Open Thread #82
May 8th, 2009 // by javabeans
I happened to think of Cibo Matto this week, which made me think of how much I loved their video for this song, “Sugar Water,” which has got to be one of Michel Gondry’s masterworks. You don’t really understand what’s happening until halfway through, but when you do, it’s like mind = blown.
SONG OF THE DAY
Cibo Matto – “Sugar Water” [ Download ]
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Been a weird weather day here in London. Bouts of rain and now sunshine. Heard Lee Min-ho might be in town for a photo shoot. Hope it’s not outdoors
Have finally finished Cain & Abel. Not sure what to make of the ending. All I know is that I don’t need to watch it again.
Have been enjoying Job Well Done. I really like the two main characters.
Have a good weekend all.
Cibo Matta is amazing. I will always remember ‘Sugar Water’ from that Buffy episode. It’s a also a really sexy song that I’ve yet to play during my ’sexytimes’. But it is on my ’sexytimes’ soundtrack.
I got my plane ticket to Spain!
So excited. I haven’t been there since I was 16 and I didn’t really appreciate the sights then so I’m definitely planning to take advantage of my camera (dirty, dirty!) and snapping lots of pics. It sad that I’ll only be there for a week though.
How’s everyone doing? I don’t have any interesting or thought provoking questions this week so hopefully someone brings one up and I can watch the comments fly by!
Love Michel Gondry’s videos. The one with the choreographed dancing of different people acting as different instruments (can’t remember the title) is cool, too. Kids are fascinated by it.
Mmm…home-roasted Yemen….now I can start waking up.
Just completed my registration for the Fall semester. One of my courses is being taught by a reputable ass, but it works wonderfully in my schedule so I’m not quick to complain just yet.
@mishane
Enjoy Spain. I hear it’s lovely.
Does anyone know whatever happened to the second installment of the Boys over flower’s 5 years later thing?
Damn…it’s already Friday? My mind is still stuck in those 200+ posts of the last Open Thread….
Being skinny + Coffee overdose + Cold office = me shivering like a crack addict.
Not cool, office, not cool. Turn the heat on! I can barely type!
We’re watching Dal Ja’s Spring right now.
We are watching it slowly because my wife falls asleep around 11 p.m. now, which means we can only watch a maximum of two episodes per weekday night. That means that it will take 2 weeks to finish this drama or thereabouts. We are watching it slowly because wife really likes it and doesn’t like it when I fast forward through scenes. I like it too, but the story is not told from a gender-neutral standpoint and I feel a little bit like I’m being criticized as I watch it.
I am watching Temptation of Wife, sitting on the edge of the bed, after my wife goes to sleep. This story, although it is about a woman seeking cold revenge for the tragedies of her life that were caused by malicious and evil people, I feel like this story IS told from a gender-neutral standpoint. Even though one of the two very worst people in Temptation of Wife is a guy, I never feel like the guy is the problem. It is his awful character, his selfishness, his cowardice, his maliciousness, his pride and greed, that are the problems. And you can be male or female and be evil.
But with Dal Ja’s Spring, I have the feeling that I am being targeted, and when my wife says, “I really like this show,” then does part of her like it because she agrees with the drama’s indirect criticism of… me?
I will think on this a bit more, but Dal Ja’s Spring, as good as it is, is a little bit subversive, and somehow I feel like I am being made to be the scapegoat.
where do you get the music player? o.o
Yay – happy friday everyone!!!!
Dbeans – thank you so much for the love for Cibo Matto!!! I was first introduced to them in the first epidsode of season 2’s BtVS. I had to know who was singing at the Bronze and was blown away when I heard more stuff from them. Like all the great bands that I like, they’ve since disbanded:-(
As for drama’s – I was wondering. I have a large collection of Eng. subbed drama’s that I’ve purchased(the k-family video store that I buy them from actually just sell burned copies from the original box set) and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in exchanging?
hey everyone, happy friday. im excited for this weekend. tomo is the korean music festival @ the hollywood bowl which I will be going to for the first time. hopefully it will be good times. then its mother’s day when all restaurants will be crazy busy. hahah looking forward to it.
oh yeahh FRIDAY!! i plan on blowing my [read: my mom's] money on clothes tomorrow. ap test week is OVER. but the sad truth is that i have two korean tests, a physics test, and a major english test all within the first three days after the weekend. and i think i failed both my ap tests.
but i’m going shopping tomorrow!!! YAY
and that was one cool video… am still untwisting my pretzeled mind.
Amazing video. I’ve actually never heard much of Cibo Matto’s more chilled-out type stuff, I like it.
i must be dumb cuz i did not understand what was happening…
I watched the mv, but I still can’t understand what’s going. I know that one side is going forward and the other is going backward, but what’s the meaning of that? Can anyone explain?
@15, @16 -
The video is a dream told like a palindrome (you can watch it going forwards or backwards), working from both sides.
Basically, you can watch the story unfold from either point of view. Don’t watch them both at the same time. Watch one story, and then go back to the beginning of the video and watch the other story. That should give you a good idea of what’s going on.
One showers with water, the other showers with sugar.
Something I was wondering about today:
Is there a preference between a j-drama or k-drama (or a tw-drama)?
Is there something you get out of one that you don’t get out of the other?
I know that if I want heaver substance, more angsty I usually turn to kdrama.
If I want something cracky and light and fun, I turn to a jdrama. I haven’t yet watched a jdrama that is angsty though.
The production style is the same to me (one reason I can’t watch tw-drama’s that much is because their production is usually pretty bad. At least not as good as a k/jdrama).
Mindy Kaling (writer of and actress in The Office) just inked a 7 figure deal to write, produce, star in her own show. She will also be a comedy writer for other shows as well. I think this is the first time an Indian woman has gotten this kind of mega-deal on American TV!
I love her joke about online piracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcOdNc_seyM
I started watching Kdramas 2005 but not regularly compared to others in this blog. My interest was peeked again when i discovered dramabeans late 2007. Funny thing happened in the office sometime late last year when the global financial crises (GFC) started happening. I work in a hotel and about 20-30% of our market are Korean tourists, specially honeymooners market who always travel wearing matching clothes, the couples I mean. This is quite a funny sight at times because their get-up are sometimes quite tacky. I don’t know why this is prevalent on Korean couples only. My Korean staff usually says when she gets married she will never go on a honeymoon with his future husband wearing matching outfit.
There is this big Korean travel agency Hana Tours which have a 30 rms daily allotment in our hotel. Whether they have bookings or not, they pay for the rooms every week in advance. Thats not a problem because business was good. When the GFC hits the tourism industry, I noticed that the TA was having a hard time filling up their allotment. So sometimes they sell the rooms locally to other smaller Korean TA and if still they can’t sell enough they just let the Korean guides (illegal no complete working permits) use the rooms instead, at a lost for the TA.
As part of the hotel’s SOP we need a rooming list on the day of arrival. One time I was getting bored in our daily meetings and I happened to glance at the rooming list of one of the Korean groups. I noticed that half of the names of the “tour members/guests” were names of popular actors/actresses. Ex: Jang Dong Gun was sharing a room with Kim Tae Hee, etc.!! I am sure the Korean guide just invented the names so us to fill-up a rooming list that he can give to the Registration Agent. I was laughing alone and my seatmate was asking (who is clueless about Kdramas) what is so funny.
Sorry I was rambling, just thought I might share this. They have since not renewed their allotment with the hotel since March of this year, the TA I mean. Business is really bad.
It’s Friday! and am working!!!! Urg! am supposed to be lounging by now!
anyway, JAVA-B, Love the song. I havent heard of CobiMatto. Thanks to you, now i got to know. I have been learning so many things (kmusic, kdramas, some other interesting serious issues…) since i started checking out your site! THANK YOU JAVA-B!!! MMMWWAAHHH!
Am addicted to this site! This is like cup of tea in the morning, afternoon and night. Not to mention my bags of juicy news, humurous ranting and raving (like really LMAO), and sad news…
HAVE FUN EVERYONE!!!
I need some advice please.
I’m going to start watching the Drama Boys Over Flowers soon.
I’m really looking forward to it after reading all the hype on this site.
My question is: which way do you think I’ll enjoy the drama better:
- to go at a fast pace (4-5 episodes a day)
- or to take it more slowly (1-2 episodes a day)..
Thanks in advance ^__^
Yeah! Yet another long weekend!!! Monday’s off from school for me! KaChing!
Hmm… I’ve been writting a story and have been posting it online for some time now. I wonder if it’s really good at all. Oh wells. I do hope that someone can help me ‘dissect’ it to tell me the good, the bad and what needs to be improved… but… meh.
Hey! I was actually looking forward to Samsooki’s story telling! Are there anymore, PD Samsooki?
@18mishane
Jdramas and kdramas, I watch them both. As long as i see that the dramas or movies are interesting, i watch them. Kdramas tend to be more melodramatic than jdrama. Jdrama, seem to be reserved and conservative. But either way, as long as the dramas are good, theyll be on my list to watch.
Tdramas…., I think i watched 2-3 dramas. They tend to be very long!!!!And tend to prolong the series by doing nonsensical or cheesy scenes over and over again.
And, I still have to get use to the high-pitch chinese language.Production…. yeah, not really as good…
@22: Fast. With those really crappy parts (Which are quite a bit.) Hey! I just remembered something! BBF is showing in Singapopre this MAY! WooHoo!
tired, it sure has been a very long long greuling week.exhausted. when will there be a break? I guess when I read java’s recaps and blog.
It’s been hotter these days in southern Cali
But it’s nice 
I can’t bring myself to finish Boys Over Flowers. It seems like a chore -.- The show is so draggy (I’m on episode 21).
I can’t find any updates on when Jaejoong’s (from DBSK) little one episode thing is coming out
Do you know anything about it javabeans?
Have a good weekend ^.^
@22JadieLaw
I dont know how your habit of watching kdrama is. If youre having a busy day or night but still want to catch up on your BOF, you can try to watch 1-2 eps. But if youre not busy, why would you limit yourself to a certain number of eps? Are you afraid youre going to get hooked and wont be able to get off from watching?! Hehehe! I think everybody here experiences that, especially if the series is very interesting…
mmm, you know what, just make sure you dont have something important to do before watching a good kdrama! and oh, make sure you have your yummy snacks and comfy sofa and pillows, and a small soft stuffed toy(just incase you wana throw something at the screen later on)….
Have fun!!!!
@ 24 Meiko
I agree that Korean dramas tend to be a lot more melodramatic. Also, pretty predictable. I can usually watch 2-3 K-dramas in a row before I get tired of them and then I switch to a J-drama.
Actually, I try to watch a J-drama as I’m watching a K-drama, so I don’t get overwhelmed by either.
@29mishane
Really! dont you get confused with the scenes after awhile. I tried doing that a long time ago, and when i was trying to retell the kdrama story, i would now and then make a mistake by putting in some of the jdrama scenes that i was watching at that time too. ^-^ mmmm… but then i have such a bad memory! ^-^
When the scenes get too heavy, i would usually stop and browse the internet for awhile… like checking up what JavaB has put on her site…..or looking up some music….^-^
@18
I love jdramas for comedy and mysteries – can’t get enough mystery dramas! Loved Trickx3, Gokusenx3, Mop Girl, etc. They usually hit just the right balance between funny/drama, drama/mystery/resolution and sometimes they hint romance but its not the main focus. I haven’t found a romance jdrama that I can really like, let alone love. Hana Yori, Hana Kimi, all just fell flat to me.
So, if I’m in the mood for romance/drama/angst, I go Kdrama. The thing about kdramas, they all tend to be very romance focused. And while it can be great, sometimes it falls really really far from great. And the daily dramas tend to be really too idealistic/morally preachy for me. (The last one I watched was High as the Sky/Wide as the Earth and I thought to myself, WTH??? with the Hae Jin being pressured to donate marrow? kidney? to his biobrother by the mother who abandoned him and started a new life without him, or even mentioning him to her new husband. And the bio-uncle was incredibly jackassy!!!)
I like variety but, unfortunately, kdramas don’t fulfill that. The Devil, Mixed Up Inquiry Agency were two unusual & pleasant exceptions. One of the reasons why I will probably watch Story of a Man is because romance isn’t the main focus.
As for C-dramas…I admit that I don’t watch them that often because I find the language tones to be difficult to listen to at times. I got through Meteor Garden & Devil Beside You because there was a long stretch of time between the two.
Hey, all! Happy Fridaying! Agree with #1, London weather odder than normal, and that;s saying something. You’re hot then you’re cold, you’re yes then you’re no… I don’t know how to dress!!
Regarding k/j/tdramas~ too much of one type really does become overdose quite quickly/easily. Usually I watch more kdramas, esp if I want something romantic and cute. Jdramas are a lot more varied and less predictable which is a plus, but I get turned off by the typically dark colour palette, and often they’re too short to get fully immersed in it. And the recent thing about short dramas and then specials later is starting to bug me. Can’t we get closure for the damn series at the end of the series?? I gotta add, sometimes jdramas seem a little too polished. Twdramas are underappreciated~ the bad ones are bad, the good ones are absolutely fantastic. *shakes fist* I can’t believe people don’t like the Chinese tones! They’re so cute and expressive.
@18 “I haven’t yet watched a jdrama that is angsty though.”
Though not romantic angsty, these drama’s made me cry:
Tengoku no Daisuke e
Yuuki
1 Litre of Tears
@ 31 b020
You wrote a very interesting, spot on comment.
I still find it strange that I watch k-dramas. When it comes to books, I HATED romantic books. The only thing I ever read as a child and currently was mystery/suspense. I dislike romantic comedies and romance-based movies. So it’s weird that I watch k-dramas.
–The thing about kdramas, they all tend to be very romance focused.–
Yes, that’s so true. One of the reasons that I’m also enjoying Story Of A Man, because it’s not only romance focused. It’s part of the story but it gets pushed to the side for the main plot. The problem with romance focused dramas is that there’s only so far you can go. Which is why 16 episodes of pure romance-storyline just becomes. . . boring. I read javabeans recaps of A Stars Lover (without watching the show) and I could understand her frustration with it.
Another problem with romance focused storylines (and I’ll focus most of this problem on the Korean drama ones) is that the audience knows how it’s going to end up already. I mean, unless it has the angsty feel to it (and the main character dies), usually ALMOST POSITIVELY the main characters will end up together. Which, since there are SO MANY romance k-dramas, if the particular drama isn’t done differently, can just get boring. (Which is why I usually watch a couple of dramas at a time, because I can get bored with watching just a romance drama.)
@32xiahkixiri
“Twdramas are underappreciated~ the bad ones are bad, the good ones are absolutely fantastic. *shakes fist*”
LOL! Well, i did watch the meteor garden… and i like it… i like vic zhou!!!! I watched two more where he was also in it!
As for TW-dramas, I can’t really fit them into a category.
The first thing I notice about them is the SOMETIMES crappy production budget. Sorry, I’ve been spoiled with shiny TV shows and movies. If I can see the mike or there’s other noises when you speak, I’ll turn it off. That’s the main reason I couldn’t get through MARS or why I won’t watch Meteor Garden. It’s just too much of a distraction.
And the acting isn’t the best either. There’s a lot of overacting done in some of them and I attribute that to them hiring ‘idols’ instead of actual actors.
That said, Why Why Love is actually my number 2 favorite drama ever. It was sufficiently shiny, with pretty actors and the awesomest OTP ever.
@34 mishane
You are right. But there are quite handful of good non-romance kdrama-movies to watch too. ^-^ mmm… these are some that i have watched: The Devil, Time between a dog and wolf, Fate, Antique, DirtyCarnival, LeGrand Chef, Resurrection, …mmmm..hehe…actually most of them are movies…. but they are the kind that are not really mushy-mushy… you might like to watch some of these, if you havent watched it….
I also watch Historical dramas, so far, i havent seen any with too heavy(crying, blah here, blah there) or mushy scenes…
I just picked up two shows, tell me if I should invest, Get Karl! and Spring Waltz?
@samsookie
i understand…concerning DJS I mean. I watched the show last year and though I am not a guy, I was of the same mindset. Unlike Samsoon, I spent the majority of this show angry at the female lead for being a woman. It reminds me of American TV shows where i always hate the women and love the men. I don’t know what it is but I can never fully identify with them no matter how much I am supposed to.
Also my friend just watched this show and has decided that TaeBong is her ideal man…something to think about.
@Story of a Man viewers
Have you noticed the play on honesty, truth and the genuine in this show? Shin is blunt and to the point and Do-Woo is subtle and straight (but seemingly sneaky). They are characters that tell the truth the majority of the time. The great difference is the nature in which the truth is told. When Shin speaks its abrupt because his candor is rare but genuine, and good natured. In comparison, Do-Woo tells the truth as well and at times with more candor than expected but his delivery of truth is vastly different. Though he’s being honest, whether its with Shin, Jenny, Eun Soo or his dad, you never get the feeling that he’s being truthful. At times you think its a blatant fabrication or a ruse but if you listen, he’s actually relaying facts that are based in reality.(Now of course his character isn’t going to give all he has away but the only person from the list that I believe he purposely deceives [through words, not omissions] is Eun Soo and well…that’s another post!) To me this is something that is the most frightening and interesting about the characters. Makes me need to want watch and fascinates me the layers that are found in this show. An analytical mind’s dream!
@mishane
jdrama/ kdrama?
I usually i agree wholeheartedly but I just watched the first episode of M. Jun’s latest and I don’t think I’m going to be buckling over with laughter. There is no said “angst” but definitely tragedy and trials(emotional and literal). So there are hard hitting dramas in every genre. I think you just have to find them. I find the thing with K-drama is that no matter how funny, light and entertaining it is, there is going to be a sense of melancholy at some point. Something drastically tragic that will have you stunned for an ep or two.
Think that’s it for now.
Happy Friday…and praise God my Master’s is complete! I am finally done and ready to chill for (the rest of my life)…ok maybe just the summer:)
Boo!
Friday finally! My last day at my current job. Will be starting a new job on Monday. I’d better get caught up on my k-drama this weekend! I’m behind on Story of a Man but am currently up to date on That Fool (Six Months–so good!), daily drama Two Wives, & weekend drama Beautiful Legacy. I haven’t finished BBF either (just been reading Java’s recaps since ep 12). I decided to pass on City Hall & Cinderella Man. But maybe later when (if) I have free time I might try to watch them too….too may drama, too little time………
@36 mishane
“If I can see the mike or there’s other noises when you speak,… ”
LMAO!!!! I have seen a few fluffy microphones above the screen and it always made me laugh! And some additional sound effects too! ^-^ funny funny funny!
But I did watch the series of MARS….hehe!!!
“There’s a lot of overacting done in some of them…”
and high-pitched voices…sometimes its too much. ^-^
@38thisis…….
On Story of A Man…that’s a very good description, and you’re on the right note. ^-^ JavaB also said the similar thing… no wonder this series is interesting….DoWoo…very creepy….
OK, OFF TO WORK I GO…..Have fun peeps!
@ Meiko/mishane: LOL, am I just oblivious? I don’t think I’ve ever spotted any fluffy mikes!! =p *snigger* Yep, Meiko, I love Vic too, he’s gorrrrgeous. Although, mishane, I am slightly traumatised at the fact that you couldn’t get through Mars, I think it’s amazing. <3 And… I hated Why Why Love! It started off good but I detested it by the end. I know Devil Beside You was more cliched/overacted and whatnot, but I thought it was infinitely better. Not to mention, I adored how quickly they accepted their feelings and just got on with it. But, yeah. My first proper drama, so everything was sooo shiny.
Friday already? Wow, it feels like Wednesday. o.o
My grades for last semester: 3 A’s and a B. I’m really pleased, considering I expended less energy for those four classes than I have in any other semester. Now we’re in May term, so I only have one class to worry about!
My university has a weird sort of schedule where second semester ends in April, then we devote the month of May to one specific course. There are a lot of random things you can take.. In the past, I took Physics Of Sound and Cross-cultural Communication (US & Japan). This May, I’m taking a course on classical Indian dance. We’re learning the Kuchipudi dance form, which is tons of fun. However, I’ve realized that I’m not very flexible.. There’s no way I can do the half-sit (I think it’s a plie? I’ve never really danced before, so I’m not sure of the terminology) the way my professor can.
