So I've been thinking, what is the best way of sustaining content on my blog, and I thought, why not write about the things I enjoy watching, listening to and doing everyday. Whether it be my favourite videos, favourite songs or even my favourite TV shows at the time!
To start off with, I thought I would talk about my current favourite songs which I recommend you guys having a listen to! Also feel free to drop down suggestions of songs I should listen to as well, I'm open to listening to anything~ I mainly listen to Asian music, specifically Korean music, but there are occasional English songs I listen to as well from time to time!
Hot Song Picks of April/May
My first song is SURAN's Wine/If I Get Drunk Today (오늘 취하면) ft Changmo. This song was first introduced to me by my dear best friend, Aneeqa! The song is produced by her bias, Yoongi otherwise known as Suga from BTS. They've collaborated before for Suga (Agust.D)'s mixtape, where she was featured on one of his songs called "So Far Away". This is one of my favourite songs at the moment from my "Chill Out K-Tunes" playlist. I really appreciate SURAN's voice since first hearing her voice featured in Suga's mixtape, it's quite unique in the sense which makes her voice quite memorable. I remember staying over Aneeqa's house and this was the first song we were listening to the morning after drinking, as well as being the last song we heard after knocking out after drinks.
My second song recommendation would have to be WINNER's Really Really. Since Taehyun's departure, the group came back as a four releasing two tracks called "Really Really" and "Fool". I'd known about WINNER since they released their song "Empty" however I hadn't become so invested in them despite Taehyun being my bias at the time, till after he'd actually left. Their recent comebacks made me go watch every "Really Really" live performance as well as their performances on other shows... My favourite live I watched of "Really Really" was their one with Dingo Music. It makes me question why I stan them really, but they are a hilarious group. Check out their live below:
My third song choice is something I discovered quite recently through watching a Chinese drama called "The Perfect Match" (I'll be talking more about this drama later on!). I hadn't heard about this group before but after hearing this song in the opening of the drama, I ended up replaying the song for ages ahaha. The song talks about being a cold careless person who finds someone to love who helped them discover and express themselves (from what I gathered from reading translations, my Chinese is nonexistent...RIP).
My fourth recommendation was actually I stumbled upon the other day when I suddenly remembered my love for G.E.M. I attended her concert back in November 2015 in London by chance. Since then, I've been following her for her talents. She's amazing honestly, she's able to play so many instruments and sing in so many genres and I can't help adore her. This piece was made for the Chinese version of the film, Passengers (I still need to see this to be honest...) and just listening to it made me feel a lot of emotions - It made me remember why I loved G.E.M so much honestly.
Last but not least, is a Vietnamese song (Vietnam represent ahaha!) from an artist called MIN. I don't really listen to much Vietnamese music despite being Chinese-Vietnamese but she was only of the rare artists I try to keep up with when I'm listening to music. I first discovered MIN back when she was still part of ST.319 which are an organisation who originally were known for K-Pop dance covers. They proceeded to become an entertainment company who creates artists ranging from rappers to singers to even Vietnamese pop groups such as MONSTAR. An interesting fact for you guys, MIN is actually Vietnamese-German - I personally think that's an awesome mix aha!
Hot Song Picks of April/May
My first song is SURAN's Wine/If I Get Drunk Today (오늘 취하면) ft Changmo. This song was first introduced to me by my dear best friend, Aneeqa! The song is produced by her bias, Yoongi otherwise known as Suga from BTS. They've collaborated before for Suga (Agust.D)'s mixtape, where she was featured on one of his songs called "So Far Away". This is one of my favourite songs at the moment from my "Chill Out K-Tunes" playlist. I really appreciate SURAN's voice since first hearing her voice featured in Suga's mixtape, it's quite unique in the sense which makes her voice quite memorable. I remember staying over Aneeqa's house and this was the first song we were listening to the morning after drinking, as well as being the last song we heard after knocking out after drinks.
