After a few years of making this a bit of a share of my favorite Cantopop and Mandopop artists, I’m taking it a little easier this year and reverting back to the old format of sharing my favorite song discoveries of the month. Take it as a year off from the other format to charge up a few other artist selection since my indecisiveness made it a lot more complicated and always created the dilemma of this segment taking more time than what it had originally intended to be as a fun quick music share.
For this little segment, I’ve decided to set up a Spotify playlist for anyone that would like to track the music that’s been on this segment and will add to it every month. You can find it HERE.
小雨Little Rain-黄龄Isabelle Huang
I can’t find an actual music video for this but Isabelle Huang has been recently a favorite on my playlist. Her voice is very unique and her songs has this lovely mix of traditional Chinese instruments paired with modern music. This one is one of my favorite as it has this elegance that I enjoy a lot.
You Are The Sun In My Life – Yuanyi Lu (“Shine On Me” Theme Song)
If you checked out my What’s Up January 2026, you’d know that I am surprisingly a big fan of this series. This series does have this wonderful thing where it doesn’t rely too heavily on its soundtrack to create the mood. In reality, the soundtrack blends really well into the series and its theme song is probably my favorite and reflects the essence of this series very well.
Forever Forever – Jay Chou, Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, Vic Chou, Mayday Ashin
I think anyone like myself that was into the Taiwanese entertainment scene in the 2000s as their main time frame when the series and culture started spreading around Asia, this team-up is probably the most nostalgic especially when its reuniting 3 of the 4 members of F4 boy band after the original Meteor Garden series trend ended. With that said, its so great to see Jay Chou, Mayday Ashin and Jerry Yan, Will Chou and Vanness Wu unite together for this song.
戰愛 Fight For Love- 姚冠宇Austin Yao (“She’s Fiercer Than Gunfire” Theme Song)
I don’t particularly like to talk too much about vertical series but my big discovery is Austin Yao and I think the best one so far is She’s Fiercer Than Gunfire which has a Hong Kong 90s triad film type of vibe. The intro to this song appears at all the scenes that the male lead shows up and then it ends with the full theme song at the end of the whole series which is how I found it and have since really liked it.
Overdrive – TWS
I find K-pop usually completely by accident. In this case, Overdrive was really because I was surfing through reels and saw a few videos where celebrities have been using this song as the background to dance with it as promotional material for whatever series. I can’t even remember who it was for, maybe it was the Shine On Me pairing that was what started it all. Either way, it got me curious whether what they were dancing was actually from the music video and wanted to check out the whole song. Its a pretty catchy and fun tune.
Hard to imagine that I’m already late for the January Music Obsessions but from now on, it’ll probably be like this where its going to happen in the following month or whenever I have enough music to post. Let me know what you think about this selection and what you’ve been listening to!
The King of Shanghai: The Triad Years by Ian Hamilton (Review)
Turn Left, Turn Right by Jimmy Liao
Currently reading: Defeated By Love
Starting off the year in a very strong way in my opinion and hoping that I’ll be able to keep it up. While I did read a lot of short books like Chinese Graphic Novels (aka Man Hua) and finished off the Hidden Love books. I wonder if it is complete since it feels like its just the first half that was adapted. Either way, that is besides the point because this version is also pretty fun to read plus the artwork is really nice as well.
In terms of actual reading though, a chat with one of my really great friends brought up the whole Ice Planet Barbarians series that I had read the first book years ago when Kindle still had free books and I had picked that one up. Who knew that that conversation will lead to knowing that that book series had a dozen books already (if I remember correctly). I’m not going to read the whole series but I did go back to re-read the first book since I remembered not enjoying that much and was wondering maybe a few years and some more erotic fiction would change my mind. The answer to that is still no although the review there might be a little harsh than how I feel about it this time around. Maybe I’ve grown less critical on books since my main literature the past few years has been children’s books so the change in pace to some more adult stuff was a good change in pace.
While this year’s Goodreads Challenge is set at 25 books (for now), my actual goal is try to get through one decent length novel every month, preferably a bunch of books I’ve pulled off my bookshelf that I want to read this year. I do love reading and nothing makes me remember it like diving into an Ava Lee series book as I continued with its next book, The King of Shanghai. I even got a review out for that so I guess I’m trying to say that book reviews will be coming back gradually if the whole plan works out to read more. Check out the review if you’d like but in short, I loved the book and can’t wait to catch up to the next few books in the series that I currently own. I have a side goal this year to try to chip away at the backlog of everything regardless of books or games or physical movies that I own so here we are.
Nice job on saying that because I did pick up some new books from Taobao to add to my Jimmy Liao collection. While I haven’t seen the film adaptation for Turn Left Turn Right in decades, I’ve always wanted to read the book it was based on and I honestly think its a great read. Now to find some time to give the film a long-awaited rewatch because who doesn’t like a romantic story with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung.
MOVIES
Bring Her Back (2025)
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)
Between starting off the year trying to wrap up the incomplete films from Oh My Horror Challenge from 2025 and getting back on track with this year’s projects and challenge while trying to work through some Crave titles before the subscription ended, this is how the month went. Its a pretty decent way to start to year to be honest. I rarely start the year with such strong films and everything here was a pretty decent time other than one. Yes, I’m looking at you, The Strangers: Chapter 1. I can’t believe there’s two more chapters of this and seriously wondering whether out of curiosity of how things will pan out whether I’ll watch it. If there’s anything I learned from watching the film, its that I can’t seem to get back the franchise in general. The first film had promise and ended up being a disappointment. The second film was more acceptable but had some silly moments as expected in these types of horror films but this one, I don’t really have any words for this other than its effort to go back to its roots but having some incredibly silly pair of victims who made some useless choices.
Bring Her Back was my last minute body horror pick for Oh My Horror Challenge 2026. I haven’t watched the previous film by this director duo but this was a pretty neat horror film which took some interesting turns in its execution. French Canadian horror comedy Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a mouthful to say but filmed around the suburb where I grew up in some parts so it not only felt close to home but had a quirkiness that worked for me. The endgame was pretty expected with how the story went but the flow of the story was an entertaining one. Village of the Damned, The Quiet Earth and Wishmaster all has similar sort of feeling as they all had a decent story and the film overall was a good time but I can’t say that its a rewatch for myself.
Heart Eyes, It Feeds, Ballerina and Sinners were all Crave offerings that I caught before the subscription ended. It Feeds is so far my favorite film of the year so far. Its not weird since I’m really seeing how Black Fawn Films has grown over the years and the sophistication of the execution. Heart Eyes is a decent horror film which is a little on the formulaic side but the whole unknown two people who meet and run for their lives was pretty entertaining. Sinners was a watch after seeing the Oscars nominations list and while I thought the film itself was done really well especially the music and had From Dusk Till Dawn vibe, and Michael B Jordan is a great actor, the second half after the horror twist reveals is the more engaging part. Finally, the spinoff for John Wick world Ballerina wasn’t exactly a bad time but a lackluster one. Ana de Armas is a great actress but what she lacks perhaps is the fluidity of the fight choreography which feels very scripted and rigid at times to make it have the excitement of watching a John Wick film.
With that said, there were some surprises this month like The Day of the Beast which I finally finished and its an great Spanish horror comedy that takes some fun twists as it has a ragtag crew formed by a priest, a metalhead and an occult fraudster which truly delivered some funny bits. Bad Times at the El Royale is a long film but it holds up to create some director trademark for Drew Goddard while delivering a great cast and a nice twist on the events going on in a hotel which a hidden agenda. As I try to dive further into Dario Argento’s filmography, his directorial debut is the first to hit the lineup with The Bird With the Crystal Plumage which was an interesting flow of events. Not quite as great as Deep Red and the reveal was a bit of goofy overacting. Finally, Dangerous Animals which was promoted as a shark film but its only one angle of the film as its so much more.
