. Puppy Love (퍼피러브) by Eumnya
This is a newer 만화having only been released, at the time of us writing this, two months ago. We usually try to steer clear of the overpowering, ‘ownership’ tropes. It just isn’t our thing. We can’t even tell you why we clicked it, but we did. And we were not disappointed. Seoyoon is a young man who is social media famous, but due to trauma in his past, he rarely goes outside and avoids all kinds of real life social interaction. He receives a DM from a man, Yeonwoo. A vulgar comment that is usually ignored but for some reason Seoyoon chooses to respond. The next thing you know Seoyoon is sending lewd photos and doing everything Yeonwoo asks of him. Even making Seoyoon his ‘pet.’ Yeah, we know, it sounds weird, but come to us after reading Killing Stalking. We can’t even share many images from this title as it is very VERY sexual. The reason it made it on our list is because we see that Yeonwoo, while dominating and making Seoyoon his pet, seems to have genuine feelings for Seoyoon. Since this is a newer title, we don’t know where the story may lead but we are excited to find out.
8. Pian Pian (피옌피옌) by Haesin Young
This is another new one to the scene. And while not a lot has happened in it yet, we have a feeling it’s about to. Sooha is the lowest of the low on the totem pole at a famous chef’s, Chef Calix, restaurant. Choosing to go into food as his profession was all due to seeing Chef Calix on tv when he was a bit younger. He started to develop a crush, not that he wanted to admit it, but he did. Seems like a pretty normal story, until you find out that in this world everyone has their soulmates initials on a part of their body, and Sooha has it on a pretty indecent place. He had chosen to never show anyone until he meets his soulmate. BUT, he keeps having very vivid sexual dreams about his boss, and at one point those dreams become a reality. That’s as far as the plot has gone. Our hope is these two are in fact soul mates and get to do all the things together!
7. On or Off (온 오어 오프) by A1
This one was recommended to us by a friend @dyani_robles who has an amazing YouTube channel AND a super awesome website @thebelulineup. Follower her for tons of awesome K-pop content. When we first started reading, we will admit we didn’t like the artists style. Still cannot say we’re the biggest fans of it, but when the story is that good you tend to forget how it’s being drawn. Yiyoung is part of a start up app company. The company gets the chance of a lifetime to present their app to a massive corporation and the head decision maker, Kang Daehyung. Unfortunately, Yiyoung is so flustered by the attractiveness of Daehyung he messes up the presentation. To try and save his ass, as well as help the team, he tries to talk to Daehyung outside the office walls. Daehyung, mistakes his approach as flirtation and angry that Yiyoung would stoop so low, sleeps with him with the promise to take a look at his proposal. Although he has no intention of actually doing so. Shockily, he accidently reads the proposal and finds it was the best and hires the company to create the app for his business. The story and relationship grow from there, but this is another unfinished story. Not a lot of sex has happened, but the characters are enjoyable enough with their growing sexual tension that when they finally do have tons of sexy time we will all be screaming “thank you lawd!”
6. Love Shuttle (애인셔틀) by Im Ae-Ju
Another trope we tend to avoid is omegaverse (men can get pregnant and such). Not for any particular reason but it just never interested us. This was another suggestion from our girl Dyani and we are, once again, glad we stepped away from our norm. Doyun is an Omega , who looks, and acts like an Alpha, but hasn’t ‘gone into heat.’ At his age, this is not common and his family is concerned that there might be something gravely wrong. Cue Taehan. Doyun’s sworn alpha enemy, for reasons that tbh weren’t that serious or worth getting so mad over, but we look past it because the story still is solid. Taehan, happens to be the one who sends Doyun into heat, and while he hates it, he loves it. And Taehan, we believe had a crush on Doyun since day one of them knowing each other, although not confirmed. The first season ended with a cliffhanger, and the second season started NOT even discussing said cliffhanger, but we’re here for the new couple that seems to be blossoming and pray that we find out what happened to Doyun and Taehan.
5. Sign (수화) by Ker
We wished this had more sign language in it because we probably would’ve become fluent. This story is about Go Yo, a deaf chef/coffee shop owner and Soo Hwa, a young man who was desperate for a job. Go Yo tends to never speak but when he hires Soo Hwa, who hasn’t learned all there is to sign language, he is forced to use his voice. The crazy thing is, his voice is sexy AF and makes Soo Hwa’s little Soo Hwa excited. The kicker? Go Yo gets turned on by Soo Hwa’s sign language. This is a very light, cute, sexy story, with a little bit of darkness but not enough to make it crazy. They are currently on the second season which is focusing on the best friend of Go Yo, and the boy he’s been crushing on for a while. It’s been a very cute story so far and we hope we will enjoy it, but we doubt it will be as much as the original couple.