But anyway, we have a performance at the end of the month.. I think we’re doing a performance about Krishna and the gopis, which is good since there’s exactly one guy in the class. I’m really looking forward to wearing my costume and dancing on stage..
On the subject of dancing, a few friends and I have also decided to make it our personal project for May to master the dance for SNSD’s “Gee” (which is harder than it looks when you have to modify things to accommodate only four dancers). Then we’re probably going to move on to the “Thriller” dance, and then maybe DBSG’s “Mirotic.” We’ve finished learning about a third of “Gee” so far, which is good since we’ve only spent like four hours on it.
I started watching Brilliant Legacy/Shining Inheritance the other day. It’s pretty adorable, although not very deep at all. (I know this because I could understand most of it even unsubbed, and my command of the language really isn’t that extensive.) I’m still not quite sold on the idea of Lee Seung-gi being Primary Male, though. His character’s fine, but Lee Seung-gi always struck me as the adorable friend rather than leading man material. I am, however, mildly in love with Secondary Male, played rather adorably by Bae Soo Bin. I’ll gladly take him off the main girl’s hands if she doesn’t want him. :3 I’m still waiting to see how the still-living father plays into things, though. (He supposedly died in a fire, but he’s alive and well and is hiding out as a hobo for various reasons. And he totally ran into Secondary Male at a soup kitchen, which I can already tell is going to lead to magical things.)
Now I have to finish watching Which Star Are You From (one episode left! It’s also a lot better than I was expecting, although nowhere near perfect), 101st Proposal (Lee Moon Shik is adorable!), and Ms Kim’s Million Dollar Quest (which I’ve enjoyed but forgot about during finals week). I’m also downloading Winter Sonata at the moment, just to see what all the fuss is about. There’s got to be some reason all the Japanese housewives became so obsessed with Yoon-sama, right?
Oh May term.. I love this month so much, you have no idea. So much putzing and drama-watching to do! <3
And on the subject of Kdramas vs Jdramas.. I prefer Kdramas, because I like the culture more.
Also, even though I’ve taken three years of Japanese, I still find Korean easier to understand (with no formal Korean lessons). No idea why. *shrug*
@ mishane – My (now graduated) roommate’s going to Spain, too! I think she leaves tomorrow, and she and her friend are going to spend a couple of weeks floating around the country. I’m jealous.. I’ve never been anywhere. :/
I agree with alot of the people talking about TWdramas…
When the production is too cheap the whole drama just sucks. But the ones that aren’t cheap are actually some of the best dramas I have seen! For example:
It Started With a Kiss
Devil Beside You
Why Why Love
I love these dramas!!! And everyone have a great Friday
@ 42 xiahkixiri
Yeah, I watched the first 4 episodes of MARS but like I said, I couldn’t get through it. I do really think it was a combination of no real interest and the fact that it wasn’t, like I said, shiny, that did it for me.
You didn’t like Why Why Love? I thought it was SO much better than Devil Beside You. DBY was so cutesy and cliche’d that it annoyed me after a while (however I did a rewatch and I laughed more, it’s pretty cracky). I thought Rainie did so much better in WWL and I absolutely adored the relationship between her and Mike He in that one.
But I can’t say too many bad things about DBY because if I hadn’t seen that first, then I would never have seen WWL!
Give the new T-drama Black & White a try! I really love it, it’s unlike every other t-drama I have watched. It’s a cocktail of Tango & Cash, new Miami Vice and CSI with a spritzer of mystery/intrigue. And it has Vic Zhou, of course.
Ok, gotta ask. Has any of you watched A Frozen Flower? If so, did you like it? And speaking of movies whose plot may be more or less centered around BL, which Kmovie would you rec?
I asked this because I stumbled upon a few articles written by Huso Yi and…many things about Korean society and homosexuality clicked into place. It’s just so sad! Linkies: thegully.com/essays/asia/030306_lgbt_korea_huso_yi.html thegully.com/essays/asia/030320_homo_koreanus.html thegully.com/essays/asia/030606_korea_gay_rights.html thegully.com/essays/asia/031030_korea_gender_lgbt.html
@mishane Re: Jdorama or Kdramas?
I watch both (and I even tried a TW… Mars *coughs*) and I like them for different reasons. When I need my fix of romance, I turn to Kdramas…when I look for something a little more diverse, I turn to jdoramas, but all things considered, I really do prefer Kdramas
PS: My sis is in Spain right now. Wheeeeeeee
@Sarah. You rock my world! I loooooooove Gondry!
I think I’ve posted this a number of times, but it never showed up, nor did I get the message saying it was in the moderated queue. So, um, if you do get double posts, sorrysorrysorry!
I absolutely LOATHED It Started With A Kiss. And I don’t like saying that because I like to give dramas a chance and I hate giving absolutes.
But yeah. I couldn’t stand the female character, she got walked all over and for some reason the show/director/writers LOVED showing her as a stupid bumbling girl. I don’t mind female characters who aren’t smart as long as they can stand up for themselves or if they are strong in any way. But she was the weakest female character I’ve ever seen, who only lived for a jackass boy and had no backbone and UGH, I’m sorry I’m ranting but there was nothing redeeming about her character at all. I’ve always gravitated towards strong female characters and she was the opposite from that. I can’t recall one episode where she ever stood up for herself.
Rant over.
@32
Always bring a coat and umbrella with you when in London
@38
And Seo Do-young’s red eye might get a bit distracting but it goes away. 
There are a lot of bright colours in this show and the white might get a bit blinding … but I think that represents ‘Spring’. Enjoy!
I haven’t seen Get Karl, but as for Spring Waltz … I don’t know why but I kinda liked this kdrama. It wasn’t great … far from it. But I think what got me was the scenery. It was shot in Vienna, Salzburg (two of my favourite places) and the Korean countryside. I think if you don’t have any expectations, then you can get through it. As always, just ‘look’ at Daniel Henney.
@ 38 thisiswhyi’mbehindonmymastersthesis Re: Spring Waltz
If you manage to get past ep 2, 3 and half of 4, you’re good to go. Goodness gracious, those eps were killers…and not in the good way. Took me like weeks to watch just these 3 cos I could only watch 5 minutes before I dozed off. It’s not a work of art, but I liked it. It’s your typical average kdrama so expect lots of the usual clichés.
FYI, the music is awesome! the drama let me know and appreciate Yiruma
@49 crzycpl
LOL Yes, the red eye. How could I forget? But you know, whenever I saw it, I was like, why didn’t give Seo Do-young time to recover? I felt for him. And thank you, i thought I was the only one who watched this and didn’t hate it instantly.
TGIF
I am so surprised how many people found Cibo Matto on Buffy. I love their song “Birthday cake”.
@Kender : “My university has a weird sort of schedule where second semester ends in April, then we devote the month of May to one specific course”
Kender, How do you like this kind of one month focused study? My university is thinking of implementing this in another year, and after countless meetings, I am slowly warming to the idea but I am still iffy on it. The advantage is the tutorial style teaching that a one-month semester would allow but the disadvantage is the lack of depth — what can one absorb in one month?
Your uni sounds cool by the way — it sounds like it has a strong Asian studies program.
I have to say, Friday’s are excellent over here. People have been getting into the most interesting discussions of late!
One my favorite, and most frustrating things about jdramas is them dancing around the issue. It doesn’t matter what it is, cancer, homosexuality, affairs, etc. etc, they always look at the issue from every angle. They talk about the positives and the negatives, and the consequences of taking or not taking action. So you’ll end up with a REALLY well thought out discussion, and you’ll feel like your opinion on whatever the issue is has changed, BUT in the drama itself it’s rarely resolved. *headdesk*
I’m frustrated at one of my language TAs. He decided yesterday that our usual online weekly quiz was going to be in class. Of course, 20 minutes after he said this, I found out my only other class on Friday was cancelled. So, if it wasn’t for the stupid quiz, I wouldn’t have had to travel 1 1/2 hours to get to school today. Blerg.
Oh, how am I suppose to feel? Disappointed? Frustrated?
Rant : On
Cinderella Man (CM) vs That Fool (TF) vs City Hall (CH). All sharing the same time slot on Wednesdays and Thursdays. All that anticipation and excitement dissipating somewhat. Grrrrr! *0* “pout”!
1. CM : Gave up after ep 2. I honestly don’t know where the story is going and I just cannot watch Kwon Sang Woo’s cutesy facial expressions anymore. I swear it’s not because of his ahjusshi status but he does it so often that it is sickening to watch. Yoona’s acting is not that bad here…well, err..at least it’s better than I expected. Overall, poor chemistry among lead actors. Poor, poor KSW, all that pleading and bribing to get CM’s ratings up.
2. TF : Seriously, of all the titles chosen, I think CM, as someone suggested (sorry, I have forgotten whom), would have been the most apt for TF. Poor, poor HJM, he is overacting to compensate for KAJ’s lack thereof. KAJ, please inject some life into the character…the story itself is already sooo weak. I don’t see any chemistry here either. I will keep an eye on it for another week before I decide either way.
3. CH : Story is just unfolding. As Belleza mentioned in one of her posts (and I trust Belleza as crazy as she may sound but so knowledgeable), the WHAM will kick in around epi 6. To be honest, I have found this drama the most promising because of the fantastic chemistry between KSA and CSW. Quite hilarious but slapstick at times. Writer is ok for now. Director and editor(s) need to step up though. However, the saving grace is that I am falling in love with the OST. Check it out if you wish. Don’t know what it means but sounds inspiring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnGPzU1Nmmc
Oh well, if this frustration continues, I would be forced to chop off my finger…..not the middle one but the index finger. I am on fast forward mode so often that I am afraid I’ll bust it. And that is a scary thought.
I know a lot of smart people reading this blog. Please advise if the TNS media ratings on these dramas, found at dramawiki, any good or trustworthy.
Such a windbag this week.
Rant : Off
@49CRZYCPL
^-^ I loved Spring Waltz actually, mainly because of the picturesque backdrafts they had! I did love when they were speaking in… was that German.., SeoDoYoung and Daniel Henney.
There was a scene that showed SoeDoYoung needed a major manicure… but i got over it after a few minutes…. LOL!
I fell in love with SDY there, red-eyed and all! LOL!
@47SERE
I have been trying to buy that FROZEN dvd, but right now, it’s available only for region3. That movie seems interesting, more than the King and the Clown (although i havent watched that either) from the reviews i read. I have to check the link you posted, am curious….
NOW, I REALLY NEED TO WORK….^-^
@ 54 Omo
See, I was intrigued by Cinderella Man but I’ve been jaded by too many k-dramas lately to think that it would unfold any differently. I might have watched if they chose a different female lead. Sorry, but Yoona? I’ve seen her in one other thing and her acting in that was so painful to watch. And KSW is just not enough to get me watching a drama.
I feel kind of the same way about That Fool, but at least with that one, I’m willing to watch a few episodes to see how it is. It most likely will be mediocre at best (same old storyline, anything new?) the only thing that might save it is HJM, but if you say that KAJ isn’t shining, then maybe I’ll wait to watch it.
City Hall? I haven’t really heard much about it. When I first heard of it, I thought it was a serious drama, but all I see in promos are funny scenes, so . . . I don’t know.
Last Friday of this horrid semester and I am spending all night at the hospital. >__<
I started watching Six Months/Just Looking/ That Fool. And I find that Dong-baek really delivers — he’s very endearing. Like you said, not really outstanding, but good so far.
@Jadielaw
there are some parts of the drama which, in my opinion, require you to speed through them because they lag or are just pretty bad
but then there’s other parts where i would have to re-watch because i loved them so much….so i think you’ll have to be the judge of which parts to speed up and which ones to slow down and repeat
@mishane
i think it really depends on the person and what they want out of a drama…i really like kdramas but sometimes, not very often though, they get on my nerves. they are either tooooo long, have tooo much drama for my taste, or the acting/directing/writing isnt so great.
jdramas on the other hand i always find entertaining, i have yet to watch one that truly got on my nerves or was entirely dumb…but like i said, it really depends on a persons style
@55 MEIKO**** ^-^ Re: The King and the Clown vs A frozen flower
They’re two completely different things. The only thing they have in common is, 1)they are historical movie, 2)the BL theme. That’s it. I cried during both, but I’m not reliable about these things anymore (I’m too emotional these days so really, don’t consider my opinion all that objective…I don’t really think they’re tearjerkers by nature).
The king and the clown was more…poetic, if you pass me the term. A frozen flower had more of an action thing going on, but both deal with love, sex and betrayals in two different contexts. I have to say I was shocked by how graphical AFF was. Seriously. I didn’t expect so many sex scenes and, explicit sex scenes at that. I’m…not quite sold about that, actually. I liked the BL one, but there was just too much het sexin’ going on for my tastes. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like love scenes, esp when they’re beautifully filmed, but in AFF there were at least a couple too many. Know what I mean?
FYI, I loved both! I’m still flailing thinking of AFF, but that’s because I watched it yesterday and I’m still processing it. I think it’s waaaaayyyy more layered than I actually thought during my first viewing. I need to mull over some things a LOT more. LOL
oh and I was very very very veeeeeeery impressed with ALL of the actors of both movies. I didn’t expect Joo Jin Mo to be as good as he was in AFF. Also? He sings so well! How did I not know this?
Out of all the pretty recently started kdramas, Story of a Man has me most excited, but there’s no way I could stand the episode wait, so I’m waiting til it’s all finished.
@ mishane Oh dear God, WWL descended into crap, I couldn’t stand it by the end. Pointless melodrama out of nowhere, I could barely take it seriously. Right on Rainie, though, with the ‘I’m going to die!’ ‘We’re ALL going to die!’ – THANK YOU!! Regarding her in DBY, I can’t be too objective because like I said it was my first drama, and I thought EVERYTHING was so wacky and OTT… but I adored it for that. In currently airing ToGetHer, she’s the most reserved I’ve ever seen her, and she does it surprisingly well. I think she’s awesome. ^^ And yeah, people either love or hate ISWAK, my friend agrees with you, but I worship it. This seems to be a perspective issue; I didn’t think she was weak. She was pretty dumb, but I liked that even though she was lacking (sometimes so much you wanted to kill her), she had her own strength. And I loved that Zhi Shu tackled the fact that her whole life revolved around him and tried to force her to do something for herself. Like the nurse thing, once she got around to it, she could do it well, sorta… but then she comes back to Zhi Shu. I gotta admit, I did hope they would pay more attention to that, but… for the most part, it’s awesome. And I don’t think it’s possible to have more chemistry between 2 leads~ didn’t Joe say his parents have already accepted Ariel as their daughter-in-law? =p Cuuuuuuute.
@59SERE
THANKS FOR THAT INPUT…appreciate it!!! I dont know about the too many sex scenes but if both films made you cry.., sounds interesting…if you say it is well done and with good actors… ill probably take the chance. LOL! thanks!
@ 61 xiahkixiri
I agree about WWL getting really really crappy near the end. When I do my rewatch of it, I think I only watch until the 11th or 13th episode. After that, it just feels like a kdrama.
Whatever happened to the F4 Afterstory Parts 3 and 4?
just started “story of a man” and am rewatching “resurrection” as well. i really have a thing for revenge stories (fave book is “the count of monte cristo”). am in revenge story heaven. these are the best k-dramas because there’s never a dull moment and the plot is always barrelling forward.
especially loving the dream team of “story of a man” but am so on edge that dong-wu will screw things up! i’d much prefer the dream team to mess with everyone b/c they’re one step ahead, but i guess the IQ 180 man is gonna prove to be a handful…
I’ve seen Frozen Flowers without subtitle, which is a major mistake for me. Since I don’t really understand the story, I think I can’t really appreciate it properly.
But most of my friends who had seen it, they were all ranting ( and shyly enjoying ) the loads of sex scenes..
I read about this movie long time ago, and kinda anticipated with the sex scenes, but, HELL, those were (too) many, and I do curious how Koreans took this movie.
and it was a box office movie, so they were watching it because of the quality, the story, or just the hype of two real famous idol actors are kissing each other?
I am not hating this movie, just……..surprised. And, IMO, the homosexuality is not the main focus of the story. The betrayal is.
Re : Dalja’s Spring, I just remembered when I was watching it along with my friend, she kept telling me that Dalja has so many similarities with me. Her attitude, her worries, and her (little) craziness. So I always have soft spot with the drama. But Tae Bong isn’t my ideal type of BF, though.
Re : Get Karl and Spring Waltz………….should you choose between those two? why don’t you look for another drama?
those are okay, but not something that I personally would recommend to my friends…except they’re looking for something light, with eye candies…if Oh Ji Hoo or Daniel Henney is your type.
Spring Waltz used only 2 colors for its theme……….green and yellow. I know it’s supposed to be spring-y, but I was sooo tired to see the main actress wore anything yellow or green..all the time.
Re : Taiwan Dramas, I used to love them before i know K-dramas. But recent TwDramas are either full of crap dialogues, or full of over the top acting.
But when I look for something real fun, something you don’t need to use ur brain to watch, I will turn to T- idol dramas. I enjoyed It Started with A Kiss 1&2, but hated anything with VIc Zhou post Meteor Garden.
I’ve seen the Black and White’s trailer, and my first reaction was: “oh they’re trying to make something like Miami Vice? and would Vic and the other guy only wear white and black in the whole episodes?”
I like HK dramas more. Five Tigers, anyone? ( i feel so old now )
@62 MEIKO
Wow, I’m glad you trust me so much. I’d say wait till others say their opinions. The people I know who’ve watched The King and the clown said they liked it, there aren’t any yet who’ve watched AFF. But oh, I must warn you, The king and the clown is about farcical actors so…ummm, IDK how you might take that. Their farce is, well, is a farce…well maybe more of a satire…but anyway, there’re sexual puns etc so it might be everybody’s cup of tea, then again, you have to think about the context of the movie. Hmm.
@66 djes
“I am not hating this movie, just……..surprised. And, IMO, the homosexuality is not the main focus of the story. The betrayal is.”
You’re totally right. Did I say that? Ahah, sorry, my memory sucks. I hope I worded my reply in a decent way cos it wasn’t my intention to say that homosexuality was the main theme.
Definately wayyyyy too many sex scenes. I’m not used to all that skin on screen anymore. LOL
Just watched the last episode of Which Star Are You From. OMG, THE CHEESE. Seriously adorable show. Much better than I was expecting.. I’m glad I actually gave it a shot. Plus, now I appreciate Kim Rae Won a lot more. (The only other thing I’d seen him in was My Love Patzzi, and my intense dislike of the show made me dislike him by association, although I’m pretty sure he was the only reason I was watching it after awhile..) Also, Jung Ryeo Won is ADORABLE. I dream of being so adorable. :3
–
@52 Nom Kitteh – I really enjoy it. The classes offered during the May term are so out of the ordinary that I feel like I’m missing an opportunity if I don’t take it. (We get a lot of visiting professors or tenured professors who feel like teaching something random.) There are also several travel courses you can go on during May term (there’s a trip to Hiroshima/Nagasaki this May that’s learning about the Japanese side of the nuclear bomb.. I really wish I could’ve gone, since it sounded interesting.), and a lot of people go on those. You’d be surprised how much you can learn in one month, though. May term classes are very focused areas of study, so you don’t go too in-depth on the surrounding history/theory or whatever. It can help to get your feet wet, or let you try out something you might not want to spend a semester on (classical Indian dance, for example). A lot of people use May term for Gen Eds like lab (which is what I took Physics of Sound for) or something, which is nice because then you don’t have to rearrange your other important classes around Gen Eds during the other semesters.
Plus, the cost of May term (both lodging and tuition) is already rolled into the fees we pay for spring semester. So, basically, since it’s already paid for, I feel like I’m wasting my parents’ money if I don’t stay for May.
Our Asian Studies program is really what you make of it. We don’t have ANYTHING related to Korea, unfortunately, and it’s only recently that they’ve started to add more courses on India. It was pretty much China-centric until the year or so before I started.. Now we have a Japanese minor, though, so there are a lot of Japan-related courses available, and the head of the Religion department has a serious thing for India/Bengal, so he teaches a lot of courses on India. I just finished my junior year, and I’ve pretty much exhausted all of the really interesting course options, although if I were interested in the religious aspects of the area there are still a lot of classes I could take in that department. I didn’t do study abroad, though (my parents would’ve made me pay for it myself, and I’d rather save my money for life after graduation), which is what a lot of people do to fill out their International Studies quota.