TV
Stranger Things Season 5 (2025)
Rouge Tears 胭脂淚(2025)
Being Pampered During Pregnancy 孕妇被霸总宠上天 (vertical series 2025)
She’s Fiercer Than Gunfire她比枪火炙热 (vertical series 2025)
Sheng Sheng Xiang Xu 声声相许(vertical series 2025)
Shine On Me 驕陽似我(2025)
Falling Into You 熾道(2022)
Queer Eye (Season 10, 2025)
Master of My Own 請叫我總監 (2022)
Sinful Marriage 罪嫁 (2025)
Bridgerton (Season 4 Part 1, 2026)
Currently watching: Affinity
TV has been a real mix of spontaneous choices of short dramas, vertical series and full length dramas along with a few more deliberate offerings on Netflix. While there were some meh moments mostly with two of the vertical series, the other series were all a decent time especially since I’m trying to really make some bank on my Youku subscription by starting to work on some of the older series and started going from 2022 where I had more series I wanted to watch.
As usual though, vertical series and short dramas are more by random choice although I’ve been watching this one actress Fang Jin a lot so I ended up watching Sinful Marriage as well. Its a pretty good watch to be fair. It started with a plot that I though was pretty basic but the cast did a good job and I constantly am pleased with the different roles Fang Jin has in each series she’s done that I’ve seen especially with the latest Affinity which is just a fantastic time both from innovative plot, world building to character design and the casting. In a world of lower budget TV, its showing that there is a real shift on the short drama scene where these series are getting some good writing, at least less formulaic than some full-length ones.
I honestly don’t really want to go to deep into vertical series since its so shameful to talk about a series called Being Pampered During Pregnancy and it wasn’t all that good but its the second time I’ve seen this pairing so the chemistry is decent but then this pairing is very one tone as its similar to the previous one that I saw called Addicted Only To You. Both of these series are pretty basic, other than the male lead being a good looking man, there’s not a whole lot of value here. With that said, in the world of vertical series, She’s Fiercer Than Gunfire is a pretty great one although I do like Austin Yao and Han Le Yao who are my discoveries in the short drama/vertical series world and the show overall has a Young and Dangerous vibe even if its a budget version. Plus, I’ve seen the actress Han Le Yao before in a short drama and her outing in this vertical series was a good one as she plays two different roles. On the other hand, Sheng Sheng Xiang Xu was pretty silly and it was unnecessarily long so wasn’t exactly a great offering. On that note, Rouge Tears was also a pretty good one. I’ve seen the female lead Daisy Li before in The King’s Avatar but recently have seen her a lot in short dramas while I’ve only caught one or two before this (I can’t remember) but Rouge Tears, while has the familiar revenge plot, is a pretty good production as well. On that thought, are they ever going to do a King’s Avatar.
Netflix has its early year offerings as usual with Stranger Things Season 5 having its final wrap-up which I thought was a decent way to end it. It wasn’t all that unexpected but it left space to have an open ending and it felt rather suitable. Queer Eye Season 10 was also its final season for this series that I really do love, even if sometimes there is some bad publicity in the last few seasons, I think its still a positive feel-good experience overall as the message it delivers is an important one and its hard to imagine the ten years its been doing this and all the changes in the world and its own country its gone through. Finally, Bridgerton’s first part of Season 4 was launched and I have rather mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the leads have fantastic chemistry and great characters to discover but on the other hand, its basically a Cinderella story framework. Of course, it really depends where they plan to spin it in the second half to see if it’ll make it better or worse.
As for full-length Chinese dramas, I decided to catch up with Netflix available one Shine On Me which was a shot in the dark for me since I’m not a fan of Song Weilong or Jiao Jinmai the male or female lead respectively. However, Netflix seems to be a big fan of Jiao Jinmai to say the least as there’s been at least 5 series that I can think of so far that’s passed through this platform. With that said, Shine On Me is a true winner since it put two leading cast members I’m not a big fan of and truly took my heart with its plot and chemistry. Its a charming one which I’m not too surprised after realizing that its an adaptation from a Gu Man novel which also brought Love O2O and You Are My Glory. After this, I basically took a dive into the backlogs of Youku platform and ended up watching 2022’s Falling In Love which was a decent watch because of its lead but the plot did drag on near the end as well as 2022’s Master Of My Own which was a story with a strong female lead fighting her way through the corporate finance world from a small executive secretary to becoming a CEO with a little dabs of romance at the same time. Its an empowering story that never forgets where its heart is and casted really well with Tan Songyun.
GAMES
Little Nightmares 3
Ahnayro: The Dream World
Currently playing: Ray-man Origins, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy – Justice For All, 112 Operator, The Room Three, Pinball FX, The Gardens Between
I’m not going to lie that I can’t really decide what I want to play at this current moment. My mind’s a big mess of stuff that I want to replay or finish or check out or try out, etc. Part of it is that its entertaining for me and part of it is just a quick jump in jump out sort of gaming. I guess the best way is to start with the one that I’m probably less likely to play more of which is 112 Operator which to be clear, its not that the game is bad. Its actually pretty neat especially since it can lock to your own area and adapts to those street names in the area but its more that its not my type of game. I don’t like games that require so much analysis and planning and management. However, its right up the alley for my husband who actually really enjoyed it and has taken over the game.
Everything else in currently playing is a bit of here and there with most of them being either replay titles like The Room Three which I’ve been replaying the series during 2025 but not sure whether I acknowledged it on these posts or not (sometimes I forget). Pinball FX is a pick up and put down game that I play every once in a while when I’m looking for a quick pinball match. I’m not a really good pinball player but I enjoy it regardless and I’m guessing that’s what matters considering I don’t have to actually put in coins at an arcade. Rayman Origins is a fairly long game but I’ve been enjoying doing little sessions of platforming musical fun while Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is an ongoing replay. I pick up and play an episode and then stop usually. I should be finishing Justice For All soon though.
There’s nothing like a sense of satisfaction when you go back to finish a game that’s been sitting around incomplete for too long and that is the case of Ahnayro: The Dream World, a game that I had such a fun time playing back at the beginning of Game Warp and one of the first studios we interviewed on the podcast and I finally went back to finish the last puzzle.
Finally, Little Nightmares 3 is now an online co-op experience. Why it doesn’t have couch co-op is still a bit of a headscratcher but then its no longer in the hands of Tarsier Studios and moved on to Supermassive Games and they’ve never done couch co-op with their other games so why should they start now, right? However, more than an online co-op experience that you can still play in single player mode, the bigger problem with the game is probably that it was disappointing. We know visually that Supermassive Games can do the job right but Little Nightmares 3 loses its heart a little bit because no only does the world doesn’t feel like it builds on the lore from the previous two, it also feels more like a tribute to horror games rather than the unique world that it had before. However, Little Nightmares holds a special place in my heart. Its the only game that I’ve actually wanted to spend money to get its collectibles so I might be a little harsher because of the disappointment I felt.
The King of Shanghai: The Triad Years (The Ava Lee Series #7) By: Ian Hamilton
The seventh novel in the Ava Lee series finds Ava getting caught up in the election for the chairmanship of the Triad Societies.