My second song recommendation would have to be WINNER's Really Really. Since Taehyun's departure, the group came back as a four releasing two tracks called "Really Really" and "Fool". I'd known about WINNER since they released their song "Empty" however I hadn't become so invested in them despite Taehyun being my bias at the time, till after he'd actually left. Their recent comebacks made me go watch every "Really Really" live performance as well as their performances on other shows... My favourite live I watched of "Really Really" was their one with Dingo Music. It makes me question why I stan them really, but they are a hilarious group. Check out their live below:
My third song choice is something I discovered quite recently through watching a Chinese drama called "The Perfect Match" (I'll be talking more about this drama later on!). I hadn't heard about this group before but after hearing this song in the opening of the drama, I ended up replaying the song for ages ahaha. The song talks about being a cold careless person who finds someone to love who helped them discover and express themselves (from what I gathered from reading translations, my Chinese is nonexistent...RIP).
My fourth recommendation was actually I stumbled upon the other day when I suddenly remembered my love for G.E.M. I attended her concert back in November 2015 in London by chance. Since then, I've been following her for her talents. She's amazing honestly, she's able to play so many instruments and sing in so many genres and I can't help adore her. This piece was made for the Chinese version of the film, Passengers (I still need to see this to be honest...) and just listening to it made me feel a lot of emotions - It made me remember why I loved G.E.M so much honestly.
Last but not least, is a Vietnamese song (Vietnam represent ahaha!) from an artist called MIN. I don't really listen to much Vietnamese music despite being Chinese-Vietnamese but she was only of the rare artists I try to keep up with when I'm listening to music. I first discovered MIN back when she was still part of ST.319 which are an organisation who originally were known for K-Pop dance covers. They proceeded to become an entertainment company who creates artists ranging from rappers to singers to even Vietnamese pop groups such as MONSTAR. An interesting fact for you guys, MIN is actually Vietnamese-German - I personally think that's an awesome mix aha!
UPDATE: MIN just released her music video for her latest song, check the MV out below:
Moving on, I've been watching a lot of Asian dramas, and recently there's quite a few that I've been hooked on since last month~
Top Asian TV-Dramas of April/May
My first favourite definitely has to go to Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. I have many thoughts about this drama which arose after finding out the actors for this drama. The main pair consists of Park Hyungsik who plays Ahn Minhyuk and Park Boyoung who plays Do Bong Soon. I also can't forget one of my favourite actors, Jisoo who plays Gook-Du. There was definitely strong chemistry between the main leads, enough to make my flail, and enough for me to not even have SLS (Second Lead Syndrome) - Although my feelings did arise towards the end. SIDENOTE: When will Jisoo ever have a proper main role where he isn't the second lead omg-
The drama to summarise is about a woman who was born with super-human strength. Although I'm not much for fictional fantasy-like themes, I personally really enjoyed this drama. It played off well at the start, but as it got to the end, I felt at the times the writers didn't really know where they were going with the plot, as the sub-plots were pretty irrelevant after a while and merely fillers. The relationship between the two main leads however was literally "goals". Both of the main leads played their parts so well, and I'd fallen in love with Park Hyungsik since watching him in Hwarang. Starting this drama made me love him even more... I don't think I've ever adored someone's acting so much aha, his expressions, his character, everything is just so on pointe. I hope to see him in a main role again, and with Park Boyoung by his side, the pair are unstoppable. Park Boyoung has a natural cute aura, I personally dislike forceful cuteness, but her bubbly character makes the drama a worthwhile watch - I'll definitely be checking out more of her dramas! You can check out the first episode here.
For my second drama, I previously mentioned about the drama "The Perfect Match". I stumbled upon this drama when I was scrolling through Viki, trying to find a good drama to watch. I've watched a lot of dramas but there aren't many dramas that have caught my attention recently and I feel I'm sorting of just forcing myself to get by because I tried to avoid dropping dramas or leaving them incomplete as much as possible. The drama is based around food, the main female lead, Fenqing (played by Ivy Shao) is chef based in a night market whilst the male lead, Tingen (played by Chris Wu) is a famous chef for a fine-dining restaurant. They come across one another during an incident where the male lead's curry lobster dish is compared to the female lead's night market version, the curry shrimp mini burger. Her version is deemed as the more affordable dish for the citizens.
