Liebster Award – Reincarnations

lemonmirae: Is that a prince?
Blue: Is that Yoo-chunnie?!
Kwon Sang Seung (rushing to his exam venue in the background): Nope. That’s the blogger we nominated for awards in our previous lifetimes.
lemonmirae and blue: …..

Hee. That was actually inspired by Blue’s humorous opening in her response to the Sunshine Award. My apologies for this very late series of responses to the remaining 50 questions and for dragging Crown Prince Yi Gak (for those new to Korean dramas, that’s the time-traveling character from Rooftop Prince) into the picture. I meant to answer Kwon Sang Seung’s questions first but since he’s busy with examinations at the time of writing, I shall put lemonmirae’s ahead of the queue instead of distracting him. Congratulations, all three of you, anyway for netting so many nominations!

As usual, I am going along with the first version of the Liebster Award rules I have received. In CapriquariusMei’s words, they are:

• Each nominee must have under 200 followers
• Thank and link to the nominating blog
• Answer their 10 questions and propose 10 new ones for your nominees
• Nominate 10 blogs and tell them that they’ve been nominated
• Write a post containing the questions
• Include these rules in the post

lemonmirae‘s questions:

1.What was the first drama you watched and how you ended up watching it? I want to see if I’m the only one who can’t remember the first drama I’ve watched so I’ve copied hanakimi91

Stairway to Heaven. Now that I recall, K-dramas were philosophically intriguing right from the start. To this date, I’m still thinking about the question: does a person who goes to the extremes for his beloved really love her more than someone who does not? What’s your opinion?

2. Currently I’m watching just two dramas, one Korean and one Taiwanesse, what are you watching? Maybe recommend me something.

Mask!!! Skip episodes four to nine, though, especially if you share my dislike of doormat characters. Besides, those six episodes just dance around the same points.

3. Do you watch just Korean dramas or you watch other countries dramas also? If you do what are those?

The usual suspects among K-drama watchers: US, Japan, China, Taiwan, etc.

4. Have you watched any Asian movies? What movies?

Mainly animal (?) movies: A Werewolf Boy, Ten Promises to My Dog, Couching Tiger Hidden Dragon, etc. (But animals sometimes behave with more dignity than Man.)

I generally prefer Western productions when it comes to movies though.

5.What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

A 48-hour day. For us double-life bloggers.

6.Would you like to be famous? In what way?

No. Unless fame can somehow safeguard the people, things and causes I support. That’s why I prefer this site to be about the topics I discuss, rather than about me.

7.If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

I have mentioned shapeshifting, which was featured in Jeon Woo-chi, in my reply to CapriquariusMei. For the moment, though, I want his self-cloning ability. My imaginary blog warehouse is in need of a gigantic army of co-bloggers! Anyone keen to guest write an entry on the philosophy of food or architecture in dramas?

8.Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

I was reminded of this series of dreams when I read mimi’s reply to question four by kfangurl here. When I was younger and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I wanted to set up a restaurant for X, a florist shop for Y, a pet store for Z, etc. Recall the first 20 minutes of Up to see why none of them materialized. Hopefully, mimi will achieve hers.

9.What does friendship mean to you?

10. Do you have any embarrassing moments to share with me?

Encountering a K-drama actor on one fine sunny day and … [the omnipresent script fairy insists on inserting a compulsory amnesia trope here] …

11.What was the most emotional drama you saw?

The Legend.

(SPOILERS ahead)

Your admirer hurled your newborn son down a cliff. You were forced to shoot at the (deranged) mother of your child to save the world—in two lifetimes. Your best-friend-turned-sworn-enemy understood you only at the very last second of his life. Your loyal aide, the lovelorn Blue Dragon, roamed the sky while looking down at the woman you loved.

Then the drama extended behind the scenes: A horseback accident happened, presumably cutting short the career of the top Hallyu star. The director could not pay off his debt and, one television production later, got summoned for investigation, divorced his wife probably to spare her from the ramifications, and committed suicide. Apparently, incidents of these kinds were not the first and may not be the last (see: Maids) in the industry’s history.

The most emotional drama is not necessarily the best drama, but there may be nothing inherently wrong in going for the theatrics either. But when melodrama becomes nearly slice-of-life off-screen, something somewhere must change to stop the cycle. 

My next nominees are:

7. Paper Mirror (Poems inspired by Korean dramas and other media)

8. Fragment d’étoile (Book and drama reviews in French, non-French speakers can look out for English quotations of lines from Korean dramas like this one from Orange Marmalade, which I highly recommend even if you are not into Asian dramas.)

My questions:

1. A golden sunset, the starry heavens, or a starless night sky?

2. Which literary or screen figures have been most like sunlight to you?

3. Which real-life figures have been most like sunlight to you?

4. What is the first word someone says to you in the morning and what is the first word you utter in the morning? (This is a question I’ve asked before, but since I’m quite curious about the answer, I’m posing it again.)

5. A small glint of golden light is emitting from a window at the top of a tall tower. Another is peeking out from underneath a pebble. Yet another comes from the iris of a woman’s eye. One more beckons to you from the bottom of a lagoon. A final one zips past you from the glittery feathers of a swallow darting by. If you must follow one, which source of light do you go after?

6. If there is a novel or drama titled That Autumn, The Sun Slept, what do you imagine it to be about? (And for drama lovers, who do you hope will be the leads?)

7. Do you prefer serving your blog sunny-side up, over light, over medium, over well or over hard?

8. The times of sunrise and sunset can be calculated through the following equation:

cos(ω_o) = -tan(φ)×tan(δ)

where ω_o is the hour angle at either sunrise (negative value) or sunset (positive value), φ is the latitude, and δ is the sun declination. All variables are in degrees.

If success or a significant other were a sun, what do you think the equation for the start and end of a challenge or relationship would be like?

9. What is the greatest source of hope you see in the current global conflicts?

10. Who has been the greatest influence behind your blog?

Again, while I’m interested to know what you think, there is no pressure to answer the questions or in any way respond to the nominations. If a question is too time-consuming, you are welcome to skip it.

Thanks for reading and check back for the last two Liebster Award nominees in around two weeks’ time.

[Published on July 2, 2015.]