Ava steps into her new business with May Ling Wong and her sister-in-law, Amanda. On a trip to Shanghai, Ava meets with Xu, a young man Uncle had been mentoring and who is also the head of the Triad in Shanghai. Xu makes an audacious business proposal that she and May are compelled to consider. Meanwhile, separately and privately, he confides to Ava that he intends to run for the chairmanship of the Triad Societies and attempts to recruit her as his adviser and confidante.
Against her will, Ava becomes enmeshed in Triad warfare and her future is threatened . . . – Goodreads
The seventh novel of the Ava Lee series starts off a new era for our female protagonist Ava who we’ve seen investigate and muddle herself in many wild and dangerous tasks as she puts her forensic accounting background to great use as she helped Uncle on her various assignments. Now, Uncle has passed away and the novel starts off on how she is dealing with the grief of the situation while trying to pick herself back up to continue her business with Three Sisters as they set out to widen their portfolio and evaluate the companies seeking their investment on various fronts. As they deal with this, Xu comes back into play as he lays his cards on the table first with a business proposal but one that comes with certain ties that ends up sending Ava into the middle of the Triad wars as the chairmanship for the Triad Societies approach imminently and the leaders of Wanchai, Shanghai and Guangzhou both have their own stakes to consider.
There’s a lot to love about this series and despite the change of pace in this one as it deals with the depart of a very fantastic character Uncle, it takes our focus back onto Ava as her growth on a personal front might not be as strong anymore other than the emotions she’s dealing with but also on a more professional level. I remember in the past, I’ve praised previous books for finding that balance of her personal and investigative developments but somehow this one makes me reconsider that statement a little as this book really found its footing when Ava was able to approach the more dangerous elements of the books and in some ways, maybe it shows a forte for author Ian Hamilton as he crafts these ramping intense scenes that almost feels like you’re reading a 90s Hong Kong action thriller (something like Election).
While its not to say that the beginning investment conflicts and such weren’t a pleasure to read since Ava as a character is well-built and her way of speaking and maneuvering through certain conversations has a firmness and sharpness that makes it quite a pleasure to read. However, it lacks that actual punch because the story even loses its foothold on that as it gives up on those elements to her partners as she deals with the Triad situation.
As an official introduction to this new phase in her life, not that the previous book isn’t since that’s when this business did start out with the previous book’s situation, however, it sets a footing that Ava isn’t going to get out of this Triad world any time soon. I think its a pretty fascinating thing to do especially since Uncle tried to keep her away from that element of his life despite his involvement but his passing opened up the doors that lead her into certain ties that she now dives deeper into this world. Its a refreshing change in pace and opens up the doors to meeting more interesting characters especially since we’ve only met three of these Dragon Heads or Mountain Masters. Who knows what other dangerous dilemmas are around the corner. Of course, at this point, I’ve fallen so behind in this series that one look at the coming books already gives a good idea of where Ava will be heading in the next few worlds and some of them do sound like it’ll bring some more exotic cities into play, another element that I do love about this book as it dives into the different places around the world but especially in Asia.
Overall, The King of Shanghai is a great addition to the series. I actually wouldn’t mind of Ava discovered less about herself if she kept pursuing these dangerous and exciting adventures. Its these situations that make this series so fun to read and gets me wanting to jump right into the next book.
A little delay than the usual December 31st but it basically feels like how 2025 has been in general. With that said, I’ll share some little stats here at the end of each section as a 2025 recap. Letterboxd recap only shows up early January so I won’t have that yet but I’ll have the normal Top 10 First Time Watches and TV series as well as game rankings for the few games I did get through.
If this your first time landing on a December What’s up, this is a recap post so before you get further, this is a long one since there’s a bunch of talk about my 2025 recap as well.
BOOKS
Hidden Love #3 (graphic novel version)
Hidden Love #4 (graphic novel version)
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Currently reading: Defeated By Love
I’m in a Chinese novel reading phase mostly because I suddenly really got into Defeated By Love since they’ve been hiding what happened both the male and female leads for so long and it keeps feeling like its about to spill it. Either way, I can’t say I’m a super fan of Zhu Yi’s writing style but the stories that I’ve seen adapted have been pretty good so far.
I was so into reading the novel that I actually almost forgot about the Goodreads Reading Challenge so I managed to go through some graphic novels and a recent discounted buy for Jumanji. In reality, there’s a bunch of books that aren’t listed in Goodreads that I read so I’m already way past the goal amount for 30 books but I did make it there with books I could enter now so that’s great.
A little recap from Goodreads Year in Books 2025:
Books read: 30 books (and its at least 35 or so including the ones I couldn’t list)
Pages read: 2279 (that’s what happens when all I read are graphic novels and children’s books)
December is always a bit of a busy month with a little catch-up for preparation for our big annual podcast show for the top 10 picks while also trying to catch up to some of the titles I’ve been meaning to to see if it will have any last minute changes to the 2025 film discoveries but also doing some catch-up this year for Oh My Horror since the viewings fell behind because of my November vacation.
While most of my holiday viewings were rewatches, I did bounce into a lot of random choices like spontaneously watching back to back documentaries for Sky Ladder about Cai Guo-Qiang’s fireworks art and how it translates to his dream of creating a fireworks show of Sky Ladder and Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-fi Film Club which was a film club that Bong Joon-ho used to be a part of when he was in school and how his love for film started as he categorized all the films they’d have at the club. The whole dynamic just makes you feel the genuineness of this friendship that the members had.
Oh My Horror Challenge catch-up was a bit of a mixed bag. Stir of Echoes was good because of some surprising cast and Kevin Bacon’s acting plus the idea of it was decent. Fright Night was a fun time as well opposite of Under the Skin was a bit slow for my liking. It was a good premise and visually was pretty good as well but not a huge fan of the execution. I think I’ve found my favorite Dario Argento though with Deep Red. I always try to add Argento’s films in the Oh My Horror. The Monkey was also a decent film and seemed to get better as it went along. It had a bit of a Final Destination premise since The Monkey didn’t actually do something but it would trigger something of a “freak accident” to happen but felt a little predictable most of the time. Its a Wonderful Knife was an okay movie with some decent time travel concept to it but it felt like it was missing something to make it more engaging. The Brood was the winter horror pick that was also pretty fun. I don’t watch a ton of Cronenberg films but this one definitely has made me want to dive into his filmography more. I still have a few movies from Oh My Horror that I need to work through to complete the 2025 challenge even if its late since they were half watched and I never went back.
December felt like it was a very Asian films oriented. I started it with a continuation of the non-Miyazaki Studio Ghibli viewings with Whisper of the Heart which was a fun time. The poster is a bit misleading but it still had a feel-good coming of age story. Left-Handed Girl was the opposite of that but also was a great look at the close-minded struggles for women in the Taiwanese society whether its about family reputation or the use of your left-hand being related to the devil or just a young girl navigating through work and relationships, its all executed very well. I was apparently on a Taiwanese film kick because I watched Bad Education: Director’s Cut also since I’m trying to get through some of the Giddens Ko work where he writes the script for this one. While Giddens Ko has some bright and cheery work like You are the Apple of My Eye, I’ve also read some of his darker novels and this is definitely more along that line as a high school graduation night celebration for three friends takes a nasty turn which shows the dark nature of the characters which shows the cruelty of the world and maybe how some boundaries shouldn’t be challenged as it could cost a lot more than you’d expect. Then we end the month with the new Korean film addition The Great Flood (which I started thinking it was a TV series because I don’t read things in advance). I think for parents, this might hit pretty hard at least for myself, it did that emotional manipulation really well. However, there is an interesting twist to the whole film which I think isn’t executed that well but the use of that one location is good.
