Misc Reviews

These drama were on my review list because I was indeed watching them.  However, something happen and I just didn’t bother to finish them at all.  Therefore, my rating for these shows might not be very accurate…

Honey and Clover

This is a pretty good representation of the story.  The original story was in a comic book format which ran successfully for many years and even won an award for the creator.  It was later adapted into two successful animated series in Japan.  Following the animation was a movie, and finally this drama adaptation.  As you can see, this is a story that has been repackaged many times.  I myself have seen the cartoons and the movie before watching the drama, so I already knew everything.  The drama was pretty fun at the beginning but it was like watching a movie I’ve already seen a million times before.  Yes, I like the story.  Yes, I like the characters, but I also already knew what’s about to happen next.  So I couldn’t force myself to see the story unfolds again.  However, for anyone who isn’t familiar with this story, the drama is a good choice.

Overall Rating: A-

Romantic Princess

This is a Taiwanese drama but is adapted from a Japanese graphic novel.  The show’s main drawing point is…pretty people.  Handsome males and cute girls are prevalent throughout the show but nothing really jumps out at you.  The story has some interesting points though.  Such as, would you rather be an unhappy, rich person or a poor person with a free lifestyle?  This point, however, is too extreme for me to believe.  I mean, poor people aren’t always happy.  How can they when there’s no food on the table?  Rich people aren’t always evil and depress…are they?  But my main problem was how the characters were interacting.  Seeing how this was an idol-drama, acting wasn’t really the main drawing point to begin with.  After awhile, I was too bored with everything.

Overall Rating: C

Midterms are coming

By the time you all can see this post, I would have taken my second midterm, tons of quizzes, art designs that are due, and watch a play for my Theatre class. I hope you guys will have a better week. Well, at least I have my dramas and movies. I haven’t seen much because of studying as you can imagine, but what I’ve seen are pretty good thus far.

1. Honey and Clover – I’ve only seen two episodes of the show so far but they’ve been very entertaining. The director was able to create the same atmosphere as the anime which was something the movie could not do. The mixed feelings of calmness and erratic are a constant presence. College life is placid in its daily activities, but it becomes something else once you realize your future goal is almost reached. Working toward your future while figuring out your life and what you’ll do with it is what this show is about. Some choose to build their future around their lovers, some already has a bright future ahead of them, and some are trying their best to have a future. All this and funny moments of college life. Nothing better.
2. Howl’s Moving Castle – This is yet another Japanese animated movie. It is based on a novel by the same name and is suppose to be the prequel to Castle in the Sky. Same director as Spirted Away. All three movies I just mentioned are all really great, but I would say Spirted Away is first and Howl’s Moving Castle would be in second. It has a greater array of characters, but the storyline can be a little confusing. The message of film can also be a little unclear, but it is there nontheless.
3. Taiyou no Uta – This is Japanese film whose title translates to “Song of the Sun.” From what I’ve read, it’s about a girl with a skin disease and can not be exposed to the sun. Thus, she sleeps during the day and gets up a night. Her means of connecting to the outside world is through singing where she sings every night. Through this she meets a fellow teen who loves to surf at dawn (when it’s still dark?). I’m not really sure what’ll happen next. Girl gets a recording contract? Boy gives girl the courage to face the sun? Some sort of surgery to cure? I don’t know, but that’s why I want to watch it.
4. Bambino – Yet another Japanese drama starring Jun Matsumoto. He really is a great actor so I wasn’t surprise when I saw that he was the lead. This was recommended to me by a commentor of this blog. I had mistaken it as some sort of action flick for Stallone, but was fortunately proven incorrect. The title sure is familiar for some reason… It’s about the world of cooking which is completely opposite of what I had in mind originally. Action…..cooking…..well, I guess……no. I still haven’t seen it yet, but since I’m writing about it now I will watch it soon.

So that’s the list of seen and will see so far. Hopefully, I can free up some time to watch something. Until then, cheerio!

p.s. I see that I have lots of visitors from Europe (something I didn’t expect). Nice to meet you!

Drama Talk

For today, I’d like to take a break from reviewing and just…talk. First, I hope everyone’s enjoying the posting schedule. It’s a lot easier for me because I can write while I’m free at school or at home and Timestamp it. Then a post will miraculously appear on the day that I want it to so I can write in advance and not actually write for many days. Likewise, I think or hope that you all will like this as well. Personally, whenever I like a blog and view it regularly, I hope to see a new post everytime I visit. So with this schedule, at least you’ll know there’ll be a post every Friday. Okay, enough of that. To the drama!

Second, I have to admit that I’ve been watching a lot more Jdrama than anything else. Coffee Prince was the only Kdrama that I saw last year and actually finish. Jdrama just has a lot more storylines to choose from and I really like the Japanese humor. Of course I’m always looking for great drama no matter which Asian countries it comes from, but lately there seems to be a lot more creativity coming from Japan. I’m excited about Honey and Clover and had just saw the first episode of it. I really like it, but the actress who plays Hagu is a bit…out of character. She smiles a lot and Hagu hardly smiles. It’s also weird because I had seen her previously in One Litre of Tears where she played a very strong character. Also looking forward to Shun Oguri’s new drama. See? So much Jdrama! However, I am very much anticipating a Kmovie called Hanzel and Gretel. It’s actually a scary movie so I’m interested to see how they’ve turned this fabel into a scary movie.

Also, this year will the year of Asian remake movies. I believe The Eyes is already out starring Jessica Alba as a woman who can see people dying with her transplanted eyes. This is a remake of a Korean movie. A remake of my FAVORITE movie of all time is also coming out: My Sassy Girl. Since it’s my favorite, I am indeed going to see it and later rip it apart on this very blog. Stay tune. On a related note, the actress in My Sassy Girl, Jun Ji-hyun, had just completed her first US debut movie. She plays in a vampire or a vampire hunter (forgot) in an action flick coming out this summer. I’m gonna watch it too, even though I don’t like vampires, but for Jun Ji-hyun I will.

So there you have it. Expect lots of Jdrama to come and rants about Asian movie remakes. I’ll leave you now with a great little video made with images from Windstruck.
NOTE:  Don’t watch this video if you haven’t seen the movie yet!  Spoiler images ABOUND.

Song by Breaking Benjamin