Kim Yunmi

Yep. And then the show went full on homophobic. TT Do they not know the amount of BL fans? I was going to let the show slide, but it tripled down on it in the weirdest ways possible. First, it equates gay people to drug users. But then the drugs depicted seem weirdly off because it has an IV bag. Then all of the gay people in the bar are dressed exactly the same. WTH. Are you serious show? Are you serious that all gay people have 2 buttons open on their shirt, wearing loud patterned button up shirts all the time? I know gay people and I've seen gay people on Youtube, and no... they don't all dress like that. Then it shows that the person who is a domestic abuser is also gay. WTF. Then it states that if he likes men, then he has to be gay. No. Bisexuality exists. Or are you going ti vilify that too, show? Then it says because he married a woman, that he couldn't love her? Again, Bisexuality exists. And then the drama uses the fact the guy is gay to paint him as evil for wanting to be married. But same sex marriage isn't allowed in Korea and there is no such thing as surrogacy allowed. And they rub this in by mentioning that the woman had IVF to have her child. (This is subtle, but really show? You're calling this feminism when the loss of rights for the LGBTQIA community and women historically in Korean history has been lockstep?) Then it goes on to state the reason he's touchy feely inappropriately towards women is because he's gay. i.e. all gay people do sexual assault all the time to "innocent" straight women? Really show? You don't think he might hang around lesbians? Show, gay people know boundaries too, and they don't always inappropriately touch people. WTH, show? 'cause he's gay he's going to cheat? Other than that, the writing feels a bit scattered. I got the time jump to the past, though I thought it might have been handled better. The character, from a lot of the feedback feels inconsistent. It's not the acting. It's the writing that's demanding she be opposing things while not connecting those opposing things well. The best part is the set design. I really like the set design. The costuming could use some work, I think. (The costuming on the present v. past, I think they could have thought of sharper contrasts for that. For example, make her look more by the book, and closed off in how she uses her costume versus the present, where they could play more with looseness and textures to show more of a maverick) I'm iffy on some of the directing choices. The chair and the shoes bit was overblown for me. But dear screenwriters, do you hate gay people that much? Do you know how much the international fanship goes gaga for BL? and you really think you're going to "change" them by seriously arguing that gay people are evil drug addict abusers? Seriously, show? Besides, have you been to the bars in Itaewon that cater to gays? !@#$ That was the straightest bar I've ever seen in the show. Straights go to gay bars for a reason. And I'm not even a gay man. I'm just saying, are you sure, show, you want to go down this path? You really want to go with the anti-gay sentiments? !@#$ It won't fix your population problems. You know what will? Supporting single mothers divorced or otherwise instead of sex shaming them and making deadbeat dads take paternity tests and actually pay for their children. And also fixing the freaking exporting of children problem. Also fix the day care system. Support working moms better. And I get to say this as a Korean. But will South Korea ever really support single mothers who were unwed? Will it instead try to blame the low birth rate on gay people? C'mon, seriously? I hang my head in shame. The reason women need to uphold men too, is because the loss of gay rights is often locked with women's rights and visaversa because in Korean society, gender and sexuality are still somewhat tied together. Since gay men are coded often as feminine in the current day, often hating on gays has negative consequences towards women. And BTW, I did do a thesis on this. I can present it to you with worldwide history. I'm ticked off.

There are Chinese writers around, I think. Yeah. So anyone want to steal the basic idea of this? What would the mythology of why Gods need to cultivate on Earth/Human realm look like? And what would a total switch between heaven and hell look like? Following MC's sign other gets taken by a demon, [Human, MC] faces, the Demon Lord (Can be male or female), who tells her that their [boyfriend/girlfriend] has been mistreating MC. [MC] after finding out it's true, gets mad, and decides to cultivate to be a demon, especially after boyfriend escapes to heaven. The Demon King has been trying to defeat Heaven's Gods who have turned corrupt as they party, build lavish palaces, and ignore the plight of people on Earth being so removed from them and say all of the evil done to humans is due to the demons. Demon King has to hear the plight of humans all of the time and has been trying to fix it. The Demon King has been trying to cultivate all demons to replace the Gods of Heaven and become pure to help the plight of the people on Earth since he has no power to really help as King of the Demons. [MC] becomes determined to help him, even though she knows nothing about cultivation. The point is to switch it so all of the Demons cultivate and become Gods, and All of the Gods, through their evil acts and ignoring the plight of humans become demons. 