Last is the two very surprising films I watched out of the blue, Caddo Lake was a film I thought was just a normal mystery crime thing and it turned out to have some science fiction element to it. I’d say if you go into this, its best to go in knowing as little as possible and expect to have your mind take a little jog as the whole story slowly pieces together. I like thrillers that take me by surprise and this one definitely did. I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised that Predator: Killers of Killers was a fun watch but it is an animated version anthology sort of deal but I think the whole thing works incredibly well especially as it pieces the other films into it as well to add a bit of lore.
2025 Recap – Top 10 Film Discoveries
Song of the Sea (2014)
The Last Dance (2024)
K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025)
Parasite (2019)
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)
Left-Handed Girl (2025)
Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-fi Film Club (2023)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Heathers (1989)
Love Lies (2024)
For my Top 50 Film Discoveries of 2025, you can check it out on Letterboxd HERE.
It took me a little while to sort finalize my Top 10 this year since there were some viewings that really grew on me as I thought about it more like Heathers and Love Lies. Song of the Sea is one of the best animated films I’ve seen ever, I think. Its been a while since I’ve been so invested and engaged in a story and the story is incredibly emotional as well. The Last Dance is a pretty basic choice since its been talked about so much but it really does live up to its expectations as it dives into the Hong Kong culture but also uses that to explore the modern and traditional mindsets towards everything in life. There’s a much deeper message here that I believe it explores, maybe because I understand this tradition but I wonder how it would land for Western viewers. Same goes for K-pop Demon Hunters since it was such a big hit but I loved it when I saw it and continued to love it after I watched it 20 more times plus it was the soundtrack of my year according to Spotify Wrapped.
My list really doesn’t feel that surprising since Parasite is an award-winning film and I now know that it does deserve it. I don’t think I need to justify myself too much here for this one. Much like Left-Handed Girl or Yellow Door since I’ve already talked about those in the previous part. Twilight of the Warrior: Walled In is the longest held spot in Top 10 on my list since its one I saw in February or March or something. Hong Kong films have really been a bit lackluster in recent years but this year, three of them made it on my Top 10 and it makes me so happy because all three are different genres and premise. Which takes me to Love Lies which I thought about it so much and it really deserved the spot because in a world where we have a bunch of documentaries about online dating cons and their revenges, this one doesn’t take that route as the con artist circle is under investigation and the story unravels through how the two involved are being questioned.
Then we have The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari which I have to say, German Impressionist cinema is fantastic and its why I’ve been adding more 1920s titles into my Oh My Horror challenges. This one really had such great visuals and the story was great. I love it so much. And well, finally, we have Heathers which I feel like I hear people talking about a decent amount but I’ve never seen it and its a wild ride to say the least.
TV
Be Yourself 机智的上半场 (2021)
Embrace in the Dark Night 我们在黑夜中相拥 (short drama 2024)
Tryst (vertical short series 2025)
Guess Who I Am 猜猜我是谁(2024)
IT: Welcome to Derry (Season 1, 2025)
We Go Fast on Trust 极速悖论(2023)
Addicted Only To You 入夜对她上瘾(vertical short series 2025)
Steal Her 窃她(vertical short series 2025)
Wedding Day 婚礼日(vertical short series 2025)
Queen of Darkness 黑夜中的她 (short drama 2025)
Currently watching: The Princess and the Werewolf, Stranger Things Season 5, Rouge Tears
Well….December was a very Chinese drama month and a deeper dive into the vertical short series world along with some short dramas also. So lets start with the one American series I watched IT: Welcome to Derry. I’m a relatively decent fan of the IT films whether its the 90s version or the Andy Muschietti ones and this one is in the Andy Muschietti world since they have Bill Skarsgard back as IT and it dives into the whole origin story of how this all started and acts as a prequel of the previous time the disappearing children started in Derry from the movies. The series has this weird execution and pacing that lacks how engaging it feels in the films itself. It might be that more elements are involved with the military playing a part and fading out the children group or it just feels like there is a lot more its trying to talk about but the second half was more engaging than the first half, probably because it was nearing the big season finale.
For normal length Chinese drama, this month was a real winner. Be Yourself was a coming of age story set in the backdrop of the four girls in the same dorm room as they start university and their friendship grows over the course of their university phase and ends as they graduate. Its a story involving girls with different personalities and the many situations they face from values to student relations to friends to romances and school and much more. Guess Who I Am was a fun comedic romantic little outing about a guy and girl pulling off their own cons and eventually working together to figure out their the truth behind something that happened in their youth. Finally, We Go Fast On Trust is a show about a race car engineer trying to regain her confidence when she meets an upcoming race car driver and together they find their way to pursue the careers they want, plus it has Alice Ko, a familiar face in Taiwanese series especially on Netflix ones.
Short dramas have been a bit of a mixed bag since I’ve started watching it earlier this year (or maybe end of last year…I can’t remember). Either way, Embrace in the Dark Night had such popularity that it got an animated version that I ended up going to check it out and while some of it was a little silly in plot, the general execution was pretty good, which lead me to watch a second short drama with the same female lead Fang Jin in Queen of Darkness which also had some silliness and the supporting male lead was a horrible actor and character, even the male lead was super handsome but his acting has some ways to go in my opinion but it was an okay plot overall. Not quite was good as Embrace in the Dark Night still.
Now we get to the guilty pleasure portion with the vertical short series. Most Chinese streaming services have incorporated a little tab just to look through these types of 2 minutes an episode series. How much can you do in 2 minutes, its basically a 2 hour plus movie broken down into 70 episode or something. In reality, anything that breaks the 75 episode length gets a little tedious. And most of these ones are just like reading trashy novels, at least the ones I landed on that looked decent except for Wedding Day. Tryst was a random one that popped up and its all the steamy stuff between the relationship of an older woman in a fake marriage for convenience and manipulation that tries to break away when she meets this younger artist that she encouraged when she was younger. Its super stupid and the whole thing sounds as silly as it was meant to be. Addicted Only To You is 62 episodes which is not too bad and its a second time that the two leads work together so the chemistry is there even though its always the same plot because the female lead looks so helpless and innocent. Its not too bad as a vertical series even if its a very damsel in distress situation for the most part but then a lot of these series are like that. Steal Her is a boring one but it does have a male lead that used to be in full length series and I guess the Chinese entertainment industry has too much competition that he has landed in vertical series now. Its too bad because he is the best part of this one whether its the character design of a male lead that is both protective but also encouraging for the female lead but the plot is so dragged out plus its 85 episodes. I honestly almost gave up. Finally, the cream of the crop is The Wedding Day which is 80 episodes but it includes a time loop element and stuff which reminds us a little that it was inspired by Mobius in concept not plot. Its not all about the steamy stuff but actually tries to put through a decent plot. Plus it added a little comedic moments to it so it was a fun time through the trial and error.
2025 Recap: Top 10 TV Series
Meet Yourself 去有风的地方 (2023)
Love In The Clouds 入青云 (2025)
Chase The Truth 黑白密码 (2023)
The First Frost 难哄 (2025)
The Residence (2025)
The Embers 余烬之上 (2025)
Begin Again 灿烂的风和海 (2024)
Mobius 不眠日 (2025)
Black Lighthouse 黑色灯塔 (2020)
Perfect Match 五福临门 (2025)
Honestly a few American series almost made the list like The Recruit but the fact that it doesn’t really have an ending makes me a little sad to include it here. It is still a great series though but this year, I did watch a lot of unexpected titles as I moved away from romantic Chinese dramas and expanded to watching more suspense and mystery ones and boy, are these underrated. No one ever talks about these shows but they are truly fantastic. Of course, it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t watch some romantic stuff.