4. Fanboy and Robot Idol by Young Dream
We found this one when we were scrolling Instagram and a scene popped up on our explore page. We read it and lusted after the art. So much so that we went on a quest to find the 만화. It took a little digging and several app downloads to finally find this masterpiece. This one is also tame. No sexy bits (shame) but still sweet and funny. Callum is a robotic popstar. Yep you read that right. A robot. He gets shunned by the world when he is blamed for murdering several humans. His creator tells him he needs to learn about humans and he can’t return home until he does. Ron Lee is a massive Callum fanboy. To the point his ex-girlfriend breaks up with him because he was more in love with a robot. Guess who finds Callum, battery almost drained on the side of a coffee shop? You guessed it! Ron. There are several versions of Callum and one of them escapes and finds solace with Ron’s boss. There is a bad guy who truly is scum but for some reason, there are parts you hope he gets redeemed because you feel bad for the guy. They story isn’t finished and hasn’t been updated in quiet some time which breaks our hearts because shiz was just starting to go down but we hope the author comes back to provide us more love.
3. My Suha (나의 수하) by Chahyun
Suha is the secretary to Park Jiwoon, a mild-mannered man who is Director of a massive company. Suha works hard at his job, and makes sure that Park Jiwoon is taken care of. Outside of work, he is much more carefree, trying to find a decent lay and always coming up short. While he does look at his boss and think, “damn, he fine.” (and when you see Jiwoon you will too), he knows not to cross the professional line. That changes when they accidentally run into each other at a gay bar. Hilarity ensues, but then something even better happens. Sexy time! The reason we chose this secretary/CEO trope over all the others was the fact that Jiwoon, while a freak in the sheets, is not a douchebag outside the bedroom. Jiwoon has a past, that Suha is also part of but we don’t know to what extent yet. This story is still not complete, but we will say it moved up the ranks of our favs very fast with the relationship growth, the sex scenes, but oddly one of our favorite things is all the suits Jiwoon wears.
2. Room To Room (방 건너 방) by Lee Aru
The sequel to Window to Window is focused on the friends of Ginu and Yubin. Dowan and Chamin who wind up living together after Chamin’s girlfriend breaks up with him. Little does he know that Dowan is in love with him. And little does Dowan know that Chamin starts taking medication to sleep that turns him into a sleep sex-er. Dowan is a muscled god and little Chamin, well, he is so skinny and tiny that as you read you worry Dowan might break the poor kid with how hard he goes. But their sex scenes are some of the best and we loved every second of it. There are some points where the story gets a little confusing (like when the author throws in a bad guy for only two chapters, that doesn’t really do much and you never hear of him again) but other than that the story is solid, and the sex…well you will have to read to understand just how good it is.
1. U Are Here by D. Jun AND IN A SURPRISE THAT SHOCKED ALL OF KOREAN FROM CONTEXT… A NON YAOI 만화 CAME IN FTW! Yes, you are reading that correctly. U Are Here is a sweet romance story of a boy (Yu Yang) afraid to fall in love and a boy (Li Huan) who wants nothing more than to shower him in love. It wasn’t love at first site. In fact, it was more so hate. But after constantly being thrown into situations together, they bond here and there, and Yu Yang, the boy who is openly gay, but also scared to fall in love again, realizes that the quiet anti-social freshman is actually a sweet, strong, and a little broken in his own way. They realize they can help heal and mend each other’s broken hearts. The story is adorable but real and the artwork is our favorite. These characters stick with us and keep us wanting more.
There you have it! Our top 10 만화! If you want to know where to read these feel free to reach out to us on Instagram @koreanfromcontext OR our Twitter @koreanfrmcntxt
Stray Kids District 9 Unlock at Hulu Theater Unlocked Our Cold Dead Hearts
On January 29th, 2020, Stray Kids came to New York City to show the city that never sleeps what they are made of. And clearly they are made of talented singers, rappers, and dancers.
Now before we dive into the pandemonium of the show, we would like to admit something. Please don’t leave this page when you read this. We swear we will make it up to you!
We were not that into Stray Kids before the show. Hold on, hold on, HOLD ON!