100% reversal. Can play with what empathy and sympathy means and the difference between them. Maybe one can create a mythology of WHY Gods cultivate on Earth--maybe even making the earthly realm forbidden to enter. Most dramas, and things I've read said, it's always been this way, but what if it wasn't always this way--what if someone decided that it had to be this way because the Gods were all corrupt and took over to fix it? Created the system, and then allowed demons, if they really wanted to, cultivate to become Gods? What if Demons were stuck being demons no matter how hard they tried before these events and didn't want to do their destruction and they are fighting the Gods for the right to cultivate into Gods and do better by humanity? And Gods were wasting their time making money off the sweat of humans and didn't really care as long as humans built their palaces for them, supplied silk, etc? What is empahty and what is sympathy? And why do Gods need to suffer a Love trial when they come to Earth? Someone had to set those rules up. Widows need love. ^^;; Personally I disliked in Destined 长风渡 when the widow in that wasn't paired with the general. I thought Zhou Ye and Ye Yun should have been a couple before she was dragged off and most of her family killed. (My ship never left port), but then I realized there's no love stories starring widows in historical dramas. I get that in the Song Dynasty, marriage of widows was limited, but Chinese history has a lot before Song? Also, widows had a lot of freedoms too, from what I read, so that's something to play with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow_chastity But doesn't this make for a rich background, even if it was discouraged? Makes the Zhuan part pretty easy, no? I would 100% watch something about a widow, say in early Song Dynasty, as this stigma is arising, escaping her husband and was accused of his death, but then was acquitted of all charges. And then there are doubts about her acquittal. But she meets a general/soldier/junior general, who teaches her self-defense, and likes strong women, so isn't attracted to her. But through their lessons about self-defense, because she doesn't know how to defend herself against the slander and attacks to her character, she becomes stronger. And he has an overbearing family, which she helps him mentally manage. They grow closer over time as the lessons about how to defend herself, turns into love, but they are afraid of the growing stigma and rumors she killed her husband~~ Tada. All of the drama you need in the world. And should pass by censors pretty easily since that stigma isn't in present China. Time period, place, characters, background, and character arcs. Easily able to stretch it to 40 chapters/episodes? And you can infuse the flavor of things like New Life Begins and Destined where they work together to get more sweetness out of it--despite the struggles and the chaos, there is peace found with *this* scholarly person, who is also a general, but hasn't learned how to stand up to his family yet. And on the widow side, you have her own blood family--maybe they want a reason for her to give up her riches. And the family she married into where she's viewed with suspicion. Both characters are weak in different ways, but can support each other so they become stronger for themselves. What is a widow to do? Plus you get a murder case, don't you?

Yeah, so, it doesn't quite fit under the general Korean topic. But I do know there are Chinese drama writers hanging around, and I ran into issues with trying to do this idea overseas: I'm not Chinese. The country I live in doesn't think sad love stories are "valid" (because they are racist.). They also don't think qichengzhuanhe or xiqu are valid story structures... so... but I'd really like to see a Xianxia version of this storyline and I think since Japan, Korea and China have a similar story, that it might have international appeal. I also haven't seen this story done in xianxia form. So anyone Chinese want to attempt something like this? 'cause I can't develop/write this where I am because the country I'm at is racist and doesn't think xianxia is a legit genre and puts all these restrictions that native Chinese won't have. Basic Premise write up: Princess Bluegreen Algae (cyanobacteria 发菜) (郡主) is devalued because her true form is a bluegreen algae and the youngest of the previous King. Everyone else has true forms that are cool–like orchids (who marries demons), (9 Tail foxes, who marry retired gods and mermaids), lotuses, who marry retiring Gods. But no one is interested in poor Princess Bluegreen Algae because they think she is unimportant. But Buddha’s teachings say that every plant and animal is important, and she is the daughter of a Dragon God, despite her true form being a bluegreen algae. She grows up thinking the Gods are wearing boring clothing–like all white in chiffon, when she dreams they could be dazzling and splendid in lots of colorful clothes, silks, taffeta, brocade, and so is more interested in the changing fashion of Earth and how she could do that for the Heavenly realm, even though the Heavenly realm has a strict (and boring) dress code (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, Pillow Book, etc) and has always admired Earthly fashion. Despite this she is lively and likes to play pranks on people--though not related to the clothes she makes and outside the view of officials. As a result of one of her pranks, she accidentally trips into the reincarnation pool and is reborn in the Earthly realm to a silk merchant. She is not missed in the Heavenly realm. Not only does she level up her earthly powers, but meets a lonely Cowherd (牛郎), who helps fix her loom. She works to become a costume designer for stage productions. When she returns to the heavens she can’t forget him. But finds that his true form is an oregano plant: 牛至草. Unfortunately, upon arriving back in heaven, she is betrothed to the cowherd’s older brother, whose true form is a mighty white dragon–cold, stoic, doesn’t say what he means and a strong general. After being an arrogant person, this dragon has accidentally castrated himself and has secretly been cultivating to get his family balls back before their wedding [Working around the Chinese censors might be fun by indication and euphemisms, though