Meet Yourself tops the year solely because its a great watch for our times with it positivity and encouraging and feel good vibes. Its top-notch casting along with a great location and a fantastic message and gives you many warm hugs to top it all off. Love in the Clouds is a great addition to the Chinese fantasy series which made me love Lu Yuxiao more and having a great appreciation for Neo Hou but the story is a lot more than that as is how the romance starts, grows and flourishes throughout the series. This one is on Netflix is its also an accessible one. I’m fairly certain that if anyone loved Hidden Love from last year, The First Frost was a must-watch for this year plus it has Bai Jingting who is a fantastic actor. The premise of this one is a lot darker than Hidden Love which is more pink hearts and cute and fun, this one has a lot of personal trauma to deal with which makes the romance more mature but more intense in its feelings. I can’t forget my third pick which held onto its spot for the longest time this year since I watched it early in the year and boy, it was a great show also a second cooperation for the male and female lead but its about undercover cops infiltrating a bigger triad feud. Its a fantastic series.
Coming up right in the middle is The Residence, a Netflix limited series which I think shouldn’t be limited and a long term thing because Uzo Aduba is a great actress. I’ve believed that since I saw her in Orange is the New Black as Crazy Eyes and she takes Cordelia Cupp in this one to a wonderful space that I love. The whole series was a great time with wonderful pacing and execution. Its shows not having the longevity it deserves that makes me want to get rid of Netflix sometimes (especially when they keep raising the prices to make all those guilty pleasure shows that I’ve stopped watching because I can’t encourage it anymore).
I’m on a Wang Ziqi run this year so I started with Chase the Truth and then went on to his new series this year The Embers which has my own personal underrated actor Sunny Sun which is set in a more exotic location with a whole revenge and secret plot thing going on with a lot of action and suspense and who is who and what is real and who is on your side type of thing. Its a great time. Of course, the next pick is Sunny Sun as the male lead in Begin Again, a series in 2024 for the 25 years Macau handover as it features Macau in a story about keeping a part of its history alive and two different romances that happen over a short period of time while highlighting another side of Macau and a lot of people haven’t seen outside of its Asia Las Vegas reputation and the Sao Paolo church. Plus it has veteran actor Alex Fong and I’ve loved him since his TVB days. Not to mention the female lead has been a growing favorite of mine.
Mobius is on Netflix and one of the recent additions starring Bai Jingting and has a time loop element as a cop uses his unusual powers to investigate as he gathers clues in the five loops he gets to figure out the crime. Black Lighthouse is one that I’ve been meaning to watch for a long time and just never seemed to get the chance but it popped up for me and its a great look at a strong female lead who is a court intern as she investigates different crimes to bring justice while dealing with the relationships between the prosecutors and defense attorneys. Finally, the last pick Perfect Match had a big trip since I liked the series a lot. Its basically a comedic series as a mother with her five daughters goes to the big city to escape the issues in her small town as she comes to meet one of her daughters and then proceeds to try to marry off each of her daughters as they try to find their own love of their lives. The cast is great and the story is fun plus I watched it for Ni Hongjie who is the mother character and Lu Yuxiao and Wang Xingyue who are two female and male leads respectively that has been on my radar lately.
As a recap of 2025 overall, there were some great releases. Twisted Metal Season 2 was a good time. Not quite as great as the first season but it still has a decent plot and execution. I’m looking forward to season 3. It just missed the top 10. Although I can’t lie that Squid Game season 2 or 3 wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list and Wednesday’s Season 2 was okay but didn’t have the same vibe or momentum as the first season. Next year I have plans to work on more Korean series since I have a lot of those backlogged on Netflix forever. We’ll see if I follow through with that.
GAMES
Currently playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy – Justice For All, Rayman Origins
Games is a long work in progress and it seems like these are the games I’ve settled on for the long-term since I do want to finish the trilogy so I can move onto the next trilogy at some point. I’ve never played Rayman Origins but I love the musical element of it so I play it one level a day as a little fun platforming thing. Its a bigger studio game so it’ll probably take a long time. I’ll start something more of indie game length in the new year since me and my co-host is having chats of making Game Warp more alive in 2026.
I replayed a bunch of games this year so new games were a little scarce overall. A whopping five titles when I thought I did more. Either way, at least I played five titles and they were all pretty fun and fulfilling. Road 96 is seriously a great game so if you haven’t played it, please do. Its a great time with a great way of how your choices can change your outcome. Strange Horticulture is also a strong recommendation. Either way, I’ll make it easier and just link all the podcast episodes. The only one that doesn’t have one is Behind the Frame since I played that on my own and it was one that I’ve wanted to play because its supposed to feel like playing a Studio Ghibli film and it did. It had some fun color puzzles because its about art. Its a simple game but the soundtrack and the plot was pretty good. I’m hoping to play the studio’s next game at some point when I get a chance to pick it up.
As I mentioned in the last What’s Up which was only in preparation phase, November was where the actual 2-week vacation took place in Hong Kong which made a lot of my stuff happening either from the in-flight entertainment and from the Hong Kong Netflix availability. It was nice to discover all that stuff though so while some months are very Asian-oriented content, this month is especially oriented since I was there.
BOOKS
Little Tram Where Are You? (original title: 電車小叮在哪裡？)
Star Ferry’s Secret Journey (original title: 渡輪小星的祕密之旅)
Our Peak Tram (original title: 我們的山頂纜車)
Flower Garden Bear (original title: 花園小熊)
MoMo Goes To the Zoo (original title: 哞哞要去動物園)
Above are all the books that I picked up from Hong Kong for my little kid. The first three about the little tram and the star ferry and the peak tram are all significant forms of transportation in Hong Kong which is why I got them so it was reminiscent of the trip itself while telling a simple and charming story. The last two was from a little pop-up book sale in a shopping center. Flower Garden Bear is a really great read about taking care of our world while I picked up MoMo Goes to the Zoo because it was colorful and bilingual.
Suffice to say that a lot of my movie viewing was in-flight entertainment with a few films before and after the vacation, which was great since I managed to catch up on some films that I had wanted to watch for a while. Its pretty nice to say that this month did have some great discoveries and some pleasant surprises for the most part.
Migration was an animated film that I watched for the podcast and it was one that was surprisingly fun to watch. It helped that my little kid enjoyed watching it as well so it was suitably geared for kids while also doing the animal and humans don’t understand each other well. There was some decent voice cast as well.
Being a fan of 28 Days Later and 28 Months Later, it was inevitable that we’d watch 28 Years Later and while it was quite what you’d expect for a zombie film as it leaned a lot into the dramatic element of the father-son relationship here than survival and the world had turned into after the outbreak, it had some decent elements especially with the interesting turn of events with Ralph Fiennes character. I can’t say it lived up to my expectations but any film that is still headed by its original director, you can see the style and vibe still being there and that’s always a plus.
I started my in-flight entertainment with a Hong Kong film that I had never heard of before Love Lies starring Sandra Ng and MC Cheung in a story about a online dating con which takes a very unexpected angle to the story especially in its resolution that makes you think a little deeper about this situation. I can see some people probably not backing that but I think its a pretty good angle to go about this content because its also a legitimate angle to take.
Of course, there’s the obvious choice of watching The Last Dance which was all the talk for recent Hong Kong films with a great cast and story. Being a fan of Dayo Wong, I rarely see him in drama roles but this one really worked as a whole. It was a great film that shares a bit about the traditional and modern funeral elements which worked with the family drama that was happening at the same time.