My university only has 2500 students, though, so our Asian Studies program is exceptional for our size. We’ve also recently added a Chinese language program (just finished my first year!), so they’re working on expanding the department. I keep badgering the head of the department about adding Korean-related classes too, and he agrees with me, so they’ll probably be adding some of those as well in future years. (Too late for me, but incoming students will appreciate it.)
Are you university faculty/staff, then? My mother works at a university which also has a May term (it’s not my university, it’s one in my home state), and I think she knows more about it than I do. I just know what I’ve experienced, and to be honest I don’t really pay attention to how much I’m learning; I only notice how much fun I’m having and how glad I am that I got to focus on learning one thing that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do during the regular semesters.
@68 Sere : No, I don’t think you said that. It just I took too long to write my comment, so I missed some of your previous comment.
I said that because, FF was promoted as Korean “Brokeback Mountain”, or movie with homosexuality issue. But as the matter a fact, homosexuality was only one of other issues in this story.
The sex scenes were too distracting, you know? On one local forum here, the commentators mostly only discussed about those, and wondered why well known already actors were willing to take part in a movie like that. I was kinda pissed reading their comments, because some of them are truly retarded, for example, they were complaining that the gay scenes between Jo In Sung and Joo Jin Moo are not ‘hot’ enough compared to other Asian gay themed movies.
COME ON PEOPLE. Seshhhhh.
I’M FINALLY GOING TO KOREA!
After years of having a love affair with K-dramas and K-Pop I finally am going to the source of if all. Trying to figure our schedules and good times to go with my friends has been sorted out and the date is set. Totally excited although it’s not until February 2010. Have to give myself more time to save and gain more PTO’s. But I am totally excited. My very first venture to Korea and my mind is totally going haywire trying to plan everything.
My friends and I will be there for a total of 2 weeks and we already have the major attractions on our “to do” list. But we need more ideas for places to visit that might not be as popular but totally gives us a more in depth look into Korea and it’s culture.
So I’m asking you my fellow dramabeans readers if you have any suggestions for places to visit. Also, suggestions for places to eat would be wonderful too. I’m definitely looking forward to eating at street food stalls and having bottles and bottles of soju (such a typical scene you find in dramas).
@70 djes
First off, can you point me in the direction of the movies they meant? cos either I’m unlucky and always get the movies that end in tragedy and, on top of that, that there’s no much lovin’ going on or the commentators and I have completely different views on what is BL and what is “hot”. FYI, I’m not complaining. Just genuily curious.
As a general rule of thumb, I don’t mind love or sex scenes. I don’t need to see one to get how close the characters are…I definately don’t need them to feel a connection with the characters, IF the movie is written/directed/played well and AFF was imho. For example, much as I liked the Joo Ji Mo/Jo In Sung scene (and I liked it! I may even have rewatched it a couple of times *coughs* I swear for the longing stare the King gives Hong Lim during it!), I felt their connection even before that scene. As for the Queen and Hong Lim, I get that a few were needed to show how their relationship progressed, but…I may have done without one or two.
@ 71 Jasmin
–’m definitely looking forward to eating at street food stalls and having bottles and bottles of soju (such a typical scene you find in dramas).–
I AM TOO!!
Except, my stomach isn’t looking forward to it. I find that there’s so many good tasting things out there, that my stomach just hates 30 minutes after.
Also, I think I’m going to have to literally OPEN UP MY MIND when I think about the food there. I’m very “normal” in my food habits. I eat beef, chicken, fish and occasionally shrimp. Eel, octopus and all the other “questionable” stuff? Hmm . . .you’ll probably have to get me sufficiently tipsy to eat.
I think when I go to Korea (to live there for a year, oh my!), I’m going to employ the “Do not ask” rule when it comes to food. Just place it in my mouth. No questions. It could be bull testicles, ant poop, cow intestines. I’m not going to ask. I’m just going to close my eyes and swallow.
(Take your minds out of the gutter!)
@ mishane
Jdorama or Kdramas? Actually, interestingly enough, I was discussing this with a friend of mine, and we have classified a lot of the dramas with “one-word” adjectives/nouns:
Jdramas = insightful
Kdramas = escapist
Tdramas = … over-the-top
Cdramas = realism
HKdramas = drama queen
I feel like Jdramas, though some are very so lighthearted and silly, are geared toward giving a general insightful life message. The lighthearted and silly ones are actually the ones I usually avoid, because I know they’re going to end up flat and just… meh [the only exception is Nodame Cantabile]. But even in these silly Jdramas, you get the feel that the entire drama is centered around some sort of message – be it friendship or whatever. Somebody mentioned watching MatsuJun’s new drama, Smile, and yeah, that is not silly or lighthearted at all. It’s a serious drama that deals with prejudices and trials and tribulations.
I’ve always thought that the lighthearted and silly ones were pretty rare in Jdramas – I feel like the “normal” Jdrama story is one that is less romance centered [or silliness centered] and more concerning regular lives and regular concerns and the insights that people gain from them. In that sense, they’re actually a little inspirational – like MatsuJun’s new drama. Or Aishiteru, which is actually really dark and serious. Or the other “stock Jdrama storyline” involves mystery or whatnot. But I find that with Jdramas, it’s easier for me to cry about ordinary people and their ordinary lives. For Jdramas, I cry with the characters’ problems.
Korean dramas are much more angsty and romance-y. For Kdramas, I cry because I’m heartbroken along with the characters. I’m a romance sap, so I watch Korean dramas to get the high-tensioned romantic factors. Although, lately, I’ve been getting into other types of Korean dramas, ones that are much more serious and darker [usually things that I watch for in Japanese dramas]. But I like the escapism feel that Korean dramas give. I mean, I don’t give a damn how unbelievable and frustrating the twists are, but I like the feeling of immersing into part of these circumstances. Korean dramas do a good job of drawing you into the circle of drama. It’s like you’re allowed to take a break from your boring life and take part of another life, which is never made dull with intricate twists.
I used to watch Taiwanese dramas. But I have since moved away from them. The more I watch, I find, I usually get more irritated. The over the top has got to stop. I’m tired of the “stock” dumb girl character. I’m done sympathizing with stupidity. The problem, I find, is that there aren’t enough of good actors and actresses in Taiwanese dramas – hence, in Chinese, it’s usually referred to as “idol dramas” because it’s like another outlet for idols to promote themselves, even if they might suck at acting or whatnot. ISWAK worked on my nerves – I couldn’t come to like the girl character at all. Other dramas weren’t too great, but I did like [I'll admit] Fated to Love You. I feel like I only watch Taiwanese dramas when nothing else really good is going on. There’s too much overacting or too much of “cuteness.” I feel like too many of Taiwanese dramas fall back into the same safe, “stock” storylines that are full of cliches.
I’m actually pretty limited in watching Chinese dramas [unfortunately]. The only Chinese dramas I used to watch were only the historical ones [or the ones with like the martial arts stuff going on], which is far from realism. But now I’ve opened up to other types of Chinese dramas, and I have to say – there is a definite different feel to Chinese dramas than to the other types of dramas. It’s a feeling of realism. The characters face real problems. The situations are real. Even if the storylines are from being realistic, the general feel of everything is realistic. The thing is, though, that most Chinese dramas are not what I’d classify as “idol dramas” and are not exactly targeted to as wide of an audience as the others are. Thus, they’re also not as popular.
I’ve only recently gotten into HK dramas, so I can’t say much about them either. But, from what I’ve gotten, they are FULL of drama. The entire focus of many HK dramas seem to be all about the twists in fate that occur in the storyline, be it a police drama or stories about sisters trying to achieve different goals in lives by marrying some of the richest men in HK [like in Gem of Life]. On the other hand, their daily dramas are actually very cheerful.
Wow I feel like I’ve just written an essay. Actually I need to write an essay for my English class. Wonderful.
@ 71 Jasmin
–My friends and I will be there for a total of 2 weeks and we already have the major attractions on our “to do” list.–
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s on your list? Only because I was looking at tourism sights and it’s overwhelming, I don’t even know where to start.
I do know that I want to spend a weekend in Jeju Island and see if it’s as nice as My Girl or other dramas claim it is.
@ 74. A.
Wow, those one-word descriptions of the different asian dramas are really accurate, especially about chinese dramas as being realistic. I love cdramas, but they’re geared towards an older audience, so sadly the best shows haven’t been subbed. I don’t like TWdramas at all because it’s always the same “poor girl meets rich guy story” with a lot of overacting.
@ 73 Mishane
Yes, my friends and I are probably looking forward to eating and drinking at the food stalls. Mainly because it is such a staple scene in korean dramas but also whenever we see it in the shows we always say “wow, whatever their eiting looks scrumptious”. The different foods won’t be a problem with us since were all from different asian cultures and are accustomed to “different” foods then what most westerners eat. I’ve actually never had live octopus before but I’m sure if I can stomach eating different kinds of raw fish, oysters and other seafoods then I think I can handle a squirmy little octopus.
What one of my friends was really wondering about was if we buy DVD’s of k-dramas there, would it come with english subtitles? There are a lot of shows that we want to add to our collection but have a hard time to find. I’m sure pirated and fake ones are easily available on websites such as eBay but we like to have originals with good picture qualitiy and subtitles.
@ 74 A.
Oooh, your comment was insightful!
First off, the only j-dramas I’ve watched are the “crack” ones, which means I’ve gotten a very one-sided view on them. I haven’t seen the real life with a message one (actually, does Attention Please count? That one was kind of a growing drama). I got the impression that Japanese dramas were all just cracky or severely angsty. One thing I do have to note is that I don’t think you can find the same character in a j-drama. Every one is such an individual, if you know what I mean. They don’t have what you would call “stock characters” or cliche’s. I haven’t seen a j-drama that felt similar to another j-drama. But then again, I’m still pretty much a newbie to them so maybe I’m wrong.
And therein lies my problem with k-dramas. I feel like if I’ve seen one, I’ve kind of seen most of them. I think k-dramas have a lot of recycled storylines and recycled characters. There’s always going to be that secondary girl who gets insanely jealous, the totally nice secondary guy who never gets the girl, the feisty poor girl who warms the heart of the cold-hearted son of a mogul/business man/doctor. I mean, the characters are all the same, the storylines are all the same and it just feels over done to me. I can basically predict the general flow of the drama and what actions the characters are going to take. Of course, I’m generalizing but I think out of every 5 k-dramas I watch, 3 will carry the same kind of plot with the same kind of characters.
I don’t have much to say about tw-dramas except I think they try to overplay the cuteness. Yeah, we get it. The girl is cute. And sweet. And maybe a little dim. Move on.
Unfortunately I haven’t seen any HK or Chinese dramas. I would like to.
@72 Sere : Actually they only mentioned one title, it’s “No Regret” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Regret_(film) ). I’ve never seen it so I can’t confirm is it true this movie is gay themed.
They said that this movie has many ( and more explicit ) sex scenes.
Also, is Korean barbeque considered “high class” food? The only time I ever see it in dramas is outside underneath a tent, served by an ahjumma, along with a bottle of soju.
Yum, I might have BBQ tonight. Although I’ve never tasted soju, apparently there are flavors?? I might drag my friend to Queens this weekend to have some.
@ shinhyesungluv
Yeah, it’s unfortunate that most are geared towards the older audience [like my parents ages]. I’m actually watching one that is totally geared towards them, called “Lurk” which is really good. They’ve got a LOT of really solid, strong acting in them, but it’s just that the audience is really narrow. It’s unfortunate.
@ mishane
Isn’t it interesting that Jdramas are all sort of unique and yet are sometimes about usual lives and usual ordinary people? I think it’s fascinating. Attention Please, I guess, counts. LOL. I enjoyed watching that very much and yes, it was geared towards growing up as a central theme. [A little embarrassed to admit, but I started crying when Ueto Aya's character wasn't allowed to become a flight attendant.] Of course, there are ones where the storylines are a little cliche or whatever, but there are those in any type of drama. I mean, lately, there’s been an infiltration of crack dramas where it seems just like a huge mob of pretty guys and a huge mob of pretty girls and put them in a blender and see what happens sort of thing – like Hana Kimi, and recently the Mei-chan butler drama.
On the other hand, Korean dramas, though they do seem to follow the same general plotline at times, are still enjoyable to watch. Which is, well, an interesting insight for me. LOL. Even though sometimes the dramas are full of cliches and you know who’s going to end up with who, I still get hooked on them. It’s that element of escapism – the storyline might be cliche in Korean dramas, but it still makes it extraordinary and exciting for me to, well, “escape” into.
I find that I have an interesting viewing pattern [and I should probably try to document myself to see if this is accurate] – usually I start out with Korean dramas, then decide that the venture is too time consuming and switch to Japanese dramas, then decide that this season of Japanese dramas isn’t that great, and move onto HK dramas [I watch Chinese dramas during dinner every day, LOL, because it has become sort of a family event]. And then the cycle turns again.
The other problem with Japanese dramas is lately, there are a lot of storylines/premises that have the potential to be great and REALLY good, but end up flopping. Like, because of not-so-great acting. Or because the scriptwriting isn’t that great either. So, not all Japanese dramas are good. You’ve got to look for the good ones. I know the last season of Japanese dramas, I started out watching like 5 of them, but ended up only watching like 1. This current airing season of Japanese dramas, though, I might actually end up keeping up with all of them.
I think A’s generally pretty spot-on, too (with slight reservations about Taiwanese. ^^). I do think kdramas have begun to move away from their super-rigid formula. You can generally expect an Other Girl and Other Guy to pop in, but it couldn’t have lasted forever, people would get tired of it… the same way they moved on from super super emo dramas. The thing is that even though it’s predictable and you couldn’t survive on only that forever, romance just doesn’t get old. Of course some people get annoyed with it but most people are saps when it comes to the romance and eat it up. So these things, if done well, original/wellmade/good cast, something that makes them unique, will pretty much carry on. People will find a new way to do it, but continue to do it they will.
@djes
Watched it. I…don’t remember it having that many sex scenes. There was one for sure and one of them cuddling? Something like that. It was more about the main characters’ backstories and how their past affects their relationship and their lives rather than sex. It was a nice story though.
BTW, Kim Dong Wook played a small role in that movie and I loved him in that. And yes, it is a gay themed movie. It also deals with prostitution among other things.
Anyway, I thought the scenes between Jo In Sung and Joo Jin Mo were pretty good.
@ xiahkixiri
I really don’t know how I feel about TW dramas. I mean, there are good ones, but the fact that the majority of them are like “crack” dramas, in which I really feel like I’m losing brain cells watching, makes me really question this huge range of quality within TW dramas.
I feel like the only TW dramas I watch are ones where I can guarantee nice quality from the actors/actresses – like stuff that Chen Qiaoen is in, because I know she can actually act.
@Mishane
Some of the places we already have in our “to do” list is Namsan Tower and Park, 63 Building, Olympic Park, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul National Museum, Deoksugung Palace, Lotte World, Cheonggyecheon and a few others places. Jeju would be a great place to visit as well but I think it’s still going to be too cold to visit “Korea’s Hawaii”. Maybe this summer if my boyfriends business trip is still a go to Busan than I might have to tag a long with him for the few days that he will be there. I’m crossing my fingers that it’s still planned.
@ 78 mishane – “There’s always going to be that secondary girl who gets insanely jealous, the totally nice secondary guy who never gets the girl, the feisty poor girl who warms the heart of the cold-hearted son of a mogul/business man/doctor.”
Haha, I knooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww~ And it’s always Secondary Male I fall in love with, too. There are a lot of dramas where I watch them and think to myself, “That chick is insane. How could she possibly pick Primary Male over Secondary Male? Give ME Secondary Male! *grabby hands*”
I’d like to see a drama with normal characters. Normal, average people, with no birth secrets/tragic pasts/family-owned companies/other drama cliches. Normal people who might, actually, be boring. Or at least not 100% entertaining all the time. Feisty is cute, but it gets old after the 30th drama. :/ Also, as much as I love my stone-hearted/playboy chaebol characters, they get old. Something new and different would be nice. (How about a drama about hobos? Hobos who find love with each other! I think that would be adorable. And there’d be no chaebols! And their main conflicts would come from which bridge they want to sleep under that night, or where to go to beg for food/money. Or possibly a rival hobo trying to move in on their turf! XD Yay for being different!)
It’s been so long since I’ve watched Jdramas consistently (I think I’ve only seen three in the past three years, as opposed to my 20+ Korean dramas in the same period of time) that I don’t know if I can accurately compare them with Kdramas anymore. They definitely have a very different feel, though, and I agree with #74 [A.] who said that they have a message. Kdramas don’t do the message thing so well, I’ve noticed.. Whenever they try, it usually comes off as too heavy-handed and makes it seem like they think I’m an idiot or something for not being able to pick the message out on my own. *looks pointedly at World That They Live In*
As for Twdramas.. It’s kind of hit-or-miss with them. ToGetHer, for example, is adorable and hilarious without being too ridiculously over-the-top. Sure, the premise is cliche (famous celebrity loses house/job due to scandals, ends up living with shy, otaku-esque girl, they both grow with their love for each other), but the execution is surprisingly well done. Also, the cartoonish-ness is a lot less than in other dramas (i.e. Smiling Pasta, Wu Di Shan Bao Mei, Rolling Love). Which isn’t to say that I don’t love Smiling Pasta and Wu Di Shan Bao Mei in some corner of my heart (mostly due to the adorableness of Nicholas Teo, who manages to pull off RIDICULOUS lines with flair), but I prefer my dramas to have some basis in reality. (Although it kills me EVERY TIME in WDSBM when Nicholas Teo’s character is talking to a portrait of his father, because it’s just him in a moustache. I know it’s not supposed to be funny, but OH MY GOD. *dies*)
Other Twdramas I’ve enjoyed are Devil Beside You (mostly due to Mike and Rainie’s insane chemistry; also my first Twdrama, so it has sentimental value), Rolling Love (Jiro Wang AND Danson Tang! Also, Genie is pretty adorable.), Corner With Love (This show redeemed Barbie Xu in my eyes. Somewhat cliche, but still adorable.), ISWAK (never saw the second season, don’t feel compelled to), and Hana Kimi (up until the very end, anyway). I DESPISED Mars and Meteor Garden, and to this day I can’t recall why I watched Prince Turns Into Frog. I also watched Romantic Princess (AWFUL!), and the only reason I continued beyond the first episode is because of George Hu, Calvin Chen, and Wu Chun. Yes, I’m a fangirl. I’m okay with this.
Does anyone here have any experience with Thai dramas? The only one I’ve seen is Oom Rug, which is seriously cute. One of the Thai restaurants in my town has a TV on which they play (unsubbed) Thai dramas during the lunch hour, and I always get really absorbed even though I don’t know what they’re saying. Kind of like how I always get sucked into unsubbed Bollywood films at the Indian buffet. XD
@ 86 Kender
I didn’t even finish reading the rest of your comment. You want normal nice characters with no crazy tragic secrets?!?! Something refreshing and not like your every day angsty, cliche’d k-drama?
RUN DO NOT WALK RUN RUN RUN to 9 Ends 2 Outs.
I watched that drama after being so overwhelmed with the typical k-drama plot cliches.
This drama is honestly in my top 3 dramas of all time. Like I said, if you are tired of the usual k-drama, watch this. I don’t care what anyone says, I loved it. It’s about a guy and a girl who have been best friends for 30 years and have to live together and it’s a love story but it’s not shoved in your face. It’s very realistic and HONEST. One of the things I HATE most about dramas is that NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS. It all gets ignored and everyone keeps secrets and it gets so frustrating but in this drama, the two are so open with each other and are such good friends. It’s just a good good good drama. I can’t gush enough about it. I REALLY CAN’T. I don’t even have coherent words for it.
@ 86 Kender
You bring up a lot of good points in your comment.
–Haha, I knooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww~ And it’s always Secondary Male I fall in love with, too. There are a lot of dramas where I watch them and think to myself, “That chick is insane. How could she possibly pick Primary Male over Secondary Male? Give ME Secondary Male! *grabby hands*”–
Yeah, I do fall for Secondary Male. What I hate though is that the writers usually build up Secondary Male so much in the first half but then to justify the Main Girl getting with the Main Guy, they make the Secondary Male do things that are so out of character. So it’s like, “Oh this guy is so nice and awesome and sweet, she’s crazy for not being with him OH MY GOD HE JUST RAN OVER AN OLD GRANDMA HOLDING A CAT!”. All of a sudden, our nice Secondary Male turns into a psycho or evil guy. You can’t have the Main Girl pick Main Guy just because she likes him better. Noooo, it has to be because something is wrong with Secondary Guy. That irks me.