As someone who loves food, I'm really enjoying this airing drama so far. It's interesting watching how the chefs get to work with their dishes and watching the drama unveil the back stories of each character as well as general character development, I always find myself wondering what will happen next. Once again, there is definitely some SLS going on, as the second lead, Shao Wei is played by Ben Wu. The episodes air weekly on a Friday but take a while to be subbed. I have currently watched 9 episodes of 18 so far, but I'm looking forward to see how it will end although knowingly the main leads will get together - assuming majority of drama logic aha. Check out the episodes here - WARNING! Unlike the other links, Viki has ads during the episode unless you have a Viki Pass, the use of adblock will only provide you with even longer breaks between the episodes so it's best to turn it off if you do happen to have adblock on.
Last but not least, another airing drama, but this time we are back to Korea drama land! My last drama that I'm currently watching at the moment is called My Secret Romance. The drama features Song Jieun (from SECRET) and Sung Hoon as the main leads. In this drama, Sunghoon plays Cha Jinwook who is a son of a wealthy family, and runs a large company, whilst Song Jieun plays Lee Yoomi, a nutritionist. The concept which drew me to this drama was the pair ends up having a one-night stand (this occurs within the first episode - NSFW to be honest-). I rarely see themes like this shown on TV dramas, more movies so it was interesting to see how they would go about portraying this in the drama.
At times I felt the drama was lacking somewhat when it started, but the ending of episode 1 was definitely a sight to see. The first two episodes for me didn't feel like I was getting enough although I understand the reasoning for the build up of the main leads' relationship. The episodes this week I found a lot more interesting, as their relationship has been developed a lot more and I get to see some more interesting action. Personally for me, I really appreciate the second lead, Hyeontae in this drama, played by Kim Jaeyeong. I can feel him trying to showcase his feelings but she doesn't seem to realise them (it's similar to how I feel for the second lead in The Perfect Match). This is OCN's first rom-com drama, or romance drama in general, as they are especially known for thriller, crime and action dramas e.g. Voice, Missing Noir M and Vampire Prosecutor etc. I'm interested to see how this drama will evolve, particularly as I have come to love Sunghoon since seeing his feature in Oh My Venus alongside Henry of Super Junior. If you would like to watch the episodes, click here.
Finally, we have come to the TV shows. I used to actually watch so many American/British TV shows, but I've become so invested in Asian TV shows (mainly Korean TV shows) I think it's rare to find me watching anything else... So if you do have any awesome TV show recommendations do let me know, in the comments below! PS: This is an old favourite, but I definitely recommend watching Terrace House if you have Netflix~
Favourite Korean TV Shows of April/May
I think for my current favourite shows, I've become recently invested in watching Produce 101 Season 2 - And yes I plan to watch the first season soon as well! The reason I actually started this drama was well other than the fact my friends, Lisa and Kira recommended it to me, I also wanted to watch it for one of my favourite K-Pop groups, NU'EST. I was really distraught to find that their company, Pledis had got them to participate in this show - In a way of saying that they weren't successful. They debuted in 2012, but they lacked promotion unlike later groups such as SEVENTEEN who are rather successful at the moment.
What I found from this season was that the judges are rather critical. From what I've heard, the judges are a lot more critical in regards to judging in comparison to the last season. The representative of Season 1 was Jang Geunsuk whilst for Season 2 it is BoA. I've definitely learnt to develop favourites from the boys, other than the fact my favourite JR from NU'EST otherwise known as Jonghyun is taking part. I felt a lot of emotions when watching these episodes, sometimes they would be hilarious and sometimes the talks hit me right in the feels. For now, to give you guys a little preview, I'll drop you down my favourite performance so far from Produce 101 Season 2 below:
The members shown in this video are formed to make the Justice League team. This includes Kim Jonghyun (NU'EST, PLEDIS), Hwang Minhyun (NU'EST, PLEDIS), Kang Daniel (MMO), Ong Seungwoo (Fantagio), Kim Jaehwan (Individual Trainee) and Kwon Hyunbin (YGK+). This performance was the one that most appealed to me when the groups competed on M Countdown. Other than the fact the group members were all my favourites, I feel like the group covered all the aspects required of a K-Pop group, followed by a strong supportive leader, Jonghyun - You'll learn the reason why he has now been named the "Nation's Leader" after watching episode 4.