On the other hand, Materialists while felt like it wasn’t a bad second entry for Celine Song but somehow the film did question a good element of how materialistic a relationship is but also lacked a memorable punch to the story that Past Lives had.
Talking about a fun entry though, Freakier Friday was a pretty fun film. I’m not super behind all these unnecessary long overdue sequels as some type of nostalgic reboot or whatnot, but Freakier Friday was a fun time plus Jamie Lee Curtis is always great to see on screen.
TV
Love In the Clouds (入青云, 2025)
Adieu My Almost Forever (short drama 2025)
Meet Yourself (去有风的地方, 2023)
The Best Day Of My Life (遇见你的那天, 2024)
Flirty Hypothermia (暧昧失温, short drama 2024)
Black Lighthouse (黑色灯塔, 2020)
Currently watching: IT: Welcome to Derry, Stranger Things S5
This month for TV was such a winner from the start of the month when I finished watching Love In The Clouds which gave me a whole new perspective of Neo Hou as an actor since I’ve had a hard time with him as an actor because of an acting variety show I watched before but I really loved Love In The Clouds so much, not to mention my love for Lu Yuxiao is only growing. She always has these fun roles.
But then as I sat in a hotel room in Hong Kong and finally got to watch Meet Yourself with Crystal Liu (yes, the girl who played Mulan in the Disney live action reboot) and Li Xian, its probably one of the most uplifting and positive TV series that I’ve ever watched because the whole show just feels comfortable and a nice warm hug. Its a show about healing and man, does it ever nail it down in the most natural way.
Then we get to Black Lighthouse which I’ve wanted to watch for a while and its a great take on the whole court intern on both the side of the prosecutor and defendant lawyer angles when in pursuit of the truth. It does also take the time at the end of the episode to educate the audience about the laws in China and how it works. However, the show is separated into the difference cases and it does take some great twists and turns.
Finally, the short vertical drama finally hit me. I’ve been pretty reluctant about these short vertical drama with 2 minute episodes. I still think in general, they are really silly and repetitive but Flirty Hypothermia was a good time. The male lead Yao Guanyu has moments that he reminds me of Yang Yang in a less sophisticated way. It also doesn’t help most of these series have really ridiculous titles that makes it embarrassing to say for the most part. Like this one, c’mon, you won’t catch me saying that title out loud. Still, doesn’t stop that I did enjoy most of the series more than I wanted to admit (and even went back to watch it a second time.)
GAMES
Currently playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy – Justice For All, The Gardens Between
Gaming was basically non-existent during November however there was little bit of progress as I tried to find some time to get through the games I had started. Still having fun with replaying the second Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game on the PC Trilogy version. The Gardens Between is still throwing new twists to their puzzles so I’m pretty impressed with the game but it also adds some difficulty sometime so its taking longer than I expected to get through.
Welcome to this relatively late What’s Up for October seeing as its already end of December. I had a long-awaited vacation so as much as I wanted to do some writing during vacation, I actually ended up having other circumstances that I didn’t have time do much of anything that I wanted.
Either way, better late than never, right? Seeing as there’s a lot of other segments that are behind schedule as well. This week, you should be seeing a lot of catch-up happen.
BOOKS
My Little Perfect World by Jimmy Liao
Just Go To Bed by Mercer Mayer
This year has been a lot of attempts to get bigger serious books done but somehow it just seems like its a lot of nothing happening. However, in terms of kids books, I am having some fun little additions to the list. With that said, this month I finished reading Jimmy Liao’s My Little Perfect World which is an imaginative take on the opinions of a little girl growing up and her view of herself and the world around her. While Just Go To Bed is very much along the lines of the offerings of the other Little Critter books but is a pretty fun bedtime read.
MOVIES
Opus (2025)
Heretic (2024)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Immaculate (2024)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)
Sharksploitation (2023)
Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)
While there was only one review that went up, the October viewings turned out to have some pretty fun finds overall with Street Trash that was a weird affair and Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster Frankenstein was also an odd horror comedy that I’m not sure I was really into. Some parts of it were fun. Trainwreck: Storm Area 51 wasn’t exactly a bad entry for the documentary film series since the topic itself was pretty hilarious for the most part but the takeaway for it felt like it was such a waste of time in the end.
Regardless of that, the month did turn out to have some really fun finds from the many many horror films that I had hoped to write reviews about but didn’t find them to do and it was a great variety of them. Opus and Heretic was a great start to the Halloween month which lead to Immaculate which had its own sort of religious horror take while also diving into fun older horror titles like House on Haunted Hill which was a great time to horror documentary Sharksploitation which was a great look at the shark films genre even giving its nod to a lot of the Asylum titles which was a fantastic overview of how the genre has gone and some of the more interesting additions that I’ve of course added to my watchlist. Horror ended on a 2025 release as a follow-up from Barbarian director, Weapons which was a good watch but the ending didn’t quite work as well for me and had a little mixed on how I felt about the film as a whole.
With that said, there was a few titles for the current season we’re recording for Movies and Tea like Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves and Pom Poko with the first two being a first time watch. Its pretty obvious what the theme of the season even if the release might take a little while. Its been one that has a lot of fun viewing surprises so far.
TV
Mobius (不眠日, 2025)
Is It Cake? Halloween (2025)
Formula 1: Drive To Survive (Season 1)
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (2024)
Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Season 2)
Suffice to say that TV had its own dip in quantity this month because I was focusing on films as well as October being the usual busy time in real life especially with the preparation of vacation having started at this point. However, if you haven’t seen Mobius, that is a fantastic Chinese series to watch with its own time loop crime mystery genre which does work pretty well. Plus, its not a lot of episodes so its an easy watch overall.
I did start working through the Drive to Survive docuseries from the start. Its been an educational viewing for some history elements. Of course, the show has its dramatization and inaccuracies for effect which some drivers have commented about this series in general but for myself who is a newbie at this, its really to understand a little of some past F1 season events and some pivotal points to have a better view of this. Of course, I’ll have a better view of this and all of it will change in 2026. Whatever its worth, I’m finding it a good time in small doses.
GAMES
Monument Valley + 2 DLCs
Monument Valley 2 + DLC
Pieced Together (demo)
Confidential Killings (demo)
Leaf Blower Co. (demo)
Currently playing: The Gardens Between, Glass Masquerade 3
As I try to work through some of the free games I picked up from Epic Games Store, I ended up replaying Monument Valley 1 and 2 which were games I loved playing on mobile so wanted to give it a go on PC. Plus, its a visually minimalistic yet beautiful puzzle game which ticks all those boxes I needed to play for relaxation. PC plays as well as mobile so it was a great revisit.
Steam Game Fest also happened which means lots of demos to play and not enough time to try it all so I got through three of them. Leaf Blower Co is probably the easiest game to talk about as its just like most of the simulation games except this one is about blowing leaves. Surprisingly relaxing to do especially since the demo unlocked a few other tools to use. I’m not sure it has quite the satisfaction of games like Power Wash Simulator but its similar to it.
Confidential Killings and Pieced Together is a similar type of game where its about piecing together things in different contexts and in different mechanics. Confidential Killings is focused on investigation where its about looking through clues, picking up certain key words and then using those pieces to put together the deduction of what happened. On the other hand, Pieced Together is a cozy scrapbooking game where you flip through and piece together someone’s scrapbook as they go through their memories. All these game demos are still available on Steam if you want to give it a go.
While the direction of Music Obsessions is going to take in 2026 is still undecided, its time for the annual Spotify Wrapped share. I’m always excited to share this since its always a fun time since they always add some new twist. Like this year, I realized, I listened to music pretty much that matched my own age. I always thought I listened to older music but apparently, that’s not the case. While I am surprised that some songs didn’t quite make it there but its pretty fun to see some unexpected songs on this list especially the game soundtrack although.