My favorite secondary guy is Prince Yul from Goong. I ended up disliking everything about Goong, except for Prince Yul.
Man, I’m evolving quickly.
So, I started with a “korean guys can be pretty” phase ala Lee Min Ho vs. Binnie, and now after watching a Pia music video, I think I’ve moved on.
My new look will be far far from the Binnie-tastic pop idol going kclubbing to Oakenfold READY STEADY GO. Now, I think I am going to try “I’m a sad Korean gangpae and/or just different from others but I gotta be me” ala Fallout Boy / My Chemical Romance…with a tinge of Staind.
PRESENTING… NU EMO-KORE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bodH0i46l2o&feature=related
I know I am late to the Pia crowd, but this is SeoTaiji advanced evolution, this is what happens when Nu Metal Meets Angst-Ridden Korean Musicians Who Fail College Exams.
Now, I don’t care about my hair. Forget the KMS Hair Play and the cold air blow-outs. I will just over-gel it and let it get dirty and sticky gelly. I’m going to make my own braided leather necklace, get baggy painter jeans, and a long sleeve shirt 2 sizes too big for me.
Peace out, boys and girls…. / \ (for those who don’t know, that’s my V sign upside down, because that’s being real is all about, that’s what a frown is, a smile upside down.)
I gotta be me!
@ A: Chen Qiao En is awesome sauce. I remember reading that when she was little she used to go to graveyards and count how many had the same surname. ^^ And watching her torture Ethan in Fated To Love You’s BTS was so much fun. Yeah, it’s true the crack dramas are irritating – tried to watch Miss No Good – OH. MY. GOD. OHHHHH. MY. GOD. I’ve never had such a headache.
@ Kender: You didn’t like Prince to Frog?? O___O
@ 86 Kender
Last comment reply, I promise!
–(Although it kills me EVERY TIME in WDSBM when Nicholas Teo’s character is talking to a portrait of his father, because it’s just him in a moustache. I know it’s not supposed to be funny, but OH MY GOD. *dies*)–
That sounds crazy and exactly like a TW-drama. ELOHEL!
@ 90 xiahkixiri
I only got through Miss No Good because I was a Rainie fan. I ended up fast forwarding the whole thing. Oh man, that’s the absolute worst thing I had to put myself through.
Did you watch the BTS for Fated To Love You? The one where they were filming them rolling around on the bed? And how Joe Chen (?I don’t really know her name) was eating a meat stick the whole time? It was completely adorable and the actress is pretty cute and seems funny. I haven’t seen her in anything else though. I’ll admit that I didn’t find the male lead attractive at all (Ethan Ruan, I think) and the episodes got a little boring and draggy so I did some FF’ing through those as well.
@ mishane – Haha, maybe I will, then, if you loved it so much. ^^ Actually, I probably will, once I get some more space on my hard drive. (Ran out of DVDs to burn dramas onto. ^^;)
“One of the things I HATE most about dramas is that NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS.”
OMG INORITE. Do you yell at your computer too? “TALK TO EACH OTHER, IDIOTS! EVERYTHING WOULD BE SOLVED IF YOU WOULD JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER!”
I want to be a relationship counselor for Kdrama leads. And my main piece of advice would be “COMMUNICATION = GOOD.” And they’d listen to me, and their problems would be solved (or at least lessened), and then they’d pay me ridiculous amounts of money for helping them out, and I’d be filthy stinking rich. XD
“So it’s like, “Oh this guy is so nice and awesome and sweet, she’s crazy for not being with him OH MY GOD HE JUST RAN OVER AN OLD GRANDMA HOLDING A CAT!”.”
This comment made me snort my Diet Coke up my nose. XD But YES. OMG, I HAAAAAAAAATE that. HATE. HATE HATE HATE.
That’s one reason I liked How To Meet A Perfect Neighbour, though. The show had way too much going on, but the guy I was convinced was Secondary Male actually got the girl in the end, and the main character ended up alone, and I was SO HAPPY about that because I was hardcore in love with Secondary Male, and although he was a bit of a jerk at times, both guys ended up being decent human beings.
AND I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT MISS NO GOOD. I actually really liked it, once I got used to Rainie’s voice. Although the last ten minutes of the last episode were ridiculous and out of place and should have been cut. :/
@ 56 mishane :
So far, CM, TF and CH have aired 8, 4, 4 epis respectively.
1. CM : I am not a fan of Yoona’s acting. But I was just comparing her character in YAMD vs the one in CM. Her improvement in CM can be measured by a hair’s width.
2. TF : Nothing new yet…very cliched after 4 epis. HJM is not the problem. KAJ’s expressions are all so contrite. I can’t understand it so I won’t even try and explain it. You can watch the 1st epi on viikii and you will know what I mean. They have eng sub till epi 2, I think.
3. CH. Do give CH a try. So far, all the 1st three epis that I have watched are soooo funny. Epi 3 being the funniest from beginning till end. There are a few small little whams so far. Waiting for the big WHAMs. The thing about CH is that it’s 20 epi long. I do believe the other 2 have 16 epis only. So with 20 epis, I am almost afraid the writer might go over the moon with the storyline. Story appears normal but interesting…I am trying not to give away too much.
See for yourself at viikii too. Subs are also out till epi 2. Many more tongues are wagging on CH than TF though.
@85 Jasmin -
“Some of the places we already have in our “to do” list is Namsan Tower and Park, 63 Building, Olympic Park, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul National Museum, Deoksugung Palace, Lotte World, Cheonggyecheon and a few others places. Jeju would be a great place to visit as well but I think it’s still going to be too cold to visit “Korea’s Hawaii””
If you have time, I suggest taking a day or two and just doing normal everyday activities that people who live there do. Spend an afternoon shopping at a local shopping mall, going to a local no-reh-bang, eating at a dive, then snacking and drinking at an outdoor cart. Go to an indoor golf range, with computerized courses (you hit into a screen that makes you think you are playing outdoors). Go to an internet cafe and play games with dozens of random ppl.
If you have the time, spend it like you are on a one-day holiday for people who live there, and I think you will really, really enjoy it.
@ 90 xiahxiri – It’s not that I disliked Prince Turns To Frog, it’s just that I can’t remember anything special about it. It started out cute, but by the end I was like “Why isn’t this over yet?” It was one of my first Twdramas, though, back in high school, so I hadn’t learned the art of patience yet. I might have to give it another try, though.. I might appreciate it more now. (This seems to be the case with a lot of shows.)
And on the subject of Fated To Love You, I couldn’t get through it. D: I tried, really, but I got to episode 4 and just didn’t care anymore. My Chinese professor told me it gets a lot better towards the end, but even she admitted that it was pretty boring towards the middle. XD
@ mishane: I’m a Rainie fan too, but… I watched, like, 3 eps and I felt like stabbing myself (despite other guy’s pretty, pretty eyes!) and Rainie and Wilbur Pan being rather cute in the BTS there, too (I can’t kiss him, he’s like my brother!!! AHHHH!!!!).
Joe Chen (Chen Qiao En) is honestly a blast. Both her and Ethan got drunk to film that. =p She’s also in Prince Turns to Frog, and Ying Ye, with Mingdao, who is the Mike to her Rainie. I liked Ethan’s character a lot because he wasn’t the typical cool chaebol, he was dorky and childish and faintly annoying. ^^ I loved FTLY because you could see how wrong they were for each other at the beginning, he was too selfish and immature and she was too much of a doormat – and then BIG SWITCH UP, she turns her life around and he… stays rather immature but learns how to think about someone else. LOVE. <3 Fanfreakingtastic. I loveddddd Father Dylan though. And I LOVE Baron Chen for volunteering himself and Ethan to swim nekkid if they broke ratings, and then jetting off to film a CF and leaving Ethan to do it himself. ^^
@ Kender: LOL, most of us are more patient towards the beginning of our drama-watching career. =p Ahh, but I spent an unbelievable amount of time staring at the other girl’s hair. o__O FTLY I think is really worth it. It does slow down near the middle, but there’s a point to it!
@mishane I absolutely LOVE Love LOVE 9 ends 2 outs! It is super cute! The storyline is different but yet it stays within the borders of Kdramas.
@ 94 Omo
I will try the first few episodes of That Fool. It looks mindless enough to entertain me until I get annoyed.
I might catch the first episode of City Hall, but I don’t know. I never was a big fan of political stuff but if you say it’s comedic, then that’s a plus.
Thanks for breaking it down!
(Yeah, I’ll probably never watch Cinderella Man).
@93 Kender
YES. HONESTY IS THE KEY TO A GOOD RELATIONSHIP. And I hate the bullshit about keeping the secret for the sake of your boyfriend/girlfriend. WTF. And it annoys me even more because as the audience, we see what dipshits the characters are being and I just want to reach into the screen and bang their heads together.
So yeah, 9E2O is the total opposite of that and is made of awesome and I want Hyung Tae as my boyfriend forever and ever.
–AND I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT MISS NO GOOD. I actually really liked it, once I got used to Rainie’s voice. Although the last ten minutes of the last episode were ridiculous and out of place and should have been cut. :/–
Yeah, if I ignored the ridiculousness of Rainie’s character it wasn’t that bad. Honestly, I think that show was a little schizo. I felt like it was trying to be cartoonish but Rainie was the only one in the cast acting that crazy, so it felt out of place. I did think Wilbur Pan and her chemistry was FUN and I watched all of the BTS and it always cracked me up to see them film the kissing scenes (and for once, Rainie had normal kissing scenes! I felt like she kissed like a cold fish with Mike and the others but with Wilbur they actually kissed. I was kind of amazed).
Aw, How To Meet A Perfect Neighbor. I’ve always wanted a drama where Secondary Male gets Main Girl but I want one to surprise me with that ending but I never knew how to request it. Like, give me 3 dramas to watch and one of them has to have a surprise switch couple ending?!
LOL, Samsooki – Rock on! Take the O-P-W to the next level with your own fangirl posse.
That Fool – the writing could use a boost, but Hwang Jung Min is fantastic…and Lee Chung Ah and Baek Sung Hyun are great secondary characters.
On the topic of dramas…I probably watch more Kdramas than anything else, though before I did watch more Jdramas. I think if Cdramas would get subbed (or if my Chinese ever improves to the point where I don’t need any subtitles), then I would probably watch Cdramas more consistently. But I really like the realism and the acting is usually pretty solid since a lot of the actors have been trained. I remember the first time I watched a Cdrama and was so confused because it was nothing like Twdramas. With Twdramas, it really is true that it’s a hit or a miss. And I am still waiting to be really impressed, though Angel Lover isn’t too bad.
Sometimes I kind of feel like the storylines that are popular in Kdramas right now used to be popular in Jdramas in the 90s (Is this just me or does anyone else feels the same way?)
@ 98 cecee
YES! Someone else who loved 9 Ends 2 Outs (although is there a different name for it cause that one makes no sense).
While I was watching it I was squeeing all over the place and I was crazing someone to gush about it with.
Wasn’t it just awesome? Did your heart stop at the hand touching scene in the hotel? So sweet!!
I did a little rewatch this week (even though I just saw it last month) and *sigh* it’s just as awesome as ever. Seriously, why can’t I have a best friend as amazing as Hyung Tae?
Even the secondary characters (although there weren’t really any) weren’t annoying. They all turned out to be amazing. I didn’t hate one second of it and I was never bored.
@ 97 xiahxiri – I AM IN LOVE WITH DEAN FUJIOKA (aka Secondary Male in Miss No Good). Seriously, he’s like the most beautiful creature on the planet. And his Chinese is SO ADORABLE. Just like his English. <3 (Although I’ve discovered that he also talks like that in his native Japanese, which leads me to believe he’s just a strange but adorable person.) His blog is just as adorable as he is, too, which only makes me love him more. (He did an entire post about a trip to the zoo on his day off, complete with pictures and comments like “BABY ANIMALS! <3″)
My roommate hated whenever I watched Miss No Good, though. I’d start watching, she’d hear Rainie’s voice, and she’d yell “OH MY GOD WHY ARE YOU WATCHING THAT DRAMA?!” And then I sucked another friend into it for Chinese language practice, so we watched two episodes a week. I inadvertently conditioned my roommate to hate Rainie. XD;;
@100 mishane – Oops, I spoiled you. XD Sorry~~~~~~ My roommate and I used Perfect Neighbour as our roommate-bonding drama, and we spent the entire show going “No, they can’t possibly end up together, he’s Secondary Male! What’s going to happen to make her and Primary Male get together? OMG THERE’S THE CATALYST THAT’S GOING TO MAKE THEM BREAK UP AND SHE’S GOING TO GO TO PRIMARY MALE’S SIDE AND–oh, wait, no, still together. ONE EPISODE LEFT. IT HAS TO HAPPEN IN THIS EPISODE. THERE IT IS–no, still together. YAY FOR SECONDARY MALE! Poor Primary Male..”
Yes, FTLY did get boring towards the end. Like, we all knew what was going to happen and the scriptwriter just said, “Nope. Sorry, gonna throw in another inane plot device to make sure they get separated for another while.” So yeah.
I’m considering so many Korean dramas at the moment, but I honestly do not have time for this. It’s a miracle I am still mildly caught up with Japanese dramas [they're short, so I can afford like 40 minutes as compared to an hour or two, if I want to stay up to date weekly]. I mean, there’s Story of A Man, and now City Hall. I know that if I get hooked onto Story of A Man, all my studying will go out the window.
I really can’t say I’m a Rainie Yang. I considered Miss No Good simply because I freaking love Wilber Pan, but then discovered how, um, horrid it was, and just left the thing, aghast. I mean, really? The hair and everything, and especially the way she talked. It was just too much.
I feel like Japanese drama-watching has matured my taste in dramas. I’m not sure why. And now that’s why I’m into things that have substance, now. Ironic, though, because I am still obsessed with Nodame Cantabile, which gets as childish as possible.
@ Kender
You’re more patient with dramas now? I find that my patience for dramas has decreased like exponentially. I now conduct like a “5-minute” test for my dramas – if it hasn’t caught my attention within 5 minutes, it’s not worth it. Sometimes that test is deceiving, though.
Especially now, with the proliferation of all these dramas, and with SO MANY CHOICES, you’ve got to come up with a good system of weeding through the junk and finding the stuff that’s actually pretty good. There are times, too, where I’ve mistaken good stuff for junk.
@ 97 xiahkixiri
To be honest I never finished FTLY. I think the last episode I saw was Ethan coming to the island when Joe Chen was teaching.
–Rainie and Wilbur Pan being rather cute in the BTS there, too (I can’t kiss him, he’s like my brother!!! AHHHH!!!!)–
YES! I need to download the BTS just for this! How they kept giggling as they went in for the kiss?!? And they would always make fun of each other? I totally shipped them IRL, I didn’t buy that whole ‘friend’ thing. If you’re such good friends, how come your making out is so hot?!
It makes me wish there were BTS for Rainie/Mike kissing. That would have been funny. (Although I did watch some interviews with them, and they are very comfortable with each other, always teasing and all).
@ 104 Kender – May 8, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Secondary Male in Miss No Good is Japanese? Didn’t realize that!
I never know these things.
Although I realize it now looking at his real name. I didn’t know what his real name was before.
@ 105 A.
–Yes, FTLY did get boring towards the end. Like, we all knew what was going to happen and the scriptwriter just said, “Nope. Sorry, gonna throw in another inane plot device to make sure they get separated for another while.” So yeah.–
Yeah, that’s what annoyed me the most about it. I’m pretty sure that’s why I stopped watching.
A five minute test? I know I’ve watched quite a few dramas now (it’s been about a year and a half now that I’ve discovered Asian doramas) but I don’t think I could trust in 5 minutes how good a drama is. I guess it’s because I’m new. I usually wait 1-2 episodes before deciding. But that’s also cause I hate starting something and not finishing.
My weekend = Story of a man marathon.
Because I want to understand every last bit of that Gem bby!
@101 hjkomo -
In order for me to reach where everybody else is, my evolution has to be quicker.
I spent almost a full week as a ggot nam pretty boy and I got all sorts of “hmmm you look different” at work (at a law firm, everybody walks on eggshells to be politically correct, especially when you are talking to someone who isn’t an old white male). Now I gotta explore the emo-kore side of me.
The problem is that there are no emo-kore k-dramas to watch.
Can I still watch Dal Ja Spring as an emo-rocker?
@ Taohua
YES, Cdramas are so solid. I’d voluntarily sub Cdramas for you, but I don’t think I’d have the time, LOL. The acting is definitely solid. If you notice, most always the actors/actresses are all trained like from professional acting school. Like most of them [the good ones, anyway] are graduates of Central Acting Academy or something like that.
Okay, wow, I need to start cracking on studying and writing essays. LIKE SERIOUSLY. And I need to stop lurking here. LOL.
@ 107 mishane – Yep, Japanese. I don’t think he’s been in any Jdramas, though.. He seems to be working mainly in Taiwan. *shrugs* His accent in Chinese and English is supremely adorable, though. If he learned Korean too, he’d be my perfect man.
@105 A. – Haha, weird, isn’t it? I think it’s because I’ve now realized that sometimes it might take an episode or two to get going, or to introduce a character that I fall in love with (i.e. Secondary Male). Way back in my early days of drama-watching, my very first dramas (Kimi wa Petto, Gokusen, Devil Beside You) were entertaining right off the bat. I then assumed all of the good ones were like that, so when they weren’t, I dropped them pretty quickly. Plus, I didn’t get high-speed internet until senior year of high school, so I didn’t want to waste time downloading dramas that I might hate. Now, though, I have ridiculously fast school internet, so I know that if I dislike a show, I only have to wait a few minutes until I have an episode of something else ready. ^^
@Chen Qiao En, I completely adore this girl. Someone said about TWdramas only being the last resort when there’s nothing else good to watch. THe very same thing happen to me when I stumbled on Fated To Love you… It was a bore in the very beginning.. but once it picks up, it got me attached. I was waiting for the day Xin Yi would leave Cun Xi, because he’s so not worth it. He made it clear to her that he’s only doing things for the baby, and that the one in his heart is his girlfriend, Anna.. and there will never be a place for Xin Yi. However, his actions are different… unconsciously, his feelings for Xin Yi had grown deeper, but he’ll never face up to it nor admit it. There’s a sense of loyalty towards Anna, that he ends up denying what feelings he has for Xin Yi.. in the process hurting her. I hated this dude for the most part.. So it came to me as a surprise that I started rooting for him in the end. There was a point of the big switch.. point that divided the drama into two parts. In the second half, it was Xin Yi who hated his guts, and it was Cun Xi running after her, trying to win her back.. and Xin Yi too was in a struggle between identifying between love and hate… whether to forgive him or not.
The cause of the switch was too heart-breaking.. you feel for both parties.. the PEN represented something symbolic.. it was kinda ironic seeing him use it in ep 12… Cun Xi breaking down while signing the documents with it just made me break down in tears also. It’s something that shouldn’t really happen.
Anna was the queen of all the villain in any drama… she gets her way ALL the time and she never got punished for any of her crimes. *SPOILER* I’m appalled they even gave her a decent ending.*END of Spoiler*
I really recoommend sticking out until it starts picking up pace…
I loved the BTS.. esp when Xiao Tian (Ethan) was kicked out of the boat.. and that hotel scene in Shanghai, I can’t believe she was eating kimbab (?) while doing that scene.. it was funny.. When Producer/Director told them they broke a certain rating score, it was so sweet seeing Qiao En cry out of happiness and Xiao Tian hugging her. The ending was blah.. but it was certainly about time for it to end.. everything else was nice despite the dragging.
@A.
I’m hoping Cdramas become more popular so that they’ll be subbed and there has been somewhat of an upward trend lately. Maybe if they start aiming for a younger audience?
I gave up on FTYL after episode 12…it took way too long for Ethan’s character to mature and Joe Chen’s character to get a backbone. And I liked Baron Chen’s character way too much (Ah…one of those cases where the secondary character is CLEARLY better than the main one).
