Movies

I went to see a German movie ("Ach diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke") at the theatre this month, which was good, I can recommend. (Although it is a lot about death, so CW for that. ymmv. I thought it strikes a wonderful balance between sad and funny.) It's an adaptation of the second book of Joachim Meyerhoff's autobiographical novel series. The first one is about him growing up in a mental asylum because his father works there, and I've neither read the book nor seen the movie. This second movie is about him deciding to study acting in Munich. All the roles are excellently cast, especially Senta Berger as his eccentric grandmother. Since it's all set in the 90s, everything looks wonderfully retro (and everyone's smoking everywhere omg). There's not a lot of plot, it's all about him growing into his own, and about dealing with death. I really enjoyed the movie, and I could watch it in its entirety for once without it making me nauseous. Yay!

TV finished

The Company

All done! I really loved this 30-episode show about a time traveller whose time machine is an antique shop. It started out a bit weird in ep 1, but found its pace quickly after that. Watch it on viki here. I'll put the ending under a spoiler cut:

The Company ending spoilers here

I did not like the ending. I mean, they tried to soften it, and it could have been worse, but... I expected something happier. They had all the cards, they could have given them their happy ending - they could even have resurrected his original lover if they'd tweaked it right - any of these would have been possible. Instead, they took one of the ML's memories away, and the other's time machine.

To not make it all that depressing, I guess, they meet again for the first time at the very end. ...How? It's bittersweet at best, and it makes no sense! How did he get there without a time machine?

The whole thing reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and like with everything you've seen done before, the impact just lessens. It worked for me back then, it is still one of my favorite movies!, but here I was disappointed. Pity, because the rest of the show was very sweet and much better than I'd expected.

People tell me that it's supposed to be a happy ending, sending them into a time loop, but imho there are a few points that contradict that. If they wanted to do that, they could have done it more cleanly and elegantly. But maybe I really just misunderstood? Who knows.

Anyway, that dampened my enjoyment of the show just a little bit. I would still recommend it. It's par for the course for cdrama, bittersweet is all you can hope for. At least it's not outright tragic.

Cinderella Closet
I watched this Japanese drama on Netflix - all 12 short episodes of it - within a week. It's about a young woman with little self-esteem meeting a crossdressing man who helps make her more confident by giving her fashion advice and doing her makeup. Uhhh, okay? Of course then they fall in love. It's a bit tropey in places, but it repeatedly does the right things where it counts, like affirm that it's okay to be genderfluid, that he can wear what he wants, that being confident is what makes you beautiful, not what you're wearing, etc. I also really liked both their parents and how they reacted to seeing them together. It packs a lot into its short running time, and I think it got all the important points across well. I liked it overall. He is very pretty in female clothing, too. <3 Watch it on Netflix here.


I watched the almost hour-long cut of the milk endorsement live stream Wu Lei did last week, and thoroughly enjoyed that. It's the usual annoying product endorsement, but I enoyed watching my blorbo. Also, Migaku now supports bilibili, such a game changer! It means I got Chinese and English subs with it, and learned some idioms and the word "volleyball". \o/ (I got Zhu Yilong "oh noes everybody's taller than me" flashbacks when he stood next to the women's volleyball team. :D) I watched it on bilibili here.

TV new (ongoing)

I finally started Wu Lei's Ride Now vlog (the season from 2022, where he goes to a snow field near Ulan Bator and celebrates his 22nd birthday by sleeping in a tent at -25C). The English title has nothing to do with the original title, except for the fact that it's a pun with the word "ride" in it? (The original title 岂有此理 is an idiom, meaning "unreasonable" or "absurd" or "this makes no sense", and replacing the first character with the word "ride" gives you 骑有此理, and I don't know what exactly that means, but maybe something like "biking makes sense"? Idk.) There's no biking in the season I watched (up to ep4) at all, anyway, but there's horse riding, so I guess that counts. It confused me at first. In any case, it's very cute, and Wu Lei's enthusiasm for sleeping in a tent at -25C against the advice of his team is just so very him. Also, I keep thinking about the poor guides who have to lead him through the wilderness while he juggles his selfie stick and doesn't wear his goggles. Lack of self-confidence is not one of his traits, for sure. Unfortunately, the camera movements made me nauseous eventually, so I had to stop after four eps. I'll pick it up again once I feel up to it. I watched it through this youtube playlist of his fanclub, which has engsubs.

TV continued

One more ep of Our Times, the retro Wu Lei show, now on 6/36. He's still cringe in some ways (omg he bought himself a mink coat, what a douche), and I don't quite understand Hou Minghao's character's decisions, but hey. I'm mostly watching for the leads (Wu Lei and Hou Minghao), but I also like the setting. I haven't seen a show this focused on opening up of the business sector in China, and it's actually a period I know a bit about already, so that's interesting to see. It's on wetv and youtube.

I'm finally making headway on finishing my half-finished shows from months ago. First up: A Moment But Forever. I had to rewatch/skim 27 and 28 until I remembered where I had left off, but then got back into it quickly and am now on episode 33/36. It's getting really interesting with people still wanting to kill the ML and the FL trying to save him again and again without giving away her secrets (which the gods have specifically forbidden her from divulging). The evil players have revealed themselves openly now, and it's heading towards the final confrontation. The main draw of this still is how philosophical it is, and how much they're talking about what's right or wrong, about the power of love, and how to shape the kind of world you want to live in. It's quite thoughtful and deep (and the reason AvenueX recced it and I like it (although of course I'm also in it for the romance)). Looking forward to how they're going to wrap this one up. It's on iqiyi.

( the rest - some first impressions and youtube channel recs - under the cut )