Let’s start with some of the stats:
Listened 10,187 minutes
Top Genres: C-pop, Cantopop, Soundtrack, K-pop, Rap
Listening age: 38
Listened to 966 songs
Listened to 504 artists
Top 5 Artists: Justin Lo, David Tao, JJ Lin, Eason Chan, Leehom Wang
Cloud State Society
Repeat-Heavy Day: March 28 The day you built a carousel of Cantopop and C-pop repeats
Most Energetic Day: May 10 The day you let K-pop, C-pop and game soundtracks power a 60-minute sprint
Most Nostalgic Day: Sep 18 The day you “ironic” and “Changer” time-travel your afternoon
Biggest Music listening Day: Nov 3 The day you let Cantopop and C-pop run the full playlist marathon
跳楼机 Jumping Machine – LBI
單車 Bicycle – Eason Chan
被人- Joker Xue
Soda Pop
Spider Queen’s Song – Tone (from “Figment” Game Soundtrack)
As an ending song pick, the song I thought might make it but didn’t is this one:
Julie – Thome
2025 has been an exciting year. While Music Obsessions has been a really fun outlet for the most part, the focus on the singers and their bios did end up taking a toll and taking more time than I had anticipated, not to mention digging up some news from some singers that I didn’t expect to find since I don’t follow Asian entertainment news nowadays. With that said, as the end of the year comes by, I doubt that I’ll be ending this segment as it is a lot of fun but might find another format to do it next year to keep it going every month in a more feasible way for the limited blogging time I now have.
Thanks for everyone that’s followed this segment and hopefully I’ll see you next year regardless of a new format or just a more freestyle way of approaching it as I continue to share music that I love.
With that said, if you use Spotify, how did your Spotify Wrapped go?
A look back at the women who disappeared from New York City and Long Island before the 2010 discovery of female remains found in the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island, which lead authorities to believe the deaths were all connected. – IMDB
With any crime documentary series, its always interesting to see how certain events unraveled. With this one, its intriguing because it starts off as one case that actually verges off into something else that seems much bigger. However, its how things sometimes are when
Netflix documentaries are always something of a mixed bag. Gone Girls is one that caught my attention because of its name similar to a book that I love Gone Girl which made me want to see what its about. The documentary centered around the disappearance of a young girl which eventually led to finding the multiple bodies in an area that was suspected to be connected. While the documentary spent a lot of time unearthing all the other connected murders and who could be involved, it circles back to its start and addresses the cold case at hand which still has a lot of unanswered questions and suspicions.
Gone Girls is a pretty decent look at this case which focuses on the unfortunate women who are forgotten because of their profession that has distanced them from their own families. There’s been a few documentaries on Netflix that does go into that angle. I don’t really want to go deep into this since its well worth a watch especially on how the case unfurls.
Sisters Who Make Waves 乘风2025 (Season 6, 2025)
Sister Who Make Waves is a show that invites successful female figures from all walks of life who are 30 and above to break out of their comfort zones to create memorable performances while being in competition to stay in the show based on audience voting.
While I haven’t watched the first few seasons, the last season introduced an international element that I thought really made me want to keep going. I usually watch these things based on the celebrities that I like to watch and the same goes for this season as they included veteran Hong Kong actress Cecilia Yip and Sheren Tang but also have younger faces like comedy duo Zhang Xiao Wan and Guan Yue as well as a few familiar faces from TV series in recent years like ex-Rocket Girl 101 Wu Xuan Yi. I think I’m the minority but I actually wanted to see this for a less popular choice, Jiang Yi Qiao, a talented singer songwriter that I think doesn’t get enough credit.
For what its worth, the show actually managed to put together a really interesting group that had a lot of space for growth. There was no doubt that Cecilia Boey’s group would be a highlight with her great girl group skills. This group also having some fun surprises but all the groups unlocked a lot of potential from celebrities that haven’t been in the public eye as much due to family or whatever other reason.
In a world where girl groups and boy groups are all the rage, this show (and the male version Call Me By Fire) highlights the attractiveness of being 30 and over which maybe its my age right now but I appreciate what this whole show represents.
I’m The Surprise 我是隐藏款 (Season 1, 2025)
Thirty innovative “designer toy” creators bring their original IPs to the show, teaming up with six celebrities to form three studios. Through a series of themed creations, they closely collaborate and continually challenge themselves in creativity and design. Using painting as their artistic language, they witness the “72 transformations of IP,” infusing these trendy emerging IPs with vibrant artistic value. This journey also brings domestic “hidden gem” original IPs and talented designers into the spotlight. – MyDramaList
As blind boxes have become a rather permanent wave in the younger community, I’m A Surprise strives to highlight Chinese designers with their original IPs which different degrees of popularity. They focus on three pairs of celebrities who start the show putting their allocated show’s currency to invest in different designs to build their teams and then set them on various challenges and after its main challenge, having to eliminate their own team to start the next phase of challenges to eventually find the top one based on audience vote from both live, the “big bosses” (the group of collectibles experts) and online voting.
The whole show is a refreshing take on new material. Its one of the things that have given Youku a facelift recently the last few years as it starts to build these trendy shows. However, unlike other shows like dating or whatnot, collectibles are incredibly subjective to all kinds of preferences from the style to the color to the purpose to its emotional value and having the actual designers sell the toys along with different celebrity teams with their own different level of popularity plus normally some skewed “professional” opinion, its hard to not feel like sometimes things don’t quite go the way it should go.
Not to mention some of these designs have had incredible following online so its not weird that the competition while supposed to be locked into secrecy, still get leaked through their various live streaming promotions. Whether its fair or not, in the end, truly depends on an individual’s view. For myself, who is quite an oddball when it comes to collectibles, actually liked a lot of the lesser loved properties. Although to be fair, the designer team that won did deserve it since their design did prove to be very adaptable to all the themes.
With that said, it was a pretty fun show overall. I do hope to see a second season but maybe with a few added rules to keep it more balanced and fair on the entire process for each of the teams whether its budgets or other elements.
Clarkson’s Farm (Season 1-4)
I honestly never thought I’d sit around watching Jeremy Clarkson run a farm. I liked Top Gear and Grand Tour and watched it every once in a while especially for the Top Gear specials but to actually be watching four seasons of Clarkson’s Farm was unexpected but my husband’s love of this and the few times I’ve watched it gave me the push to check out and see why he liked it so much.
To say the least, it was a surprisingly an enlightening experience. Every season has a different endeavor and added a different twist because of the challenges and it would seem since he’s started the Diddly Squat Farm there’s been mostly challenges because of both inexperience, natural and environment extremities and the town council being a hurdle in itself. The first season had a fun and basic one like wilding which I personally enjoyed since I’m kind of in a similar task for my garden so its on a smaller level. Its just a quick example of how some of it is rather educational or maybe just partially learning as Clarkson’s Farm makes their own mistakes but also as he learns about the various aspects of farming.
Watching a farming show like this does have its purpose to spread some great knowledge about the importance and difficulties in this crucial industry in a more entertaining way. I was also skeptical when I started but it has been a pretty fun time between the silly decisions and the banter.
Its taken months since I started up Singing In The Forest but I finally found the book again and finished it up. In reality, its a bit of a short poetry sort of deal but sets it in a whimsical world of fairy tales and magical creatures of sorts while also having a little poems about the discoveries in the world sometimes commenting on the mundanities and oddities. Its an odd book to dive into at first but as the little poems and scenarios build up along with the charming illustrations, it does have a deeper message in each one that makes you think a little. It is very much in the same concept as Jimmy Liao’s other books like Pourquoi.