Although there have been many controversies in relation to Produce 101, there have been many entertaining moments such as episode 5's scare segment. You can check out the segment below:
I hope you guys take an opportunity to have a watch of this series! It's quite interesting, and you'll learn to love the boys as you continue watching~ Click here to watch the episodes!
Top Asian TV-Dramas of April/May
My first favourite definitely has to go to Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. I have many thoughts about this drama which arose after finding out the actors for this drama. The main pair consists of Park Hyungsik who plays Ahn Minhyuk and Park Boyoung who plays Do Bong Soon. I also can't forget one of my favourite actors, Jisoo who plays Gook-Du. There was definitely strong chemistry between the main leads, enough to make my flail, and enough for me to not even have SLS (Second Lead Syndrome) - Although my feelings did arise towards the end. SIDENOTE: When will Jisoo ever have a proper main role where he isn't the second lead omg-
The drama to summarise is about a woman who was born with super-human strength. Although I'm not much for fictional fantasy-like themes, I personally really enjoyed this drama. It played off well at the start, but as it got to the end, I felt at the times the writers didn't really know where they were going with the plot, as the sub-plots were pretty irrelevant after a while and merely fillers. The relationship between the two main leads however was literally "goals". Both of the main leads played their parts so well, and I'd fallen in love with Park Hyungsik since watching him in Hwarang. Starting this drama made me love him even more... I don't think I've ever adored someone's acting so much aha, his expressions, his character, everything is just so on pointe. I hope to see him in a main role again, and with Park Boyoung by his side, the pair are unstoppable. Park Boyoung has a natural cute aura, I personally dislike forceful cuteness, but her bubbly character makes the drama a worthwhile watch - I'll definitely be checking out more of her dramas! You can check out the first episode here.
For my second drama, I previously mentioned about the drama "The Perfect Match". I stumbled upon this drama when I was scrolling through Viki, trying to find a good drama to watch. I've watched a lot of dramas but there aren't many dramas that have caught my attention recently and I feel I'm sorting of just forcing myself to get by because I tried to avoid dropping dramas or leaving them incomplete as much as possible. The drama is based around food, the main female lead, Fenqing (played by Ivy Shao) is chef based in a night market whilst the male lead, Tingen (played by Chris Wu) is a famous chef for a fine-dining restaurant. They come across one another during an incident where the male lead's curry lobster dish is compared to the female lead's night market version, the curry shrimp mini burger. Her version is deemed as the more affordable dish for the citizens.
As someone who loves food, I'm really enjoying this airing drama so far. It's interesting watching how the chefs get to work with their dishes and watching the drama unveil the back stories of each character as well as general character development, I always find myself wondering what will happen next. Once again, there is definitely some SLS going on, as the second lead, Shao Wei is played by Ben Wu. The episodes air weekly on a Friday but take a while to be subbed. I have currently watched 9 episodes of 18 so far, but I'm looking forward to see how it will end although knowingly the main leads will get together - assuming majority of drama logic aha. Check out the episodes here - WARNING! Unlike the other links, Viki has ads during the episode unless you have a Viki Pass, the use of adblock will only provide you with even longer breaks between the episodes so it's best to turn it off if you do happen to have adblock on.
Last but not least, another airing drama, but this time we are back to Korea drama land! My last drama that I'm currently watching at the moment is called My Secret Romance. The drama features Song Jieun (from SECRET) and Sung Hoon as the main leads. In this drama, Sunghoon plays Cha Jinwook who is a son of a wealthy family, and runs a large company, whilst Song Jieun plays Lee Yoomi, a nutritionist. The concept which drew me to this drama was the pair ends up having a one-night stand (this occurs within the first episode - NSFW to be honest-). I rarely see themes like this shown on TV dramas, more movies so it was interesting to see how they would go about portraying this in the drama.
At times I felt the drama was lacking somewhat when it started, but the ending of episode 1 was definitely a sight to see. The first two episodes for me didn't feel like I was getting enough although I understand the reasoning for the build up of the main leads' relationship. The episodes this week I found a lot more interesting, as their relationship has been developed a lot more and I get to see some more interesting action. Personally for me, I really appreciate the second lead, Hyeontae in this drama, played by Kim Jaeyeong. I can feel him trying to showcase his feelings but she doesn't seem to realise them (it's similar to how I feel for the second lead in The Perfect Match). This is OCN's first rom-com drama, or romance drama in general, as they are especially known for thriller, crime and action dramas e.g. Voice, Missing Noir M and Vampire Prosecutor etc. I'm interested to see how this drama will evolve, particularly as I have come to love Sunghoon since seeing his feature in Oh My Venus alongside Henry of Super Junior. If you would like to watch the episodes, click here.