But the second the show started we realized what we had been missing out on and we now stan. HARD. We are truly Stays now.
Ok so now let’s crack into the show. We did know several of the songs they performed, like “District 9” and “Double Knot”, which we have always liked but when we saw the performance live it was a whole new level of appreciation. These dudes are some of the best dancers we have seen live. Who knew one could body roll in that many positions? Seriously, if you made a drinking game with simply the amount of times they body rolled throughout the concert…well let’s just say you would most likely need your stomach pumped from alcohol poisoning.
And to add to the body rolls, they were climbing on each other, jumping over each other, and not like a normal frog hop. No, no, no. We can’t remember which members it was but the one was standing straight up and another member split jumped over him. With the shortest member still being over 5 and a half feet tall that is insanely impressive.
As they performed so many other bops that we now have downloaded and added to all our playlists like, “I am YOU,” “Question,” and “YAYAYA,” the lights coming together with the cinematic large screens exploding with color and aesthetic visuals, told a story of misfits finding a place to call home amongst each other. “Stray Kids everywhere all around the world,” as they repeated all throughout the night sent an energy through the whole place of love and understanding.
And like every group who tend to change their style and sound for an album or two, Stray Kids performed some of their ‘softer’ bops side with “Get Cool” and “Astronaut”. Once again, the dancing for these blew us away. They even had 3RACHA, their rap sub-unit, and their vocal line perform singular songs.
So as we weren’t huge Stray Kids stans prior to this concert, we were unfamiliar with who were the main vocalists, rappers, dancers and all that jazz. Let’s break down what we figured out about the members. Umm…Felix? Who said a boy with that baby face could have a voice deeper than T.O.P from Big Bang?! Oh and when he decided to flaunt his nice abs?! Boy! Big oof! And then the boy stood there and did the Renegade dance…COME GET YOUR MAN STAYS!
Followed up by Hyunjin who would go hard in his verses, while body rolling in a see through shirt leaving little to our imaginations, and literally had everyone in the venue screaming, us included. Han was no different. Seducing the crowd with his voice and the way he would look into the crowd? Lawd have mercy!
And Changbin’s speed when rapping? Good God, we wanted to get on our knees and apologize for sleeping on all the talent in this group. And the disrespectfully gorgeous and melodic voices of Bang Chan, I.N, Lee Know and Seungmin? We are deeply apologetic to these boys and we hope they will forgive us.
The thing that got us, besides the amazing singing, and rapping during “MIROH,” and “갑자기 분위기 싸해질 필요 없잖아요 (gabjagi bun-wigi ssahaejil pil-yo eobsjanh-ayo- You don’t have to get in a fighting mood suddenly) (Awkward Silence),” was how sincerely happy they were as Stays sang their songs along with them, danced with them, and cheered them on during their ments. That’s what really sold us on becoming Stays ourselves. All the members looked touched as they looked out to the crowd and spoke from their hearts about their excitement of being in New York again.
As they were wrapping up the normal part of the concert (as in not the encore we ALL know will be coming after they make their change into their tour shirts) they played the first song we ever heard from them, “Hellevator,” which was their pre-debut song which was when we saw so much potential in them that it’s baffling to even us that we didn’t keep up with them.
These guys put on a show that caused us to stan them and become Stays, if that doesn’t sell you on their stage presence, music, and talent, well we don’t know what will. If they are coming to a city near you, get tickets immediately. Stray Kids are a group of talented young men, who have so much heart and raw talent, you wont be disappointed. Check them out in this District 9 Unlock tour, and like us, unlock your cold dead hearts.
Travel NYC like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids
Stray Kids went a lot of different places while being here in New York. And since they’re coming back NEXT WEEK, we decided to do one more before they arrive. Some of the spots we loved (Like when they visited The Roxy hotel, and DUMBO) and some we legitimately try to stay as far away from as possible (like Penn Station and now this new spot).
This spot is actually somewhere we had talked about and been to when ASTRO came to town. Yes, that’s correct. We went back to Times Square. JUST. FOR. YOU! To a section we actually have never even been close to if we’re being honest. We had seen it in videos, pictures, and we knew where it was but since it was in Times Square we avoided it like the plague.
Famous from the Alicia Keys and Jay-Z music video for “Empire State of Mind” those bright red stairs actually hold TKTS, an infamous Broadway ticket selling broker. We say infamous because they say they sell tickets cheap, when really they are the same, if not more than face value for the tickets. Fun fact if you come to NY and want to see a show…don’t go there.