I haven’t finished Miss No Good, though I might. Initially Rainie’s character and her voice (did they really have to do that? seriously…) got a little on my nerves, but I really liked Wilbur Pan’s character…but towards the later episodes Dean’s character was starting to aggravate me…so I stopped watching. Seriously, I only made it so far because of Wilbur. I was actually impressed because he was the only one that wasn’t overly dramatic or cheesy.
I kind of feel like with Twdramas, I’ve noticed actors improving (Vic Zhou from Meteor Garden to Mars to Silence or Ming Dao from his earlier work to Prince to Frog to Angel Lover), but the scripts tend to be pretty similar or the style is usually way over the top for me to really appreciate them. Though, I do think Ming Dao is a pretty descent actor (probably one of my favorites)and I think Ariel Lin is not bad either (at least she picks a wide range of roles compared to many of her peers).
@ Kender: Dean Fujioka really is a cute thing. Awww, the blog thing is adorable!! What language is it in, though? I was getting bored in Corner with Love but I stuck around because he appeared and his and Barbie’s English conversations fascinated me. =p That was such an insane drama, the first half was boring and I wanted to pull Barbie’s hair, the second half was awesome. But, yay Dean. I hope he also doesn’t get relegated to forever secondary male. Although, he might pull a Black and White!Kingone and go psycho killer for the next one. =p A psycho killer with pretty, prettty eyes~
@ mishane: FTLY did fizzle out near the end. It seems to be the case with all that production team’s dramas, Prince to Frog and My Lucky Star, too, were awesome, but the end ep or two wasn’t so great. Really did enjoy FTLY, though. And I LOVED how they ref’d MLS’ main couple in it.
@ 115 xiahxiri – It’s usually in Japanese or English, although he has written in Chinese (traditional characters) before. He’s a little bit spastic at times.. I really want to meet him to see if he’s really that weird in real life. XD You can check out his blog here: http://www.alivenotdead.com/deanfujioka
And yeah, I definitely want to see him become a primary male. He’s so adorable, it’s a shame to keep him as a secondary male. :/ But I think he also needs to stretch his acting skills, since his characters so far seem to be pretty similar. (But with those eyes, who cares? *swoons*
Oh, My Lucky Star.. That drama was cute, once I got past the dubbing of Yoo Ha Na. (From what I heard in the BTS, her Chinese wasn’t that bad. Better than Wu Chun’s in Tokyo Juliet, and they didn’t dub over HIM.. o.O) Once they did the contract engagement thing, though, it started going downhill. I haven’t even watched the last two episodes, because I can’t see how it’s going to improve. :/ (”Tian Qi” and “Ah Xing” have become my standard, generic names when I need to write something for my Chinese class, though. I just loved those names. XD)
@47 Sere
I quite enjoyed Frozen Flower. I thought it was well produced, directed and acted. I don’t think I fast forwarded once, which I have a bad habit of doing. I would place it second on my list of favorite Korean movies I’ve seen this year, right after Nom Nom Nom.
This was probably the first movie where I felt sympathetic toward every lead character. I knew how it was going to end but I so wanted them all to work it out and co-exist.
Oh! And I watched it without subtitles so I have absolutely no idea what they were talking about. I’m basing my review completely on acting and emoting alone. It was just… awesome.
I knew going in that the sex scenes were explicit but I did expect there to be more queer scenes instead of het and I guess that’s because every piece I’d read of it was about how gay gay gay the movie was. Really, it wasn’t that gay. Awesome, but not so gay.
As for “too” many sex scenes, perhaps on a second viewing I’d probably fast forward through those. However at first viewing, all I could direct at Jo In Sung was, “Damn boy! You know how to work that!”
This was also the first time where I felt engaged enough to “talk” to the characters. You know, like, “Don’t do it, King. No, don’t do it. Nooooooo!”
Thanks for the response on Spring Waltz. I don’t know about 4 eps. I will try.
Get Karl! is exactly how I thought it would be so I’m glad. I think I’m just going to be pissed if Soo Jung doesn’t change. Either way, I was looking for a show that will be fun and mindless. Found it! (Story of a Man has commandeered all my other cells. Have no mental obsessive strength for anything else right now.)
@mishane
“Aw, How To Meet A Perfect Neighbor. I’ve always wanted a drama where Secondary Male gets Main Girl but I want one to surprise me with that ending but I never knew how to request it. Like, give me 3 dramas to watch and one of them has to have a surprise switch couple ending?!”
Oddly enough, this was the first time I didn’t want the main lead to end up with the secondary male. Something about them just never rubbed me right.
So has anyone seen “City Hall”? What do you think? Is it work the watch?
I really liked the first ep of Smile(jdrama) but I just don’t know. I think I need to wait until its done airing and go in for a marathon. Can’t deal with the week to week on that one.
@Kender Loved Kimi wa Petto! And did you know they are doing a Gokusen movie? I’m intrigued. Haven’t watched any of the sequels and I think that it would be in better taste to follow the manga special than a continuation of S3 but we’ll see.
@Samsooki “Can I still watch Dal Ja Spring as an emo-rocker?”
Of course, just don some of Chae Rim’s eyeliner (note: it’s termed guyliner for you), and repeat after me –
“I’m badass, I’m smart (check the law degree), and I’m sensitive to boot…..the evidence is in my new, kickass rock ballad. Tae Bong’s got nothing on me!”
@Kender
They did dub Wu Chun’s voice in Tokyo Juliet (which was another drama I didn’t finish)…I don’t remember who though…but it was definitely dubbed.
My Lucky Star was cute and I enjoyed it…but only after I got used to the dubbing, which I agree was weird and probably not necessary. I think the plot line/style had kind of a Kdrama flavor to it though. For some weird reason it kind of reminded me of Successful Story of a Bright Girl (maybe b/c of the plot? I don’t know…)
RE: k/j/tw-dramas
I like them all for various reasons.
I like k-dramas for the rom-com aspect. I think they do a great job of building up the tension. But then near the end if often drags out way too much.
I like j-dramas for unique stories, like time travel, perfect android boyfriend
, a guy pretending to be a dog, seeing the future, etc… but like others there’s often not enough mushy, corny love scenes. Also they’re a bit too episodic in nature so I don’t get hooked as often.
As for tw-dramas, I’m from Taiwan and even I don’t really like modern tw-dramas. But I do LOVE their ancient/historical ones. The production values and acting are SO MUCH better. Unfortunately you don’t see a lot of English subs for them so many people don’t get to see it.
As for modern tw-dramas, I think my favorite was Silence with Vic Zhou and Park Eun Hye.
And I’m really starting to LOVE mainland c-dramas. There often more unpredictable, especially the period pieces. Stuff like Love Story in Shanghai and Shanghai Bund are all really amazing. The production value, the acting, the story… WOW. Unfortunately they don’t seem to be subtitled
@ A #74
LOLOLOL
Those are perfect descriptions! I would love to see a pan-Asian drama and see how that turned out!
@ 120 Taohua – They did dub him? I never watched it, but one of my friends did, and she said it was him speaking.. *takes in new information*
My Lucky Star did have a Kdrama flavor, but it was still very much a Twdrama. I really did like it up until the contract relationship bit, at which point I went, “Really? You’re really going to do this?” And they didn’t even do it all that well. Plus, the secondary male they added in halfway through the show really rubbed me the wrong way.. I thought he was a creeper. o.o
@ 118 thisiswhyi’mbehindonmymastersthesis – (OT, but I love your name. XD) No, I didn’t know! I never watched any of the sequels, either.. I thought that the first season was adorable, but having a second/third/billionth season just seemed redundant. I mean, in every episode pretty much all that happened was that she kicked ass, saved a student, and taught people some moral lessons. I enjoyed it thoroughly for all of that, but one season is enough. XD
I can see why the secondary male/main girl pairing in Perfect Neighbour might rub you the wrong way, but I thought they were adorable. I just wish they had spent a little more time on how adorable they could be together (Can I have more scenes of that man smiling? Please? My heart seriously melts every time.) instead of harping on how much his life sucks and how miserable they’re going to be if they stay together. Plus, the whole mistress plot made me seriously wish I could hate him for a few episodes. (It was impossible. I really tried to hate him.) But in the end, that’s what I liked about the show. No matter how OTP the main guy and main girl seemed, he still lost to Secondary Male. Her life would probably have been easier if she’d gone with the main guy, but love is irrational, and she went with the guy her heart chose. (I also wish there had been more kissing. Half the time they went in to hug and I was like, “There can be kissing now please? Or..not. Okay, hugs are good too.”)
@Muffin
“This was probably the first movie where I felt sympathetic toward every lead character. I knew how it was going to end but I so wanted them all to work it out and co-exist.”
Me too. Or rather, I had a nagging feeling how it would end, but I wasn’t spoiled so the whole movie was like an emotional rollercoaster for me. Loved it! I was also very VERY impressed with the performances. IDK why, but I was a bit biased toward JJM and now I’m completely converted. Whoa! Seriously, he was sweet, but he could be also very scaaaaary. Very intense! I have never seen Jo In Sung before, but I’ll make sure to check out his past projects.
Anyway, back to the characters. Maybe I felt a little bit more intrigued by the very complex relationship between the King and Hong Lim…and yes, I’ve taken the BL goggles off. ^_^ IMHO Hong Lim’s betrayal was worse, than, say the Queen’s toward the King. I mean, Hong Lim betrayed his King, his mentor, his friend and his lover and it was even worse because he knew how that scenario could play out, he knew he was going to be hurt and he was going to inflict pain on the King and also the Queen and yet I felt his pain: it was like he was pulled in two different directions at once and he couldn’t do anything to stop that. Ok, these are just disjointed thoughts. I’m still processing the movie. *facepalm*
“This was also the first time where I felt engaged enough to “talk” to the characters. You know, like, “Don’t do it, King. No, don’t do it. Nooooooo!”
Dude, I KNOW! I did that in so many scenes especially near the end. And you can guess which one made me go “Nooo, don’t do it, stop it, stop it!”. I swear I felt Hong Lim’s physical pain. Blimey! I think that was a first.
@Kender
My Lucky Star did start dragging towards the later half, but that usually what happens with Twdramas.
I agree historical productions from the Mainland are pretty amazing…
The first Gokusen is the best one, imho (though I’m so biased…it was my first ever drama) but since I loved the manga…so for me—the first one is the best, especially since Matsujun rocked and he had awesome… AWESOME chemistry with Nakama Yukie, imo. I watched the second one, and it was okay…but not like the first one. And I think the generation of actors in the first one are actually some of the betters actors (even the guests) in the industry today. I also loved Kimi wa petto (one of my earliest dramas)…but I am still ambivalent towards the plot line. I really would like Koyuki’s wardrobe from that show…I hope I dress as classy as her when I actually get a “real” job.
@ 122 Kender
–(I also wish there had been more kissing. Half the time they went in to hug and I was like, “There can be kissing now please? Or..not. Okay, hugs are good too.”)–
I remember when I first started watching k-dramas, THEY DID THIS EVERY SINGLE TIME. Your reaction was my reaction. I’d jump from a my seat a little bit, get all excited and then sit back down dejected when all we got was a lingering hug.
Damn you k-dramas. DAMN YOU!
In other news, I’m home now and about to watch Episode 1 of Shining Inheritance (correct name?) and Episode 5 of Story of A Man (finally!!!!)!
@JASMIN…..if you can find it, one of the Open Threads discussions had a lot of really great places to eat and check out for Korea……just can’t remember which one, think it was around November,,..,hope this helps……my sister and I have a deal that when we go to Korea, we’re going to be total tourists and have our picture taken in front of the Coffee Prince cafe,,,,
@A I agreed with what you’ve said. Right on with your one word descriptions.
I watch everything, I have at least one fav drama in each. Though I know maybe 10 words of Spanish, I sometimes caught myself enjoying mindlessly some telenovella while slurping on ramen.
o my 5 tigers?! (djes, high 5!) They are the original original flower boys for me…and they can act, ALL 5 of them. (to this day, I still love the pre-moviestar Andy Lau trillion times more…)
All of them go thro their own wax and wane. Imo HK dramas reign supreme in the 80s with its influence still felt today (the original Shanghai Bund/Chow Yun Fat, the original wuxia/jinyung wave). Jdrama and Kdrama around the same time in the 90s, each carving its niche. TW dramas are very extreme, they actually have well done literature series here and there catering to MUCH older audiences as opposed to the crack ‘idol’ genre its now known for.
Please allow me to ramble on my new love: C drama.
C dramas r improving in such a rabid pace. It’s to the point I’m so ready to declare one a masterpiece, then boom, next an improved and better drama comes out of its dust. It’s way more often Cdramas r terrific than drags nowadays. It’s exciting for me as I do not need the dilemma/ frustration/letdown in picking what to watch. If the premise interests me, it’s safe to say now I can be guaranteed a decent ride. It has an amazing variety and depth with a great emphasis in realism (yet did not forgo the entertaining) + I’ve yet to see one that has a lead that can’t act at all. (I did not watch Mr Wong XiaoMing and his Royal Tramp/RoCH.) They just have the manpower AND $ to make the majority of productions gorgeous, well casted, acted, directed AND scripted. They still need to improve on stylistic/artistic elements, but they r newbies in dramaland. The short end is they are so realistic, too realistic, at times the drama have too much a docu feel to them (like watching a PBS Frontline), you need quite an immense knowledge of the subject matter, be it the Chinese military, its socio-economical landscape, or its history. So there is no way, no how in the next 5 years it’s going to come up with an escapist/idol drama ala HYD. Even with its vast variety, I still haven’t come across a fantastically fluffy Chinese romcom.
I thoroughly enjoyed Chinese Style Divorce (Chen Dao Ming is one of THE best living actors), LoCH2008 with Ariel Lin and Wu Ge was surprising great as well. I’ve just started one episode on a (so not my thing) military drama 我的团长我的团… but I’m wowed! ALL the historical dramas r TERRIFIC. How I wish when I was studying Chinese history I can just watch these instead (accuracy has no significance when up against entertainment value, I don’t rem one bit of what I learned all those years anyways)
@ 125 mishane – The problem is, the two are together from pretty much the middle of the show, so that’s, like, 10 full episodes of togetherness with only two kisses that I recall, and only one of the kisses had any real depth. Since most Kdrama couples don’t get together until the last quarter of the show, I don’t get as worked up about it anymore. But in this one, I was like, “You’re together, you love each other, why isn’t there more kissing? D:”
I think Haru2subS are calling Shining Inheritance “Brilliant Legacy.” I don’t know the nuances of Korean enough to care either way, so.. *shrug* I call it either or both, depending on my mood.
I totally fell in love with the secondary male pretty much from the beginning. He’s adorable. You can spot him instantly. Primary male, though.. The jury’s still out on that one. :/ Lee Seung-gi is SO SEXLESS, OMG. DX
@ 125 Taohua – Seriously. MatsuJun, Oguri Shun, AND Narimiya Hiroki? *swoons* Nari is, like, my Jdrama crush. I totally bought his photobook, and I NEVER do that.
Kimi wa Petto is still one of my favourites (sentimental value~), and so far it’s the only drama I’ve managed to get my mother to watch to completion. (She loved it too.) I’m still on a hunt for a white trench similar to Koyuki’s in that show, though. Her wardrobe was awesome, and her apartment was so adorable. I think it was a good introduction into the world of dramas, but I agree that I find the plot a little iffy now.
TGIF…..this has been an up and down week but who cares I am graduating next week (3 grad ceremonies) and get to chill all summer before jetting off to Seoul
Today was such a great day I got an award from my professor for being Outstanding Preceptor of the Year, and on top of that she bought me all the books about ESL to use when I am in Korea. I loved working with her and was really touched:)
I had my Korean final and it went really well thanks to the help of my amazing Korean conversation partner….and in 30 minutes I get to go eat dinner at Takamatsu.
I am feeling very happy:)
ON CITY HALL
Disclaimer: I’m one of the biggest (if not the biggest) Kim-Sun-Ah-fan. But i’ll try to be rational. Also my Korean is that of a 2-year-old kid (or even worst) so I’m not understanding more than half of what they are talking about.
City Hall feels slow at the first 2 episodes. In fact disappointing at ep1. I enjoyed all KSA and CSW moments. But what disappoints me is the fact that all their trailers/previews were bombarded with all the funny scenes combined together. Making me anticipate to laugh all throughout the episode… then finding out that the funny scenes on the trailers were all the funny scenes there is. Not that I want more funny scenes, but it just adds to the disappoinment… ok i’ve laughed about that scene already last week when i saw your trailer, next one please. Turned out there’s nothing more to it (well, there are a few to be honest). Plus it doesn’t look like a pilot episode. I’ve not seen as many dramas as you guys may have, but normally pilots must be good and catchy. I didn’t see it in City Hall’s pilot (though I might be missing it because of the language – but i believe a good drama doesn’t need subtitles to be enjoyed – of course who doesn’t want subs, but if it’s good, even if there’s no subtitles, you’ll get the feelings at least).
Anyway, pace started to pick up a bit on ep3 and finally they ended with a good cliffhanger (that may or may not be related to a higher ratings on ep4).
After watching EP1, 2 and 3… i just feel “ok”. Happy seeing KSA again. Happy seeing KSA acting all cute and funny. Happy about KSA and CSW’s chemistry (comedic timing chemistry at least for now). Happy about the ratings (primarily for KSA because her last drama didn’t do well). But that’s about it. I enjoy it for the funny scenes. But nothing more.
Finally after watching EP4, i was able to get the feeling that i’m looking for in a drama. You know that feeling after watching a good drama? The fuzzy-sweet feeling? I think i was able to finally enter their world and was hooked up at last. (FINALLY! dang to slow!) And i can’t believe I feel sad having to wait for EP5.
Still keeping my fingers crossed because there might be a possibility that it will slip and i’ll loose connection with the drama again…
*and yup! I do like the OST too. I’m addicted now to 그래 나를 믿자
@ Kender: Okay I’m looking at Dean’s blog and… *fangirl meter shoots up* He is so random and cute and random and normal! His blog posts mirror like half my LJ flist! <3
re: My Lucky Star~ I think it’s the most adorable thing that ever adorbed. It’s one of my favourites; the fun, cute, romantic cliche done to near perfection. Watching the BTS, I was surprised by how low-budget it was. And the actors were so cute. cold!Tian Qi I couldn’t take seriously at all, he was just a cute, pouty little boy. And Yoo Hana is awesome, the ‘oppa, xixie’ language mixing, grabbing Jimmy around the neck when he messed up his lines. She just looked like she was having sooo much fun. I wonder why she doesn’t work in korea, korea’d love her.
I think TBH, after kdramas and jdramas, I’d watch a twdrama just to watch people kiss.
@ mishane: re: mike and rainie’s kissing ~ I saw BTS for Why Why Love, and I remember it was hysterical, because mike was doing his kissy thing, where he eats her alive, and then the director yells cut and they both look away. =p Not exactly awkward, just completely off-switch. I honestly wonder how a girl breathes when being kissed by mike. Watching the DBY bed scene it was like O__O IS SHE BREATHING?? I loved the in the middle of the road surrounded by cars kiss in DBY – only in a twdrama. =p
I’m going to sleep. Night all!
@69 Kender,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your detailed and very thoughtful response to my question.
It is VERY interesting that you presented some of the key points that proponents of the new term argue: the beauty of doing cool and funky stuff during that term (study abroad even) and the advantage of just focusing on one topic. I figured when you mentioned your program that you were probably from a liberal arts college
.
Your response gave me a lot to think about. We are going to vote on the proposal in the fall (we tabled the discussion for this term) but after reading your response, I think I will vote for it. I think it is good to explore new ways of learning. I am worried from a pedagogical point of view — I still don’t see how one can go into depth into a topic in one month — but I need to be more aware of how my own thinking is limited because coverage and depth are not necessarily the only ways to learn effectively. I can see this working well in the Humanities and Fine Arts divisions, but what do people do in the Sciences or Social Sciences do! A lot of astronomy, maybe? Your comment about how students use the short term courses to get done with their general education requirements does worry me. Shouldn’t these intense terms be for subjects in one’s major(s)? Does this term become a dumping ground for the liberal arts core requirements? It sounds like you’re from a rich college which can bring in visiting scholars; what happens if the college doesn’t have a large endowment?