Finally, we have come to the TV shows. I used to actually watch so many American/British TV shows, but I've become so invested in Asian TV shows (mainly Korean TV shows) I think it's rare to find me watching anything else... So if you do have any awesome TV show recommendations do let me know, in the comments below! PS: This is an old favourite, but I definitely recommend watching Terrace House if you have Netflix~
Favourite Korean TV Shows of April/May
I think for my current favourite shows, I've become recently invested in watching Produce 101 Season 2 - And yes I plan to watch the first season soon as well! The reason I actually started this drama was well other than the fact my friends, Lisa and Kira recommended it to me, I also wanted to watch it for one of my favourite K-Pop groups, NU'EST. I was really distraught to find that their company, Pledis had got them to participate in this show - In a way of saying that they weren't successful. They debuted in 2012, but they lacked promotion unlike later groups such as SEVENTEEN who are rather successful at the moment.
What I found from this season was that the judges are rather critical. From what I've heard, the judges are a lot more critical in regards to judging in comparison to the last season. The representative of Season 1 was Jang Geunsuk whilst for Season 2 it is BoA. I've definitely learnt to develop favourites from the boys, other than the fact my favourite JR from NU'EST otherwise known as Jonghyun is taking part. I felt a lot of emotions when watching these episodes, sometimes they would be hilarious and sometimes the talks hit me right in the feels. For now, to give you guys a little preview, I'll drop you down my favourite performance so far from Produce 101 Season 2 below:
The members shown in this video are formed to make the Justice League team. This includes Kim Jonghyun (NU'EST, PLEDIS), Hwang Minhyun (NU'EST, PLEDIS), Kang Daniel (MMO), Ong Seungwoo (Fantagio), Kim Jaehwan (Individual Trainee) and Kwon Hyunbin (YGK+). This performance was the one that most appealed to me when the groups competed on M Countdown. Other than the fact the group members were all my favourites, I feel like the group covered all the aspects required of a K-Pop group, followed by a strong supportive leader, Jonghyun - You'll learn the reason why he has now been named the "Nation's Leader" after watching episode 4.
Although there have been many controversies in relation to Produce 101, there have been many entertaining moments such as episode 5's scare segment. You can check out the segment below:
I hope you guys take an opportunity to have a watch of this series! It's quite interesting, and you'll learn to love the boys as you continue watching~ Click here to watch the episodes!
Next up! I recommend watching Yangnam Show! The show features different artists each week, where they come into the show wearing their pyjamas and complete different activities to win snacks, as well as competing to become the Party King. The show is rather entertaining and I particular like the section where they do the mic change version - I was sad they didn't do this with BTS who came on the first episode of the new show. But it was definitely one to watch! My favourite mic change versions so far have to be BTOB's "I'll Be Your Man" as well as GOT7's version of "Never Ever" and "A". Check out some of the mic change renditions down below:
I hope you guys enjoyed those clips if you had a chance to watch aha! Hopefully this has made you want to watch the show yourself. You can check out the link to the show here.
Last but not least, I wanted to introduce this show to you guys. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet because there aren't any subs released so far, but I thought it was definitely a show you guys should watch out for! It's a show called "Secret Training Variety Show". There's not much to say about the show, but merely the fact that it's definitely a show which exposes the idols in a way. There's no hiding their actions really, and honestly watching clips makes me want to watch it even more. You can check out a couple of the clips of the show below (unfortunately there's no subs):
And the main reason I found out about this show was from this one clip I saw on Facebook aha! The clip had me cracking up so much from the reactions, I couldn't help but look up the show!
I'm looking forward to watching the full show once the subs are out. I hope you guys will watch it along with me as it seems like it will be a great laugh aha!
Thanks for tuning in for another post this week, it's quite a long one but if you're looking for some recommendations for things to watch and listen to, this is the post for you! Enjoy~