The spot has now become an Instagram mecca for the tourists who come to see Times Square. And the boys of Stray Kids hopped on that bandwagon. And what they do, we do. And we have to admit…
It was pretty cool. Actually really cool. Yes, we will admit that something in Times Square was worth going to see. Between Broadway and 7TH Ave, on 47th St. you will find these large red stairs to climb up and see the enormity of Times Square. And you can snap your shot and check another location off your list as you have now travelled like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids.
Travel NYC like Young-Jae of GOT7
Going into 2020 we were determined to find some of the places we thought were impossible to locate. And GOT7 seriously has the hardest NYC spots to find. (click here to see where Jin-young chose to spend his time) And our girl Emi at @prince.sanie on Instagram sent us some of the truly tricky ones.
In our last article, we mentioned our love of rooftop bars and how they are a totally cool way to see the city. Well even Young-Jae enjoyed the sights of New York City from one of our favorite spots. Now when we looked at the photo he posted we were definitely perplexed as to where he was. We had only been to a few roof top bars and none of the buildings around it looked familiar.
Then one day, we were going to meet up with Sammie’s mom and we just took a cool picture down the street our office is on. When we went to look at the picture to edit it, we noticed something. The big blue building and its odd shaped top. Zooming in we noticed some other similar buildings.
We found it! Right outside Time Square, is a slightly hidden, very bougie, and a seriously amazing smelling hotel called Knickerbocker. And guess what they have? A garden oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle, perched on the 18th floor, aptly named St Cloud Bar. Look out onto the tourists a huddled together to watch street performers, enjoy a slightly expensive drink (if you’re 21+ obviously), and look up to see that you too can travel NYC like Young-Ja
Travel NYC like Kino, Yuto, Jinho of Pentagon
After Sammie’s wedding, we needed some serious R&R. And what better way to relax is to go into the frenzy of New York.
There are many things we love about NYC (we know our last two posts probably say otherwise). We love the sights and sounds, but what we love even more is seeing the sights and hearing the sounds from a different vantage point than on the street.
Rooftop bars are everywhere in Manhattan and they all offer different, breathtaking views of the city that never sleeps. We chose to hit up one of these many bars to celebrate her matrimony, while also deciding we needed to start planning our trips to Korea and Japan.
The one Pentagon to chose to visit happens to have a view of the building we work across the street from. A famous staple of New York. The Empire State Building.
A building that at night has different themed light shows to dazzle the people who take a second to glance up at its magnificent wonder of architecture.
Located on the 20th floor is 230 Fifth Rooftop bar. The location that Yuto, Jinho, and Kino decided to spend their day and night enjoying drinks, some food, and best of all taking in the view of NYC, after there concert in the city. Which we got to see! Click here to see how the lit up the city skyline when they performed.
And you guys can do the same. If you’re 21 or older you’re all good. If younger you need a parent or guardian. But have a drink and take in the amazing views as you travel NYC like Kino, Yuto, and Jinho of Pentagon.
You May Also Like
My Writing Journey (So Far)
Book Events
Rewatched: Extra-Ordinary You (어쩌다 발견한 하루)
Travel NYC like Felix, Lee Know, and Woojin of Stray Kids (We still love and support Woojin)
Since Stray Kids are coming to New York in January, we decided to cover another travel of the boys from their last visit to our city. (Click here for our previous Stray Kids Travel)
We don’t live in NYC. While we wish we could, our day jobs do not make that a possibility. So we have to commute from our homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania by taking the train. Every day we go into the city via NJ Transit, probably the WORST train system in the United States. (Google it. We’re pretty sure it is top 10 worst or pretty darn close)
But we digress. The reason we bring up the train is where it funnels into. New York Penn Station. Another nightmare of NYC. Yes, we are jaded to certain aspects of NY that some people will love to experience. The hustle and bustle of people waiting for and then ultimately running to catch trains, all the new food and drink spots that have been added, and now all the brand new construction causing even more pandemonium as half the waiting areas are closed…SUCH FUN.
But on one day several boys of Stray Kids chose to go and visit the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) section of Penn Station and enjoy a staple of New York, Shake Shack. And since we frequent the station we chose to go too! We didn’t eat Shake Shack as we are trying to not eat too bad ALL the time. Lol.
After you arrive in NY Penn Station, make sure to hit up the Shake Shack, have a burger and revel in the fact you traveled NYC like Felix, Lee Know, and Woojin of Stray Kids.
