bethgstories

Pheromones are similar to hormones but work outside of the body. They induce activity in other individuals, such as sexual arousal .  Yep, I had to Google the thing because I think I’ve never seen this word before. I stumbled upon this drama in my constant search for a short, light, and toe-curling series that could be marathoned on a lazy Saturday evening. Indeed, Watashi no Shite Kurenai Pheromone Kareshi (My Pheromone Boyfriend Who Won’t Do It) gave me something short and sweet, enough to get me rolling on the bed but not too light because we all know human relationships are complex, romantic, or otherwise. The meet-cute Mizukawa Rei ( Shimazaki Haruka ) is my spirit animal. The girl is thirty and has a promising career in the real estate industry, but she chose to leave everything behind and embark on an art subscription business with two of her friends. Years ago, people would think that no one in their right mind would choose to restart a career when they were thirty, stab...

When I say I sometimes like exploring the science fiction genre, I mean a 400-year-old alien looking like a 25-year-old tsundere professor falling in love with her celebrity neighbor. Parallel universes are okay, but only within the Kingdom of Corea and Seoul. I didn’t have to listen to how it works. But somehow, To Every You I’ve Loved Before and To Me, The One Who Loved You explained what a parallel universe is and my brain could only contain so much geeky science stuff. The two movies don’t have to be watched chronologically, you’d just get a different ending depending on which movie you saw first.  And that got me curious.  So Nicole and I watched the movies simultaneously, me seeing To Every You I’ve Loved Before first, and this is my experience.  What is it about Our main guy is Koyomi Takasaki , whose first huge life decision happened when he was seven. His parents were divorcing and he had to choose with whom he is going to live. In the first movie I saw, he c...

Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers ahead! This book is supposedly part of my Holy Week creative reset , but there were other things that I needed to prioritize during that period (like scrolling mindlessly through Tiktok) so I just finished reading it last night. All The Lovers In The Night is the first Mieko Kawakami book I've read, and it heavily reminded me of my life currently Strange  Weather In Tokyo written by another Kawakami (Hiromi) . It is a character-based story, quite a bit dragging if you're a fast-paced-let's-get-it-on type of reader but nonetheless a fun, entertaining, and insightful read.  I was a proofreader, spending every moment of my day, from morning to night, hunting for mistakes. - Fuyuko  Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copyeditor who lives all by herself in a place where new relationships aren’t easy to establish. She spends most of her days working on manuscripts and corresponding with her editor, Hijiri. Later on, she adds getting drunk to the rou...

Spoilers ahead. You've been warned.  The creative reset I did over the long weekend has definitely ignited my passion for all things art once again. So much so that I wanted to marathon this year's Summer Metro Manila Film Festival (I had no idea this is a thing now as it always happens in December). Anyway, we have time on Tuesday mornings to do whatever's not on our work task list so Kim and I went to the cinema to see Bela Padilla 's Yung Libro Sa Napanuod Ko. What the story is about The movie is about Lisa ( Bela Padilla ), a young woman living alone who likes watching Kdrama. She's also a book writer, but until now I am still wondering what she does for a living to be able to afford a decent-looking apartment in the Philippines and to be able to stay for more than 50 days in South Korea. It might be good to know because I am totally down to shifting careers. Then there's Kim Gunhoo ( Yoo Min-gon ), the nice Korean guy who introduces himself as a fan of Li...

Again, manga is never on my list of interests, but this one persistently lured me.  So yes, I left my bed on a Saturday midmorning to finish this thing that same day I started it. 17 chapters after, here I am wishing there was some sort of an anime version, or a dorama version starring Dori Sakurada as Keiichirou-san. I identify as a hopeless romantic sapiosexual and nothing else is more toe-curling that a smut story of 2 innocent virgins exploring how making love works while at the same time geeking out on how marsupials and amphibian vertebrates attempt to impress their mates, or which flowers represent passion, or how sea cucumber survived for 600 million years without brain, heart, and even lungs. Oh damn, I’d love to have that kind of late-night conversation while curled up in Kim Junmyeon ’s arms , wrapped in a blanket like a cocoon. East Asian stories create male characters that are too good to be true - drop-dead handsome, extremely considerate, and accommodating toward...