focus more on how he deserved it]. But all she longs for is the heart of the Second Lead–because she believes she has Second Lead Syndrome and finds the male lead boring. The Cowherd–who is gentle, intelligent inventor (such as rain machines and tinkering), kind, communicates well (High Emotional Intelligence) and a thoughtful listener. He wants nothing to do with heavenly affairs. Reason for this: I think it would be fun to reimagine Zhinü (織女)’s story as a xianxia comedy. Make fun of Xianxia, with love of course, some of the tropes like the drab heavenly clothes (which I got the idea for from Avenue X (Who is Chinese) complaining constantly about Xianxia clothes.) and also play with the idea that discovering the “true forms” always leads to “secretly” something else, leveling up, secretly a mighty Goddess or needing to be part of the huge cosmic order. Maybe there are people who don’t want to smite the mighty devil, but only want to live together, but are torn apart by circumstances (Feuding heavenly families) and swept up in the drama of everyone else’s politics. Of course Zhinü's bestie has to be a crow-demon/(turns into a Magpie later according to the folktale) in true form, because of the story and devalued for being so. And then 牛郎’s bestie needs to be obviously a cow/bull in true form (who thinks he smells delicious and wants to chew on his arm.) And maybe Zhinu’s true form is a star–Vega after all, even if she’s the youngest, and no one really took a close look at her bluegreen algae to even notice the star she always was. And they unite with the magpies, give the people of Earth rains, and shine the brightest together. Sometimes the simplest solutions solve the greatest problems? And they are forgiven in the end unlike the folktale. She should be able to pass the Bechdel, Mako Mori, and Sexy Lamp test easily I think with this set up. Talk to another woman about something other than a man, have interests outside of romance and not do everything for men (her fashion career, trying to convince the Gods to level up their clothes with more drama.) and she should easily have agency (Make decisions that influence other people's decisions, changing the direction of the plot) since she has to choose between men and her own career which will obviously set off consequences and choices.

So... yeah, I know writers hang out on soompi who are from Korea. What I'm looking for is a drama where disability is represented AND the disability isn't cured by the end. You see, recently in Korea people got super upset at mobility disabled people blocking the subway: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/korea-disability-protest/ I suppose if you ask the organization in the article, you could get some voices to help you research. But no one took their PoV. And what are Korean dramas super good at? Making people understand a minority position. And if you don't believe me Oh, we got some K-drama history and Korean literature to cover. LGBTQIA rights, for example, portrayed on TV has had good reception. BTW, bonus points for if you have someone fall in love with the disability person who already understands the disability or is disabled in a different way themselves. Some ideas of love interests: - high functioning autistic people (that don't have some magical gift because of their autism). Most of the autism in K-dramaland is severe, but there is also high functioning autism. - limited mobility people who aren't in wheelchairs. Things like, needs a cane to walk. Or occasional wheelchair users. - Epilepsy I'd like the tone not to be too preachy and for the main storyline not to focus solely on the disability, but to create empathy with the audience, so they know why those people were protesting in the first place. Show both the capabilities of disabled individuals and also the truth of the disability. Cop show is fine, but don't brutalize disabled people in the process. Slightly prefer slice-of-life myself, but straight up romance would also work. Not trauma or inspiration porn. Trauma porn is where media stories depicting the inhumane and often exploitative treatment of minority group. And Inspiration porn is is the portrayal of people with disabilities as being inspirational to able-bodied people on the basis of their life circumstances. My other wish is that K-dramas and C-dramas stop fat shaming so much. And I'll say why. I have relatives who half starve themselves trying to stay skinny at times, they manage their meals at every turn, they exercise regularly. And my skinny butt is lazy as anything. I don't exercise much, I had more trouble than those individuals riding a bike up a hill. I pretty much get to eat whatever I want, and I still stay in the same weight range. They really struggle, get ridiculed and then there are reports that the people on ads advertising the "larger sized" clothes are skinny people in fat suits and fat make up, making a lot of those people feel deflated. There's a ton of myths around being fat. Like they don't exercise enough. They don't watch what they eat. They eat at every turn. And not say, they have diabetes/another medical condition, they have depression, they were molested as a child and this is their protection, or simply they don't have the genetics to make it easy and they are healthier than my skinny butt. Often fatness is the butt of jokes, even when the writers don't write it into scripts--the director thinks it's funny to shake the camera as the actor moves. Also, assigned personality traits along the way: rude, course, lazy, overindulgent, hedonistic, or overly compliant/friendly. But body shaming shouldn't be a thing. But let's get real, too, in historical times like Joseon, some fat was desirable because it led to healthier babies and the rich were fatter and thus more desirable. What was that hanbok for anyway? Cover the pregnancy and allow for chubbier women.