Sorry — you don’t have to answer those questions…I am thinking out loud.
Again, thank so much for your really comprehensive response. I honestly was expecting a “Yeah, I like the term. Whatevs” kind of response, so the fact that you took the time to respond with so much care is greatly appreciated.
@ mookie
Oh. My. God. Chinese dramas are definitely rapidly growing in pace. Someone mentioned that Chinese dramas don’t cater to younger audiences. There are instances where they have attempted to make “idol dramas” which are meant to cater to younger audiences, but instead they have turned out to just be flops and ways for the newly emerging “idol companies” to promote their artists. China’s pretty new to all of this, so… yeah. But all I can say about the “idol dramas” are that they have been pretty crappy in quality. I think it’s because they don’t understand or really are good at creating that type of genre – unlike Taiwanese dramas, which just seems to chug out generic, stock “idol dramas” one after another.
Though, there has been one instance where a so-called “idol drama” turned out pretty well. But it’s not really an “idol drama” at all, despite its classification – I think almost all of the actors and actresses were graduates of the Central Acting Academy, so that’s saying something. Ugly Wudi, or 丑女无敌, is really really good and funny. But it’s more of a daily drama, and it has like several seasons going. The story is based off of Ugly Betty, or whatever the original was.
But I generally watch Chinese dramas for their awesome historical dramas. They are just so fascinating and there’s the great budgets to make everything look pretty. The cinematography, I think, has improved so much from before. Japanese dramas also have really nice cinematography, but there is definitely a different style to Chinese dramas. There’s a more grandiose feeling with Chinese cinematography. Plus, I love watching the martial arts stuff. I’m like a Jin Yong junkie – I have read all of his books at least once. LOL.
Right now I’m watching 潜伏, or Lurk, with my parents. It is just so good. The acting is unbelievably solid and despite political implications or whatnot, it is very very interesting. And very good. And I love all the actors. I feel like I’m saying the same thing over and over again.
I also love Struggle, or 奋斗.
It’s interesting, because usually my Chinese drama viewing experience is limited to stuff like historical dramas – it’s how I’m like a Chinese ancient history junkie and stuff. The strong feeling of realism in Chinese dramas too, is definitely a plus plus plus factor. I’m looking forward to watching Huang Xiaoming’s new drama with the girl in Struggle. Freaking.
Guys, stop gushing about C/TW/Thai/etc dramas please! You’ll get me addicted, I just know it! I totally didn’t take notes of all the dramas you recced! Nuh uh. *backs away slowly*
@ 131 xiahxiri – INORITE? I totally spent, like, a week fangirling on my LJ just about his blog. *squish*
Yoo Hana has been in a Korean drama.. I don’t remember what it is, because I never saw it, but I remember looking at her Dramawiki page and thinking, “Hey, look, she HAS done something in Korean!”
And “adorbed” is now entering my fangirl vocabulary. XD
—
@ 132 Nom Kitteh – Haha, no problem! I enjoy talking about things I have experience with.
Not everything can be used for a Gen Ed, though. There are actually a few Gen Eds that you CANNOT get during May term–I’ve yet to see one for the U.S. Diversity credit, which is unfortunate, since that’s everyone’s least favourite Gen Ed to get. Sometimes some May term courses are required–I have several friends majoring in Physics who are taking a required course in experimental physics (this course is only offered in May). Even though they’re trapped in lab from 9am until sometime in the evening, they still seem to really enjoy the May term as well. The course I took last May (Cross-cultural Communication) was for my major, too. Not everything can be counted for a major, of course, but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. After all, aren’t we going to college to become well-rounded individuals as well as to study?
May term is what you make of it, much like the rest of the year. I could spend my time doing the bare minimum of courses for my major, filling up the rest of my time with random things like Ceramics or the myriad film classes we have, but I choose to make the most of what my school has to offer, which is why I’ve exhausted almost everything in my major. It’s only now, at the tail-end of my junior year, that I’m finding myself having to scrape the bottom of the course catalog for interesting classes, since I’m done with both my major and minor and yet still need some more 300-levels. :/
And my school is fairly wealthy, I guess, although the endowments recently haven’t been as extensive as in previous years, due to the economy and whatnot. Most of the professors during May term are tenured, but the visiting professors we do have actually come from the area immediately around us. The professor for the course on Physics of Nuclear Disarmament is the husband of one of my Japanese professors (he’s mostly retired now, but he used to teach Physics full-time at my university), and my current Indian dance professor is a professional dancer from the area who has her Ph.D. in classical Indian dance. We’re also one of three universities in our town (there’s one public state school, one community college, and then our private school), so we tend to just hire them briefly for that month–no need to provide lodging or anything, since they all live here anyway.
—-
@ 134 Sere – C’mon, you know you want to watch them~
@ 123 Sere
Regarding A Frozen Flower character development, I wish we had seen more of the earlier relationship between the King and Hong Lim. THAT’S the love story I wanted to see. I mean, the young King appeared to fall in love with Hong Lim at first sight. I want to know at what point were his feelings reciprocated? I want to know if Hong Lim’s affections toward the King were more based upon duty and service rather than innate desire. Is that why he fell so quickly and powerfully for the Queen? *LOL* I probably should have waited for a subtitled version and perhaps I wouldn’t have so many unanswered questions.
THAT scene?! THE scene?! Oh. My. God. I was so shocked! I like, lost it! You don’t even see the actual deed, but the emotional build up to it, the virtual pathos dripping from every player was brutal and intense. It was acted with complete and utter perfection by all.
I like Jo In Sung and have seen several of his works. He’s an engaging guy. While I may not always enjoy the production, I’ve always enjoyed him.
Woah, Javabeans just found this article from koreantimes.co.kr about Korea’s body types inclined with alphabets as a description and the author (James Turnbull) mentioned your site & even quoted you… hmmmm, I maybe wrong, but I think Koreantimes.co.kr is a bit of a counterpart of Timesonline.co.uk or Times.com??? lol… Anyways, here’s the linked to the article: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/05/117_44576.html
Ok, so if you read this already, just ignore my post because I’m always a bit impulsive on things….cheers ^^
@ samsooki
i definitely want to take a few days and just tour the city as a local. noreabang is definitely on top of our list right after eating at a food stall and visiting a sauna. i was just chatting with my friend and told her that there are so many things that we want to see and experience and it’s already starting to feel like our 2 week vacation won’t give us enough time to fully enjoy everything that south korea has to offer. which could also be a good thing, that way it would give us more reason to want to go back and explore a little bit more.
@ 126 simi
thanks for the tip about previous threads. i might have to go back and do some digging. the coffee prince cafe also happens to be on our list. this whole trip actually all came about because my friends and i are also fans of the blog k-popped.com and we saw postings of the girls trip to seoul and thought we needed to make the same trek. the girls over at that blog also happened to have the cafe on their list of things to see.
we were also wondering how easy it would be to get tickets to some of the music or variety shows. i think that would just totally top off our trip if we got to go to a taping and see any celebrity in the flesh.
@ 128 Kender
I’m currently watching Shining Inheritance right now. The lead girl is ADORABLE!
The lead male looks like a little boy playing dress up.
Is the secondary male the friend that came to pick our lead girl up? He’s giving off those vibes.
I’m not even halfway through and I’m liking it already. I haven’t seen a k-drama do the whole Cinderella storyline. However, the lead male isn’t interesting to me at the moment. Once again, it feels like a recycled k-drama hero.
Spoiled, cocky and with emo-hair.
@mie
“just started “story of a man” and am rewatching “resurrection” as well. i really have a thing for revenge stories (fave book is “the count of monte cristo”). am in revenge story heaven. these are the best k-dramas because there’s never a dull moment and the plot is always barrelling forward.”
I read somewhere that the writer of Resurrection had the Count of Monte Cristo in mind when writing the story.
I think I’m going to watch Story of a Man after it is over so I can watch the whole thing in one go with subtitles. I’ve been waiting for a worthwhile drama and this sounds really interesting and my cup of tea.
@ 86 Kender
“My favorite secondary guy is Prince Yul from Goong. I ended up disliking everything about Goong, except for Prince Yul.”
Mine is EomTae Woong in Delightful Girl Choon Hyang. Seriously is there any contest? Ajusshi is so much hotter and interesting. Even though I knew how the story would end, I was cheering for him all the way even when they started to make him creepy and obsessive.
“That’s one reason I liked How To Meet A Perfect Neighbor, though. The show had way too much going on, but the guy I was convinced was Secondary Male actually got the girl in the end, and the main character ended up alone, and I was SO HAPPY about that because I was hardcore in love with Secondary Male, and although he was a bit of a jerk at times, both guys ended up being decent human beings.”
This drama is a bit weird and unconventional but thoroughly enjoyable. I loved it to bits for its moments like when Team Jangim goes to the Bae Doo Na’s house and the mom, Bae Doo Na, older sister and niece all stop eating and talking to stare at Team Jangim when he tells them he never ate a roasted sweet potato before. I can watch that scene over and over again. Bae Doo Na’s open mouth, blink and stare is really hysterical.
Also the secondary male in this drama has an effeminate, delicate look and mannerism that is endearing in a puppy dog way. I personally sometimes get sick of the overly masculine nethanderthal types in kdramas. I personally don’t find the wrist grabbing and dragging very sexy and in real life would deck any guy who did that to me unless its EomTae Woong.
@ 128 mishane – Isn’t she cute? Her autistic little brother is really adorable too (”PIANO!”). Primary Male is Lee Seung-gi. Like I said, sexless. He’s got too much of a baby face for my tastes. :/ And yes, the friend is Secondary Male. He gets really adorable in later episodes.
The show’s surprisingly cute. Not terribly deep, but definitely cute and entertaining. I watched the next three episodes without subs, and I hearted it the whole time.
@ mookie #127
kekeke
I completely know what you mean about c-dramas. The production values are improving with each drama. Especially the historical/wuxia ones but also the modern ones are improving as well.
I’ve seen a few that are really good… not as great as k-dramas just yet (because the tension isn’t as gripping), but I still like them.
Here’s two of my favorite ones,
- My Kung Fu Girlfriend ( 我的功夫女友 ) with Ma Su and Wayne Wang
- All the Misfortunes Caused by the Angel (都是天使惹的祸) with Li Xiao Lu and Ren Quan
* * *
@ A #133
I totally agree. My favorite so far has to be Young Warriors of the Yang Clan. It was just perfect. Hot guys, great actors, amazing scenary, just… an epic feeling.
I mean first, you have Weng Jia Ming and Amy Chan. And then you have Hu Ge, Peter Ho, and Eddie Peng… and even the bad guys like He Jian Ze and Yuan Hong—OMG, was he charismatic—were amazing. That series was a like a fangirls dream!!
(And I think there’s English subs for that series)
* * *
@ Sere #134
kekeke
What really sucks though is that a lot of c-dramas don’t have English subs for them 
I really wish these companies would realize they have a much larger audience.
140 nycgrl
If you enjoy a twisted revenge story with angst, have you seen A Love To Kill, starring Rain and Shin Min Ah? Warning, it’s SUPER ANGSTY but it’s my number one favorite drama of all time. It may not be uber intelligent but it was the first drama that made me THAT emotional. It’s like a sucker punch in the gut. I suggest watching it after you overload on sugar sweet dramas.
The revenge in the storyline is Rain’s character getting revenge on Shin Min Ah by trying to make her fall in love with him so he can break her (he believes that his brother tried to commit suicide because of her). Well, of course that doesn’t end well. Revenge never does!
By the way, I’ve heard of this Resurrection so many times! I’m a HUGE lover of revenge storylines. Where did you find it?
And I kind of agree with you on the Uhm Tae Wong in DLCH thing. I’m currently watching that now and I find him so sexy. Actually, half the time I’m yelling at my computer, “You’re SO SEXY! So creepy but SO SEXY!”. The funny thing is that I had first seen him in The Devil (also with Shin Min Ah!) and thought he was so ugly and actually really disliked his character, which is weird because when I started watching DelightfulGCH, I actually thought his character was ubersexxxy. Funny how that works out.
@ 139 mishane – We’re going to pretend I got your number right in my previous comment. XD For some reason, it wouldn’t let me edit.
@140 nycgirl – Haha, I wasn’t the one who said I like Yul; that was mishane. I was totally in love with Eom Tae-woong in Choon-hyang too, even when he became a creeper. THAT MAN. *swoons*
I can’t really pick a favourite secondary male off the top of my head. I tend to like them all. XD Right now, my favourite is Jun-se from Brilliant Legacy/Shining Inheritance. Prior to this, it was Joon-seok from Perfect Neighbour. (THE SMILE. I have pictures of him smiling on my computer, and I can literally sit and stare at his smile for half an hour without realizing it.) And prior to this.. Erm.. I can’t remember what the drama I watched right before that was. But whatever the drama was, I was probably in love with that secondary male, too. THEY DO THINGS TO ME. <3
…open to suggestions on Dramas/Anime/Movies (^^)
I started watching dramas about a year and half ago and kinda got hooked (I know a little bit of an understatement) here is a list of the Kdramas I watched all the way through….
1. First Shop of Coffee Prince – you know
2. Soulmate- Absolutely adore, but for some reason I can’t put it first , don’t know why
3. Dal Ja’s Spring- hilarious, smart, cute, ahhhh loveable (poss for girls only)
4. My Girl-ditto (sans girls only)
5. Painter of the Wind- a wonderful plot, really beautiful (and cross-dressing!)
6. Dae Jang Geum- awesome, a little repetitive but a brilliant historical drama
8. My name is Kim Sam Soon
9. The Last Scandal of my life
9. Goong – my first kdrama so it holds a little sentimental value
10. Delightful Girl Chun Hyang
11. Sweet 18
12. Full House
13. Lovers in Paris
14. Let’s go to school Sang Doo!
15. Spring Waltz
16. Bad Housewife
17. Boys Before Flowers
18. 18 vs 29
19. She is Nineteen
20. Love Marriage
21. Stairway to Heaven
23. 9 end 2 outs
22. Bad Couple
24. Beethoven’s Virus
25. Three Dads one Mom
26. Wonderful Life
The dramas are loosely in the order of how much I enjoyed them ±3 ranks (considering its hard to sometimes compare dramas of different genres). Almost none of them were judged with a critical eye but even some of the really terrible ones (Wonderful Life *cough*) still had their moments. Even some near the bottom of the list are really enjoyable dramas.
…oh and some Jdramas
1. Nodame Cantabile!!
2. Hana Yori Dango 1 &2
3. Hana Kimi
4. Absolute Boyfriend
… and acoupla TW dramas
1. Smiling Pasta
2. Devil Beside You
3. It started with a Kiss
I saw ppl posting about how distracting the vocal inflection of TW dramas can be and I kinda hate to say that I agree. But if the story is good enough, I’m usually on board.
I’m already watching/planning to watch the kdramas:
1. The Return of Iljimae
2. Story of a Man
As you can see I’m a bit obsessive (Must have lists!)
Java Beans,
I am a big fan of yours and absolutely love your site. (^.^) Thank you for the Soulmate endorsement. I’m a Hedhead wannabe so it was surprising (and supremely awesome!) to see “The Origin of Love” in a Kdrama.
…and the music video for today’s thread is sooo cool.
Yay Friday!
Go Big Red!
Congrats on being qoute in the Korean Times article
Eh? Wha’s with all these drama talk? I haveb’t watched many of them… so I guess I’m not qualified to judge them…
And thanks for telling mre that frozen flower was ‘r’ rated. I’ll be sure not to watch it. I hate those kinds of things… Makes me so uncomfortable.
Whoa whoa what? JB was quoted in an article! Cool – did they ask you permission for these things too [you're supposed to]? LOL. But go JB! I’m sorry we sort of took over this over thread and started talking about other dramas. I’ll make up for it by getting hooked on Story of a Man. :]
@ Jessica
Yes, there’s a lot of eye candy in that. LOL. Don’t you find though that sometimes some guys only look good in the historical getup and not like in regular clothing? It’s weird – there are guys in Korean historical dramas that look really really good in historical getup but not in regular clothing. It’s so weird.
@ Sere
LOL. It’s okay. Now I feel like I’ve been sorta coerced into watching Miss No Good, despite my dislike for Rainie and her voice and her entire outfit/look and such, because Wilbur [or is it Wilber] Pan apparently is alright and plus I love that man. And I looked up the secondary lead man. Maybe I can sit through it for the eye candy… I hate when this happens.
Still little progress with my paper. Freaking. Oh, but Prom is tomorrow! I actually dread prom in the fact that it will take up so much of my time that I will have no time to study or to write my paper[s]. Life sucks. I just need to get through my last two weeks of high school and say goodbye to people I don’t like and cross my fingers and hope I never see them ever again.
Speaking of secondary leads [and I know this topic came up like a couple of posts back] – I find that usually I am sided with the main lead no matter what it is. Even if he may be a jerk and the secondary lead is super nice. Unless I come into the story with prejudices. Is it part of my innate nature to support winners? LOL! There are rare moments, though, where I do like the secondary lead. But for reasons unbenownst to me – I just naturally side with him. Actually there are times when I have sided with the secondary lead, then found out the girl doesn’t end up with him, and quit watching, because that is how upset I get at the girl not ending up with him. LOL.
I’m so childish…. AH! Must do homework now. For reals.
Ahh…
Just finished the first episode of Shining Inheritance (or whatever the hell it wants to be called!). I’m hooked. It’s got the base of a typical k-drama but with little nuances here and there to make it a worthwhile watch.
Once again, I’m NOT a fan of over privileged male hero who is an asshole who undoubtedly will get the girl in the end. So yeah, whatever to the male lead but the female lead proves to be completely adorable (if overly cutesy at times, but she’s a strong enough female character) and I’ll stay for her!
However, I can already tell that I’m gonna get really annoyed really fast with our “evil stepmother”.
@ Jasmin and others planning a trip to Seoul…
You might want to check out the Tourism Korea website which lists “Filming Location Tours” you can do yourself, complete with info on how to get to each site by subway. I found it here:
http://russian.tour2korea.com/ena/CU/CU_EN_8_5_1_15.jsp
It needs to be updated and some of the sites are no longer there (eg the hangover soup restaurant from Kim Sam Soon has been torn down and moved elsewhere, but nearby) but it’s an excellent base to start from, and it was a lot of fun trying to track some of these places down.
You can also join an organized tour (you’ll find those by googling). Here’s one I found, though in the end didn’t use (did the self-tour thing instead): http://www.goodtabi1.mireene.com/goods_detail.php?goodsIdx=173
I dragged a friend around on my self-organized drama location tour for two days; she’s never watched a Korean (or any other Asian) drama, but by the end of the ‘tour’ agreed that it was by far the best way to see Seoul.
Happy travels!
o *hugs* A. I’m sooo not a history bluff before, but Cdrama turns on my more ‘presentable, literate’ side that I didnt know exist kekeke, Their historical dramas are soooo fine that I once read up 500 pp+ of simplified chinese (which I cant really decipher) because of a drama. but please dont get me started on Mr. JinYung. If we have pedocrushes on say Kim Bum, Mr. Jin is my ultimate geriatric dreamboat. It’s too bad for the world his works are not written in the more universal language, or else JKRowlings will be just his amateur wannabe in creating fantasically imagined worlds.
@Jessica, I’m currently watching Young Warriors of the Yang Clan, it’s DA BOMB!!!!! (hihi, Sere) It’s seriously a fangirls’ dream. What’s nice about these young up and coming Chinese actors/actresses are they CAN ALL act, many r classically trained, with looks to boot, even if they r not seriously honed in their craft BEFORE they were out and about making dramas, it’s a prereq they r extremely talented to even earn a role, and that’s a win-win situation for us. Thanks for the romcom recommendations, will def check them out! (And Yuan Hong is mine!)
Can anyone please tell me about the f4 5 years later thing? I’ve spent the last hour on mnet looking for the second half and can’t find it.
47 / 123 Sere
117 / 136 Muffun
Finally, someone I can share my thoughts with Frozen Flower ( too bad I am too way down). Same with muffin I saw this movie on youtube without subs. I saw the complete episodes no cut whatsoever. After 2 weeks the videos were removed. Since I am not Korean I just relied on the acting and JJM was really great. He can really act with his eyes / slight facial reactions. Not a lot of actors can do that. But hey Muffin this morning from 12:30am to 2:00am (my local time) I just so happen to check on youtube and there is already an eng sub videos of Frozen Flower. The bummer is all the episodes with sex scene betwen queen and JIS were deleted. I don’t mind not seeing the sex scenes, but I do mind not seeing the other dialogues that are crucial to the story. Specially the latter part when the King saw it with his own eyes whats going on between his queen and lover. I so want to understand in English the dialogue when the King decided to PUNISH JIS SEVERELY.