I’d say that September was a pretty colorful month. There’s a bunch of awesome viewings, mostly recommendations from my podcast co-host and the Oh My Horror picks have also been incredibly good as well. While I worked through some Crave and Paramount Plus titles as their subs came to an end, it was full of surprises. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was a film that felt like it kept turning up the story that it was more captivating as it went along. Pee-Wee As Himself was surprisingly enlightening even for myself who didn’t grow up watching Pee-Wee Herman. Paul Reubens is fascinating person to watch on screen. Same goes for Jagged which dove into Alanis Morrisette’s way to fame. The Last Showgirl had a wonderful cast and the entire cast and the story itself really delivered even down to a supporting role for Dave Bautista which I thought was brilliant.
Of course, there’s also Final Destination Bloodlines that I would’ve got to eventually since I like the franchise and while I didn’t watch the one before it, this one really did bring it home as it gave a final explanation of why all this stuff is happening and why its happening to all those people in the previous films and why they got chosen. Companion was probably the standout recommendation even though I figured out what the deal of the film was, there were so many great moments and shock elements that pulls the film together to be a wonderful horror film experience. Finally, we have Casa Bonita Mi Amor which was a fun documentary as you watched the South Park creators go a little crazy as they realized the ditch they dug themselves into by taking on what was supposed to be easy fix-up of Casa Bonita but turned out to be a huge financial undertaking.
Oh My Horror has some great categories and I was able to finally watch Les Affamés, a French-Canadian zombie film which was really good and had some effective horror scenes. Last year’s Phantom of the Opera made me quite hopeful for this year’s pick for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1920 and a German silent film which I have to say has some incredible visuals and so much fun to watch. I might try to squeeze a few more of these 1920s films. Much like Dark Night of the Scarecrow which we went in picking it randomly and it turned out to be an amazing 1980s horror film, which says a lot because I’m not a huge fan of the 80s horrors for the most part (not the main classics but in general they don’t quite get me in the horror department). There is one more horror film here in this month for the challenge but I’m only halfway done but its a good one so far.
I’m not going to go through the whole list but some other titles which were random solo viewings that I thought was pretty fun and worth a mention is Death of a Unicorn, Heathers (yes, its my first time watching it), and Winter Spring Summer or Fall which had some great romance chemistry going on there.
Currently watching: Great Escape S7, The Singer 2025, Run For Time 2025, Deep Affection Eyes, Sullivan’s Crossing S2, My Life With The Walter Boys S2, Mobius, Call Me By Fire
September was a decent TV watching month with some great discoveries. Twisted Metal Season 2 was a great follow-up to Season 1 and still shows how it was incorporated really great with the premise of the video game but still keeping it a good balance between action and comedy. While the Season 2 of Wednesday had its second part to wrap up the season and it took some pretty wild directions like the body swap episode but while it was entertaining for the most part, it felt like it didn’t have as good of direction and pacing than the first season, probably because the focus flies a little all over the place with more characters to manage and multiple subplots to work through even if the last few episodes do pull it together.
The Chinese Restaurant Season 9 being the first season that I saw of this show had an ensemble that I liked plus it was set in Morocco which made it a pretty neat viewing experience as a whole. Maybe I might even go back and check out some of the previous seasons. As we step away from the Chinese series, I’m trying to focus a little attention all those documentaries and Korean series which brings me to first When The Phone Rings which is a decent series even if a lot of times it feels like a big budget short drama type of content. It does have a good pacing with its reveals although the ending feels a little underwhelming. For documentaries, I watched Amy Bradley Is Missing which is an interesting case to say the least and as I go from Poop Cruise last month to this documentary this month, it doesn’t making going for a southern cruise very appealing.
Finally, the big discovery of this month was The Residence which I absolutely loved. There’s so much potential to build on the Cordelia Cupp character like what Rian Johnson has done for Benoit Blanc but from what I’ve read, its a limited series so probably no more follow-up. Either way, it was such a great cast and some fantastic little twists. Uzo Aduba does such a quirky and fun take on this character especially when paired with Randall Park.
GAMES
Strange Horticulture
Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
Currently playing: Hidden Folks (replay), Monument Valley (replay)
I’ve been having a really fun time diving into all the free games I’ve picked up on Epic Games. Strange Horticulture really lived up to expectation and possibly exceeded it being a much deeper experience in both story and game mechanics. I won’t talk too much about it but it’ll be in an upcoming episode of Game Warp. Next game I played was Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery which I’ve heard really great things especially for its feeling of playing a Studio Ghibli movie and it absolutely lives up to the feeling. The game itself isn’t very long at around 2 hours of play time but it incorporates a lot of art puzzles focusing on colors and such. Its a charming story overall and the soundtrack is absolutely wonderful. Below is a song preview that I love the most:
Valeria has long dreamed about becoming a mother. After learning that she’s pregnant, she expects to feel happy, yet something’s off. – IMDB
The directorial debut of Michelle Garza Cervera sets itself around a psychological and supernatural body horror film which follows a woman through her pregnancy as she slowly realizes that she has been possessed by some unknown entity who is starting to make everyone around her believe that she is going crazy and unsuitable to be a mother. In some ways, the film takes the fears of pregnancy and motherhood into a disturbing horror in this Mexican-Peruvian film.
Mexican horror films has delivered some interesting horror films in my viewing experience from films like Tigers Are Not Afraid to odder but unique experiences like The Untamed to straight out horror comedies like MexZombies, Huesera: The Bone Woman takes on a completely different element as it dives into possession and pregnancy. The story itself has the undertone of the psychological toll of women during pregnancy which is what is explained during the film from the many horrifying visions that she seems to be getting throughout the film. The atmosphere and the visual elements of the film are its definite strong points. The sound effects focusing heavily on sound cues from bone cracking which plays well to the film’s subtitle as well as the main character Valeria’s nervous habit of cracking her knuckles and bones.
While the film starts strong to set up the stage, it does space out the horror moments throughout the film to give space to lay out the progression of the pregnancy and some of Valeria’s past to build up her character especially through the dialogue with the family and friends around her. In some ways, the dialogue bring on another element of pressure that could be symbolizing the negative views which create a deeper fear in her pregnancy and upcoming task of being a mother. This element shines the best in the film as her self-doubt is what creates the weakness for this possession to happen in the first place. In some ways, there is a certain level of emotional manipulation to help build up this character that we can sympathize with but quickly shatter it in much more traumatic scene that confirms how this situation has made Valeria a danger to the ones around her. Its a good use of the buildup for that scene (you know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen it) but on a personal level, its also what made this film a lot harder to watch especially after having a child. Child endangerment just doesn’t quite hit the same way.
If there was something to criticize here, its the pacing of the film that sometimes feels like there are moments where the slow burn element focuses on building up certain things that don’t really have any purpose in the end. Some characters are there merely to fulfill a certain means to an end. At the same time, the horror element of this film sometimes seems a little lacking to keep it an intriguing horror experience even though when the horror is on screen, it is well-executed.
Overall, Huesera: The Bone Woman is a slow-paced and more of a psychological horror than body horror film in my opinion. The horror itself is stronger when its portraying of the pregnancy fear rather than the actual possession bits. It has some little issues of pacing but overall, the film experience is good. However, if you do have issues with baby endangerment, it might be one to avoid. As a sidenote, I need to do more research on this as apparently this is what destroys me nowadays. I’m starting to realize it limits a lot of horror film selections.
Tranquil Dreams 