I liked the movie very much, BTW the gay scenes were not deleted in youtube, how come there is discrimination, he, he, he. Heterosexual sex is deleted but gay scenes are not! Aside from great acting there are a lot of eye candies. All the bodyguards under JIS are so hottt. Even the “villain” sub-chief bodyguard.
Wow, is that even possible just having been PUNISHED SEVERELY and after a few days you go horseback riding, hehehe.
Sere, if you want to watch JIS you can watch him in “What happened in Bali” that was the first Kdrama that I saw with JIS in it. He is also in Dirty Carnival ( i might be mistaken in the title) but if I am wrong with the title, the movie I am referring to is where he plays a gangster (2006-7?). Even though JIS can really act, I am not a fan ( JIS fans don’t get mad at me.)
@ mookie
Oh my oh my. So true – I rarely ever have to worry about acting problems with Chinese dramas. And the new wave of actors – there really are some that are really really good-looking. They’re not as widely known outside of China, unfortunately [but, hey, on the flip side, that means we can keep them all to ourselves, LOL].
I’m worried, though. There’s a late trend of some trying to produce more idol drama-ish Chinese dramas. Whenever I [attempt to] watch those, there’s always a strange feeling I get. It’s like something’s out of place – what is realism doing in a storyline that is not very real? It’s just weird and strange to watch. I’m waiting for them to hone their skills in such things before I begin to endeavor watching those things again. It just gives me a weird feeling when I watch them.
[WHY do I try to study when clearly all I really do is sit at the computer and lurk in this thread??????]
Kender -
“@140 nycgirl – Haha, I wasn’t the one who said I like Yul; that was mishane. I was totally in love with Eom Tae-woong in Choon-hyang too, even when he became a creeper. THAT MAN. *swoons*”
I think Friday threads makes my head spin. I’m having a hard time keeping track of who said what. Kender if you think Eom Tae Woong and Team Jang Im are hot, we have the same taste.
@mishane
“If you enjoy a twisted revenge story with angst, have you seen A Love To Kill, starring Rain and Shin Min Ah? Warning, it’s SUPER ANGSTY but it’s my number one favorite drama of all time. It may not be uber intelligent but it was the first drama that made me THAT emotional. It’s like a sucker punch in the gut. I suggest watching it after you overload on sugar sweet dramas. ”
Though I have enjoyed the writer’s other work like MISA and Thank You, I can’t say I could get into A Love To Kill. I watched like two episodes and stopped. I can’t pinpoint if it was the writing or the overall acting that fell short for me. I thought Shin Mina was pretty wooden and Rain a distraction. Also I totally don’t have a sweet tooth for dramas. I like them bitter and savory in the tradition of White Tower and Resurrection.
@ 150 reluctantbutaddicted
thanks for the links!
will definitely have to take a look at them.
just have one question…are you korean or speak korean? my friends and i aren’t korean and although we have learned a few korean phrases and words from watching dramas and listening to kpop i don’t think we are well versed enough to be able to get ourselves around the city. do you think we will be able to do self tours without any kind of guidance? i usually don’t like to travel in guided tours (did that once for a europe trip and kinda felt restricted. went back to europe and did my own touring and had a lot more fun).
Okay, so I’ve pretty much given up on study, even though I won’t admit it – I’ll “watch” something while reading my AP review book so I won’t feel guilty. Right. And I keep scrolling up and down the page of the uploader’s page on Tudou [where I freaking watch everything] and I can’t decide what to watch.
Somebody please give me something to watch right now. I’m feeling drama-filled romance angsty. Like something that cuts the crap and gets down to the meaty romance. I don’t care if it’s cliched. I don’t care if it’s got stock romance plot devices. I don’t freaking care. I just need something romance-y now.
Spring makes me angry because people hook up and I realize that I have too high standards in guys. I mean, for god’s sake, why doesn’t a Mr. Darcy exist for me?? Screw life. LOL.
@122 Kender
Thank you. Sadly its true. I am done with the education but the writing…not so much. K-dramas have made me lazier than I ever thought I could be:) I am planning on focusing on it more during the summer and have it done before I move to Korea. We’ll see. I procrastinate entirely too much to be sane.
(I also wish there had been more kissing. Half the time they went in to hug and I was like, “There can be kissing now please? Or..not. Okay, hugs are good too.”)
LOL. I don’t usually have this issue…except in BOF. I needed more but for the most part it was fine. I’m not all about the sex and stuff on screen but I feel that for some characters in some dramas, their personalities warrant more physical expression. My usual problem is I think that people should yell, cry, or scream more. Not the irritating girly or the ass-induced kind but a genuine outburst of emotion. There are times that I feel this is important. Oddly, enough I am not this type(maybe that’s why I want to see it?) but I always desire this from characters. You know a real big breakdown, crying and wailing in the street. The kind that buckles your stomach and leaves you tired in the bed for hours. Like this past week when Kim Shin(Story of a Man) is confronted by Kyung Ah, I wanted him to tear into her, but he didn’t. In this situation I respected it, loved it even and found it refreshing, but usually, I’m disappointed with this result.
@138 alodia
thank you for the City Hall info. Hmm. I want to see it but I may need to wait. I don’t know what it is nowadays with the 4th ep being the charm. Usually, I’m ok with that but lately… just not in the mood. I’m going to wait until the end of the summer. B.O.N. may have half the subs up by then.
@143 mishane
That’s interesting about A Time to Kill. I did really like it though. I have to admit I was pissed with the ending. It was uncalled for. I felt a little empty when it ended. It reminds me of my favorite drama Crazy for You. Its odd that I don’t adore it as much.
“The funny thing is that I had first seen him in The Devil (also with Shin Min Ah!) and thought he was so ugly and actually really disliked his character, which is weird because when I started watching DelightfulGCH, I actually thought his character was ubersexxxy. Funny how that works out.”
WHAT! I loved him in Mawang! I think that is the funny thing. I thought he was precious beyond belief in that show and actually wanted her to find a way to end up with them both! They both seemed to need her in a way that I can’t even describe eloquent enough to verbalize.
It was actually his crazy in DGCH that made the show extremely redundant for me.I lost respect for the character. I loved him but not the character and not her silly throughout the majority of the show.
@Kender you are right…Uhm Tae Wong… there is just something about that man. I think its his intensity as an actor. If it wasn’t for this I don’t think that I’d love him so much. I’m still on the last ep of Nine Tailed Fox and though he only has like four lines per episode, he’s my favorite character.
@my dal
that’s a good list. Most I’ve seen as well. I’m also glad that others have mentioned the stumbling block of vocal patterns, etc of TW because this is an issue for me as well. Also quality. I wanted to watch Meteor Garden but I shied away because of how long it is. Don’t know if I can stick it out. Also can I dl the eps and subs from d-addicts?
Also good future drama choices. I need the world to see Story of a Man! Completely in love with that show right now!
Last…Chinese dramas? Any suggestions? Something good, no really good and worth my time. Tell me how to watch it(legally).
****OT…Just rewatched Crouching Tiger and fell in love ago. I study religions(for a living) and its one of the best movies to dissect! My question, for those that know, the Mandarin that is spoken during the film, is it modern Mandarin as in the Mandarin spoken today or is it more ancient, set in the time period of the film?
@A, well first good luck with your AP. ^^
If we’re talking about Mr.Darcy, the one and only guy that is not around in this earth! lol j/k….i love anything related to Pride and Prejudice, especially Colin Firth the BBC version!
I think with City Hall you get a little feel of Mr. Darcy in Jo-guk (Cha Seung-won). Even though the heroine is nothing like Elizabeth Bennett.
Happy Weekend everyone!
@ A #148
Oh I totally agree.
Especially when you’re so used to seeing them in historical clothing and style and all of a sudden you see them in modern clothes, it’s really strange.
* * *
@ mookie #151
LOLOLOL!
I agree, it’s a pity his works are only famous is Asia. I just wish he would stop revising his books though! He and George Lucas need to join a support group
And I wanted to claim Yuan Hong as mine but since he’s always cast as the bad guy he’d probably just cheat on me
I’m sorry for asking, but can someone like just flat-out explain the music video to me (though I know that kinda ruins the point of finding out for yourself)? LOL. I’ve watched it a ton of times by now and I STILL don’t get it. (And, yes, I’ve tried the thing where you watch only one side and watch it twice.) I’ve thought about it long and hard and just can’t seem to understand it! Someone put me out of my misery. :]
@ mzpakipot
I’m so weird, but… for me, Mr. Darcy is just so like fascinating. He loves Elizabeth so deeply, and what’s great is that he loves her for who she IS. And he is so tortured by that same love. Have you ever watched “North and South”? There’s a BBC production of it [it's based off of a book of the same name by Elizabeth Gaskell or something]. The story premise is the same, but the social commentary is geared toward the Victorian era. But seriously…
Am I like strange [or like a man-hater or something] when I love watching the guy getting tortured by his love? I don’t know why, but whenever I watch that, I start sympathizing like crazy and at this point I pretty much just start obsessing over the show. It takes a lot for that to happen – usually involving a spectacular actor. Like, even if the story is pretty cliche or whatever, I am hooked as soon as I see the spectacular guy who is tortured by his love.
I mean, I’m a girl [and surprisingly feminist too], so you’d think I’d sympathize with the girl? But no, usually I find myself siding with the guy. Is this a problem of sometimes making the girl characters unlikeable in their fickle-ness and inability to decide between guys? Maybe it’s that.
But seriously. Once the guy starts crying, my eyes start watering. What is this.
I might start City Hall. But seriously, I want me some Pride and Prejudice romance.
@ 149 mishane – Yeah, the evil stepmother is..well, evil. But at least her daughter (the stepsister) is pretty sweet, or at least not a bitch.
@ 155 nycgrl – “Kender if you think Eom Tae Woong and Team Jang Im are hot, we have the same taste.”
If by that, you mean that I have an eclectic taste in men, then yes. XD Park Shi Hoo (Team Jangnim) is totally the love-of-my-life of the moment, and I died a little inside when I heard that Eom Tae-woong had a long-term girlfriend. XD
I didn’t like A Love To Kill, either. I watched it most of the way through, because I thought Rain was surprisingly sexy as a bodyguard, but I lost interest towards the end. *shrugs*
@ 157/162 A. – Haha, studying is overrated. Much like prom. Sorry for the personal question, but do you have a date, or are you just going with friends? Going with friends is much better than having a date, in my opinion. For my senior prom, my best friend and I went on a girl-date to a local sushi restaurant, then we spontaneously decided to go to a carnival that had been set up in the parking lot of the mall. And then we went to prom, but my favourite memories of the night were the things that happened before we even got there.
I don’t have any real recommendations for you, but go watch The Story of Hyang Dan. 2 episodes, jam-packed full of adorable. If you find a drama that manages to get right to the romance, though, let me know. The waiting is always the worst part. >.<
Also, I was totally about to recommend North & South to you, but then I saw that you’d already seen it. XD Have you seen Wives & Daughters? It’s based on another work by the same author (and yes, it’s Elizabeth Gaskell), and I really love both the drama and the novel. Actually, I recommend you read both novels. North & South is a little deep with its social commentary, and Wives & Daughters is a little long, but they’re both thoroughly enjoyable for all of that.
And no, you’re not weird for liking guys who are tortured by their love. I think it might be because society has conditioned us to believe that women are the ones who are supposed to feel the most deeply, so whenever we see something contrary to that in a drama or film or literary work, it tugs at our hearts. That, or we want to be able to inspire such love in a man. Something like that, anyway.
I think Uhm Tae Hwang and his long term girlfriend broke up a while ago.
Aw, no one seems to be a fan of ALTK.
That was my first angsty drama and, like I said, it killed me. I stayed up till 4 AM to watch the episodes and after it finished I think I was depressed for 2 days. MISA was a good kind of angst but I thought ALTK topped it. I don’t know what it was about it, maybe just because everything was just doomed and no one would end up happy and argh. . . .so sad. That was the first drama i bought on DVD also, but I still haven’t mustered enough courage to do a rewatch of it. I know if I did, I’d be totally and completely sad again.
Ahhh. Prom. I didn’t have prom. I went to boarding school and now that I’ve been long graduated (from high school AND college) every time I hear the high school girls talk about going to prom I get all wistful. I never had that experience. Go all out!
Someone on my FL just saw Kim Hyung Jong (sp? from BBF) in CA and I’m so jealous right now. Why can’t they come to NYC, hmm? I notice when I see articles about Korean celebrities coming to the States, it’s usually LA. Why LA? NYC is so much better!!!! (Don’t shoot me Californians!)
@ A
Yeah, it’s Friday, forget about studying!
Since we’re on the topic of historical Chinese dramas, have you seen Wo Ai He Dong Shi with Vincent Jiao and Chen Hao?
Another good one is The Switch with Zhang Ting and also Vincent.
(If you can tell, I really like Vincent, and he’s also one of the actors that looks better in historical costumes).
They’re both really cute, sappy rom-coms. You should be able to find them on Tudou.com.
* * *
@ thisiswhyi’mbehindonmymastersthesis #158
Since you liked Crouching Tiger, I think you might like Young Warriors of the Yang Clan.
It’s 43 episodes, so kinda long, but really, really good. Everything about it is amazing.
I’m not exactly sure where you can watch it legally online, but you might be able to get it at YesAsia. They have English subtitles for it.
But I’m not sure how good the English subtitles are because the version I purchased was the Taiwan version and they didn’t have subtitles.
(If you’re curious, go to google and search for “The Young Warriors megaupload”). And you can find some download links.
Also, there are 2 versions of it, one was made in 2004 and stars Alec Su and Korean actress Chae Rim. That version is ok, but not as good as the version I’m talking about. The 2006 one which stars Hu Ge, Peter Ho, and Eddie Peng.
- – -
And I think the Mandarin spoken in CTHD was more modern… I don’t exactly remember, but I could understand just about everything so it’s most likely modern
@ 164 mishane – “I think Uhm Tae Hwang and his long term girlfriend broke up a while ago.”
REALLY?!?!?!?! :O *squeals* I mean..er..how sad for them? *brainstorms how to get to Korea to win his heart* (You mean Uhm Tae-woong, right? XD;;)
“Someone on my FL just saw Kim Hyung Jong (sp? from BBF) in CA and I’m so jealous right now. Why can’t they come to NYC, hmm? I notice when I see articles about Korean celebrities coming to the States, it’s usually LA. Why LA? NYC is so much better!!!! (Don’t shoot me Californians!)”
Screw both LA and NYC. What about Chicago?! Or Charleston?! I’d even settle for Atlanta or Charlotte! None of my areas get much love. ㅠ_ㅠ
@ Kender
I’m going with a date. But when it really all comes down to it, it’s pretty much the same thing as going with a group of friends. [This is mean, but, LOL, having a date also cuts down on the expenses, since he fishes out the money for both tickets.]
We’re going laser tagging and stuff afterwards, so I don’t know. I’m thinking it’ll be fun [maybe], but I know that I’m going to get a huge dosage of guilt for going and not doing homework or studying. Yes, deep down, I am a nerd. And you’re right, Prom is very very overrated. Thanks to prom, there was tons of unnecessary drama going on within the girl circles [which thank goodness I was not involved in].
What’s funny with prom is I was so completely lazy with it – I made my date order my flowers which were to be ordered for him, so he basically ordered his own flowers. LOL. And he’s also picking them up. I am paying for the flowers though. Oh my.
I have pondered “Wives & Daughters.” I hear it was pretty good, and since it’s also Elizabeth Gaskell, it’s another plus. But, seriously, am I masochist or something when I like watching things that I get very deeply emotionally involved enough for me to cry? And hence like to watch poor guys tortured over their loves [like Mr. Thornton or Mr. Darcy]??
@ thisiswhyi’mbehindonmymastersthesis
LOL. I am loving your, er, “name” or whatever you call it. [Mine would be thisiswhyi'mbehindonstudyingandtwopapersihavetowrite].
About Crouching Tiger. The movie, if my memory is correct, uses modern Mandarin. The Mandarin of that time period [which I believe is around Qing dynasty] is pretty close to modern Mandarin. Well, actually. I guess to be more correct, the Mandarin used is much more formal-sounding, I guess. Like modern Mandarin uses more slang and stuff, whereas they don’t use that much in the movie. The thing with “ancient” Mandarin is stuff that you’d think would show up in like the ancient texts – but that stuff was never deemed as “spoken” word because usually the stuff that appeared in the books was like a different, totally complicated language, that, unless you were educated, you would have difficulty deciphering. I mean, I tried reading an ancient history text and it was difficult to decipher what the heck was going on.
If there is any real distinction between the spoken language of the two time periods, I would think that it would be a matter of pronunciation. Pronunciation of certain words change over time.
As for a good Chinese drama, hm. It depends on what you’re looking for. But you could watch the new “Shanghai Bund” with Huang Xiaoming [whom my mother loves dearly to death].
@ Kender
Uhm Tae-woong
Yep. That’s what I mean. I’m VERY bad with names. Don’t even get me started on Tawianese names. I will massacre them.
@ Jessica
See, I bet I could study if I cut down the time I spent lurking in this thread. LOL. [Or the time I spend on style.com looking at Vogue fashion stuff]. You know, I’m so lazy I don’t even know what I’m going to do with my hair tomorrow. I am so lazy. Or maybe it’s because I am not at all that greatly excited about Prom. [I have a remote feeling it might turn out to be a flop.]
Chen Hao? I absolutely love her. I might check those out. Zhang Ting is in a lot of historical dramas for sure. I feel like I watched her in a lot of historical stuff. Have you watched the one where it’s called Liao Zhai Hua Gu Zi? I really really liked that for some reason. And cried buckets. *SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER* Especially in the end, when she like dies and leaves the guy with the baby. *END SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER*
Okay, on a completely different tangent, I am still not over the fact that Mizushima Hiro got married. To Ayaka, who is one of my most favorite Japanese singers. It’s not like I disapprove – I HIGHLY APPROVE. But like, what?! It just came to me so unexpectedly. Like a shock to my system. I was like, WHAAATT. Because, quite honestly, this was the series of events that happened leading up to this:
3 days before I found out: WAIT WHAT? Mizushima Hiro is going out with Ayaka?!?! WHAT?!?
1 day before I found out: WAIT WHAT?! Rumored that Ayaka is engaged to Mizushima Hiro because she showed off an engagement ring? WHAT!?!?!
The day of: WHAT?!??!! WHEN DID THEY GET MARRIED??! AND WHAT?!? IT WAS LIKE A MONTH AGO?!?! WHAT?!?! HOW COME I WASN’T INVITED TO THE WEDDING??!?!!?
Yeah. That was me. All that happened within like days of each other. A shock to my system, I tell you. And then like I found out that apparently melody, the Japanese singer, got married to Miyavi [who I don't really care about]. It’s like people are sneaking around and getting married and not telling me [I know, because, you know, I'm just that important, LOL jk].
So there goes another eligible bachelor. Seriously. I’d planned it all out with Mizushima Hiro – he can speak like perfect English, so we’d be able to actually communicate. I mean, seriously! I even took that into consideration.
@130 alodia :
No kidding! I see your name there every time Kim Sunah’s name is mentioned.
Yes, I do agree with you about City Hall as posted earlier. And about the trailers, I have stopped looking at those. They spoil all the fun. I have watched all 4 epis with Chinese subs. And then back to viikii to watch with English subs just to see if the Chinese subs are accurate enough. For the most parts, they are OK. Having said that, this drama really, I mean REALLY, needs good interpretation and translation of the funny parts, otherwise the humor will go flat.
Oh, I think epi 4 has rating is because of the pageant. Nothing to do with the cliffhanger at the end of epi 3. The pageant was a let down for me too…due to poor directing and editing and to a certain extent, the writing too.
I have already given up on CM. I was rooting for That Fool and City Hall, and up to 4 episodes each now, I have a preference for City Hall. I have exactly the same feeling as you; the addiction or wham is slowly starting to kick in. I think the writer has given enough small whams throughout these 4 epis, and you feel that you need to connect these little whams so as to move on with the story. That’s why I am looking forward to epi 5. But something tells me the connection may not be revealed in epi 5. Maybe epi 7 or 8. You see how this addiction can take shape.
Totally agree with you on the OST. I have another one that I like..it’s a jazzy number which I recall is in epi 2. Epi 2 has broken links now. Will have to go back to scout it out later. I thought there was a rearrangement of “Sex Bomb” somewhere too.
Hmmm….I feel totally spent and silly now.
Dude, I’m totally downloading Sandglass and Feelings at this very moment. OLD-SCHOOL KDRAMAS (and old-school Lee Jung-jae), HERE I COME. [/random]
@ 167 A. – Ahaha, awwwww. Poor guy, being used like that.
Enjoy it while it lasts, though. I’ve only had a guy pay for me once since graduating high school, and that was such an awkward date that I let him do it just because I wanted to get out of there fast. >.<;;
And LOL at the sneaky celebrity marriages. I remember finding out that Miyavi got married when my LJ f-list literally EXPLODED. Seriously, everyone was just posting things like “OMG MEEVERS GOT MARRIED WHUT? DDDD:” and I was all “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT JUST HAPPENED BUT WHAT? AND HOW DO YOU ALL KNOW THIS SO FAST?!” And then I was all “meh” when I found out he married melody, whom I really don’t have an opinion about. (I have a soft spot for Meevs because he’s the only Jrock musician to date whose music my Guitar God father has liked.)
@ 168 mishane – I’m sure you’ll massacre them lovingly, though.
@ mishane
Yeah, I think I’m almost the complete opposite of you in terms of drama watching
Whenever I decide on which drama to watch I have a tendency to first skim the last episode to make sure the main leads get together AND it’s a joyful ending.
If it’s sad, or if someone dies, then I often refuse to watch it, kekeke
But you’ve actually piqued my interest a little… because initially I didn’t want to watch MISA but I did in the end because everyone was saying how good it was and of course because of So Ji Sub.
And it was good, but very, very draining. Especially the few episodes where Im Su Jung was so mean to him…
Gosh, after I finished watching that I had no energy left..
- – -
There’s this one really good Chinese drama that is super angsty as well, but unfortunately there’s no English subs for it
It’s called Butterfly Lovers and stars Peter Ho.
The premise of the story is that back in ancient China only men could attend school. So the lead actress (Dong Jie) dresses up as a guy to attend the school and there she meets Peter’s character. They become really good friends but he remains clueless about her being a girl.
The angsty part is that she’s from a rich family and he’s dirt poor and so her dad wants to force her to marry this rich guy’s son…
(And since this is a classical Chinese story, the ending is very, very sad…)
Anyway, sorry I’m talking about so many Chinese dramas today, kekeke
@ 169 A
–Mizushima Hiro – he can speak like perfect English–
Really? He killed me on Zettai Kareshi with his lips. Pretty, pretty lips.
MIZUSHIMA HIRO ALREADY MARRIED???!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
he’s my current jdrama crush (the very top of the list), WHY??!! WHY!!???
@ mishane
Like hell yeah he can speak perfect English. When I found that out I was like ecstatic – now he and I could converse fine, and you know, proceed with our glamorous wedding plans, you know? LOL. If you look on YouTube, there’s one where he’s like filming some Kamen Rider movie and he talks to this kid [who is SO CUTE and I bet will grow up into this pretty boy some day] and the English is flawless.
Apparently he studied at an International school at Sweden or something. And hence the perfect English. But it is so perfect. I can find like nothing wrong with it. Seriously. He could’ve stayed single a little longer – you know, until I broke up with him. LOL.
@ Kender
LOL. That’s funny. I’d figure Miyavi would have a huge fanbase [probably most likely bigger than Hiro's] that would explode. It was seriously a secret marriage. And melody’s already like pregnant. Melody has a pretty voice, so I guess I like her? LOL. But then again, I don’t have any of her own songs – I seriously love the song “miss you” by m-flo featuring her and Ryohei. I could listen to that on repeat all day long.
Personally, I don’t think Young Warriors of the Yang Clan is representative of a good Cdrama. Once again, mostly the younger audience like that drama, so it’s very popular online. On the other hand, better historical dramas like Kang Xi Wang Chao (Chen Dao Ming) and Da Zhai Men (semi-historical, WWII with Chen Bao Guo) go unnoticed.
For those interested in watching CDramas, check out Farewell to Vancouver and Black Hole.
@ 81 A.
OMG, you’re watching “Lurk.” I hear from my mom that it’s a really popular drama right now in China, and that it has the fantastic actor sun honglei in it. I really want to watch it, but it’s really hard for me to understand some parts because it’s not subbed. I need to watch it with someone who can explain the parts to me
It’s sad that dramas like that get completely ignored among the non-chinese population
@ 174 A
BRB GOOGLING/YOUTUBING EXCESSIVELY!
I’m always super amazed and super awed when I find an Asian actor that can speak English, without an accent. I don’t know why. It’s just . . . fun.
@ A
No, I haven’t seen that series because I know it has a sad ending… I mean, I don’t mind if it’s semi-sad (like a side character dies), but definitely not a main one…
It’s one of the reasons I used to be so wary of TVB dramas because they have so many where EVERYONE dies… geez….
OMG SO SEXY SO JUST FULL OF SEX. I CAN DIE HAPPY NOW.
@ 174 A. – Suuuuuuuuuuuuch a shotgun wedding. I LOLed a lot when I saw the actual newspaper article. It’s, like four lines. So, SO tiny. XD
And yeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss, I LOVE that song! Is there an MV for it too? I vaguely recall there being one, but I might be misremembering.
LOL, I think mishane is going to explode now. Way to go, A.
I get the same way about multilingual celebrities. If they speak at least two of “my” languages (English, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin) with relative fluency, I’m interested. If they speak three, I’m in love. If they speak all four, then move over, honey, because they’re MINE. >D
ok, shock’s over…
Uhm Tae Woong, in ChunHyang i was like cheering him all the way, the first time ever i cheer for second male character (the second female was sooo meh, didn’t like her at all)… he was so intense in Chunyang…
@A, i’ve watched the video of Hiro speaking english…
it sounded sooo sexy.. well i’m biased so…
@ 170 omo
hee~ i’m a regular reader here… but i’m not a big drama watcher (though i wish i have the time to watch many dramas – my to watch list is growing bigger and bigger) so I don’t comment much… but if it’s KSA, i have a lot to say i guess… lol
“I have watched all 4 epis with Chinese subs. And then back to viikii to watch with English subs just to see if the Chinese subs are accurate enough. For the most parts, they are OK. Having said that, this drama really, I mean REALLY, needs good interpretation and translation of the funny parts, otherwise the humor will go flat.”
Thanks for the heads-up. We’ll keep that in mind as we do our version at BON. ^^*
@161, Jane -
“I’m sorry for asking, but can someone like just flat-out explain the music video to me (though I know that kinda ruins the point of finding out for yourself)? LOL. I’ve watched it a ton of times by now and I STILL don’t get it. (And, yes, I’ve tried the thing where you watch only one side and watch it twice.) I’ve thought about it long and hard and just can’t seem to understand it! Someone put me out of my misery. :]”
I might be wrong, but I think the concept is that there are two individuals who are going through their individual lives, and at the point of contact between the two, it is a reflective moment like a mirror, so that you can watch an individual moving forward or backward, it is the same, like a palindrome. The interesting thing is that both women are going through a palindrome at the same time.
What does it mean? Nothing. It is just a very clever piece of filming, directing and editing.
@153 budsdiana
Thank you so much! I ran right over to watch the subtitled version. Whole sections have been deleted by now, but I throughly enjoyed what dialog I could read. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into those.
And Wives and Daughters is by far my favorite Gaskell! There is nothing like Roger. He’s a little silly when it comes to Cynthia but got to love him! Worth the read, the watch, whatever. It was last book she wrote and published in 1865 before she died. Like Jane, she didn’t complete her last book but had written enough as to have an editor/author Fred something or other finish it up for her, for they knew where she was going with it. The film version I have is the BBC version they show on Masterpiece Theater. If I’m not mistaken the screenplay was written by Andrew Davies who is masterful.
All this Darcy talk makes me want to pop in both movies simultaneously and compare Matthew McFayden and Colin Firth. The subtleties that both these actors bring to Darcy is captivating. Oh Jane look what you’ve done to us all!
Did I read correctly…someone saw HyungJoong? I wonder if I will see him this summer. My friend would flip! She’s loving him right now. Him and a slew of others(kekee).
Thank you, Samsooki! :]
@samsooki,
“it is a reflective moment like a mirror”
Interesting reading — I didn’t think of that and have been trying to understand it from your explanation of it. It’s fun, so thanks for sharing your reading of the MV!
I am curious: if it is a mirror effect, then why is one of the narratives (the one on the right) nonsensical? She showers with sugar and blows her hair with a fan. The palindromic structure would have allowed us to read both stories differently but the pieces of the story would have been the same or similar. I don’t understand why one of the stories is so bizarre — what’s with the flower pot falling and the black cat? is the story about bad luck and how the girl who does the hitting should have been the one who gets hit because she’s the one who had a black cat go by her (except so did the other one)?
“@161, Jane -
“I’m sorry for asking, but can someone like just flat-out explain the music video to me”
I’ll give it a shot:
My reading is that they are in a time warp. The note “You Killed Me” is what the two “exchange”, and in a linear time continuum, there is no way either girl could have the note because at the time they meet, the note is in the mail (both of them are putting it in the mail). It is impossible for either one to physically have the note, and yet, it makes sense within the context of the way the video is made that both of them would physically have it when they shouldn’t. It’s headache inducing. And pointless, so I will stop trying to make any more sense of it.
–
@Sere,
I have been wanting to watch A Frozen Flower for a while now and have been waiting to find a copy online. I sense (I don’t know so don’t tell me) that it is not a happy ending story, and I HATE sad ending love stories. And I am yet to watch an Asian gay love story with a happy ending. Seriously, if anyone can guide me towards a sweet and loving gay story with the story ending with the two men moving in together, adopting a puppy, and doing crossword puzzles together in the mornings, then please send recommendations my way. So, basically, I am so completely traumatized by the series of sad endings gay love stories that I just cannot handle another one, so I am stalling. But i will watch it and then give a report…one of these days.
Wives and Daughters is my fav (yes along with Colin Firth’s P&P)!!! enough said (I wanna watch it now….)
@ shinhyesungluv, you have a good point. Those 2 u mentioned r creme de la creme, I wanna add Yong Zheng Wang Chao (esp if u r going to check out Kang Xi Wang Chao–the dad of Yong Zheng). But then these 3 r SERIOUS stuff, I would not recommend it as intro Cdrama (coz it’s too well written and acted and it’s tooo tooo dense for casual consumption) and I bet it’s hard to follow if we have little of no knowledge of the historical background, I watched Yong Zheng Wang Chao WAY back and I had like a month of NOlife. I was sooo hooked and u need total absolute focus as in no pee-breaks, no food/water to really enjoy it….that’s where Yang Clan fits, it has enough historical punch, action, idol crack (for fangirls), and it’s well done, yet it’s not insanely addictively !#$%$!^ good. I can watch couple eps, put it aside and come back a wk later and enjoy my dose. Yes, it’s not THE best, but it’s enjoyable, funfunfun, eye candies overload with good enough acting, directing and writing through and through.
For Yuan Kang, evil me actually hope he’ll stay in his guy2 status, under the radar for me to mine/droolz over. He has this amazing talent to make deplorable characters sympathetic and human. I would never ever thought I’ll feel for Yang Kang in LoCH, but he made the impossible possible.
Yes, Mr. Jin should stop his rewriting…NOW. It does not affect me since I refuse to read the rewrites, but he got those glorious books to immune him fr ever dropping fr ‘my dreamboat’ status.
Alodia and others, I did watch City Hall as well (ok just ep1and 2 with ff). I’ll admit I’m not as huge a fan of Suna as most of you but she’ll always have a sentimental spot in my heart. I only ADORE her acting in MNIKSS and I’ll admit I’m not a fan of her acting and the drama ‘Night’. City Hall’s humor is too slapstick and tacky, I didnt watch the trailers at all, but still, I didnt laugh out one bit. She’s alright, but at times I cringed when she’s being a bit to cutesy. I’m sorry I’m feeling NO Mr. Darcy fr CSW’s character. It was kinda watchable, but I’m dropping it, it just did not keep me fr not watching. Sorry if this is too blunt.
Hi! Sarah and all those who read this blog, including my sister, who remains a lurker to date, hehe.
May I take the opportunity to ask whether anymore episode notes on The World They Live In will be posted? I just finished the fourth episode and I am enjoying it Watching it with subtitles and then reading the episode notes helps me understand it better.
Please, please, pretty please….
@135 Kender
Oh don’t tempt me! My K/Jdrama list is already huge, if I were to add more dramas…ah I don’t even want to think about it. At least now, I can pretend I’ll eventually watch everything.
@136 Muffin
Oh, I had written this long comment in response to yours, but…I think I went off a tangent. You see I’m *struggling* with this movie. I don’t know if the way I read it was the way it was supposed to be read. Actually, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. I mean, no matter how long I ponder about this, the relationship between the King and Hong Lim seemed to me a lot more layered and complex (did I use these words before?) than the one with the Queen. See, my brain is trying to go in two different directions at once and…I kind of got stuck. That’s why I came here asking you guys’ opinions. I mean, on one hand, my mind tells me Hong Lim was really in love with her, but then I think of a thousands little things that lead me to believe he had feelings for her, he cared for her for a number of reasons, but was he in love? I can’t wrap my head around that. IDK, maybe I needed more bonding scenes between them and the all sexin’ actually worked against them for me. Don’t get me wrong, I get they were necessary to show how their relationship progressed and when I analyse all this more rationally, I think, woot, girl, if this wasn’t fictional, and if you were in her shoes, you’d jump him too if you guys had limited time to spend together. And yet, and yet, this is fictional…oh I don’t know what I’m saying anymore. And see, I almost didn’t even mention the King and Hong Lim because there’s no question where they stand, but Hong lim’s relationship with the Queen? That’s an entirely different can of worms. See? Struggling! I’ve been thinking of this movie ever since I watched it. Like non-stop. That hasn’t happened in quite some time!
187 Nom Kitteh Re: Happy gay-themed movies
Hm, someone mentioned No regret. It’s not your typical ending (no puppies and crosswords, sorry!) and I think you can interpret in 2 different ways, but I chose to go with the optimistic one.
I loved Antique Bakery!
I checked the list of movies I’ve watched and…hmm, there aren’t many K-movies like that, not that I know of. There aren’t that many LGBTQ k-movies to begin with and happy endings don’t seem the default ending anyway. Sorry. Same with Jmovies. You might want to check out Ai no kotodama and Itsuka no kimi e. Takumi-kun Series – Soshite Harukaze Ni Sasayaite has a happy ending, but 1)gah, it dealt with squicky topics so you better look around and see if it’s something you’d want to watch and 2)I wasn’t exactly thrilled watching it. I’d like to watch Bokura no Ai no Kanade, but I’ve not been very impressed with gay-themed jmovies so far.
I’ve heard good things about a Taiwan movie, Eternal Summer and HK movie, Happy together, but I’m so reluctant to watch. I can so feel your pain! I’ve watched many movies and they were forgettable, not so great visually or they ended in tragedy. You can say a lot of things about Antique Bakery or even A Frozen Flower (BTW, the BL is NOT the main theme of this movie), but they aren’t forgettable.
@153 budsdiana
Oh i’m going to watch What happened in bali sooner or later. It was on my list ever since I watched Rough Cut with So Ji Sub. *G* Now I’m even more tempted…SJS + JIS? I’m sold. LOL
You should watch AKK with subs, if you can find it. If you want, i can email you the dialogue?
Thank you for all the recommendations, Sere! I am excited to find some of these movies now.
I don’t mean this antagonistically, but am I the only one to not have liked “Antique Bakery”? I thought it was such a poorly made movie! It starts off light and fun — also, there are gay characters in the movie but i wouldn’t deem it a gay-themed movie — and then got so creepy and dark. It was like two schizo movies were put together and they totally didn’t compliment each other. Also, no action between the two main characters? RIP OFF
. I am not watching these movies to see two gorgeous men talk to each other, people!
@166 Kender
Han Chae Young is from Chicago, she should bring them hot boys here.
@ Sere – a word of warning on What Happened In Bali….though SJS and JIS are dreamy in it, be prepared for the WTF? ending. Another waste of money on a box-set…
Is it just me or can JDramas be too “inspirational” and non-subtle at times? Honestly, I have tried to enjoy them, but I often find myself getting irritated when the messages that gush through are just too goody-two-shoe-esque. Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate meaningful messages but somehow the way they are presented JDramas just don’t go down well with me.
I walk out of a JDrama feeling like I’ve just attended a elementary school class where I’ve been kindly lectured about HOW TO BE A GOOD PERSON. Love your family, be polite, do nice things, cherish your friends, and all the warm fuzzies to go along with it. I don’t know. Jdrama lovers will probably disagree, but I find JDramas too didactic.
@193 Nom Kitteh
Ahem, do NOT get too excited or your hopes up. “No regret” goes into weird territory at some point so much so that I was left gaping and WTFing for about 5 minutes. If you didn’t like Antique Bakery, I’m kinda scared what you might think of this.
As the Jmovies, weeeeeeell, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I considered more like tv-movies…in that they weren’t visually-stunning, so to speak *coughs*. As I said, I was very unimpressed with all the BL-ish Asian movies I’ve watched so far, esp the j ones.
PS: outfilms.com and asiangayfilms.com. Oh my, I’ve just realized the latter sounds like a porn site (*facepalm*), but I swear it isn’t. They’re sites with movie reviews.
@195 hjkomo
Got it. WTF ending. That doesn’t bode well.
@196 cubit
I wouldn’t call them didactic, but yeah, you are right. A friend and I were talking about this very topic and we both felt the same way. I mean, we watched Voice together (it is a CSI kind of thing) and eventually all the victims were good persons! They might have done bad things, but in the end they always had a reason and were justified. That was a major letdown! What could have been an amazing drama turned into an ok one for that very reason.
Ok I’m starting to see a pattern here. Many of the readers here are Buffy Fans, love Eom Tae Woong and love Pride and Prejudice. Is there some kind of commonality in us that draws us to kdramas?
I am like the biggest pride and prejudice fan (I have reread the book at least every other year since I was 13). I also own the BBC version of the mini series and have a P&P marathon every year when I can find a long weekend to myself. If I had to add any non-asian to my hot list it would be colin firth just for that scene where he dives into the pond and comes out all wet. How hot is that?
And yeah I love guys who struggle with their love.Nothing easily won is cherished. Isn’t that one of the reasons why we watch kdramas? Because it hurts so good?
Sigh. Just so unbelievably mad right now.
Due to some bad luck and some really bad advice, I ended up missing the Korean Music Festival tonight. Missed out on the massive Gee Gee Gee sing along. Missed out on seeing Kim Chang Wan’s band. Missed out on the GOD reunion. If I learn that the surprise guest was Lee Min Ho and that we got an impromptu F4 situation, or if Hee Chul pops out of nowhere to french kiss Kim Hyung Joon, I’m really not going to be a happy camper. WTH am I supposed to do with my $60 ticket now.
Gawd. Just so angry right now.
@nycgirl,
“Many of the readers here are Buffy Fans, love Eom Tae Woong and love Pride and Prejudice. Is there some kind of commonality in us that draws us to kdramas?”
Yup. Men with awesome hair in tight trousers. I’m sure literate snark, interesting men, and free-thinking heroines have something to do with it. But, really, it’s about the men with awesome hair in tight trousers.
200!!!!
Bah. That didn’t cheer me up either.
@ belleza
That sucks. Kim Chang Wan’s band was playing, too? I still haven’t had a chance to watch them on Neverending Story. Is the Korean Music Festival and annual event? If I weren’t headed down there in two weeks, I would’ve tried to go.
@ nycgrl
Colin Firth after a swim? yummy…. Matthew Macfadyen at dawn? delicious….. but my vote still goes to Richard Armitage watching Margaret ride off in the snow, desperately wishing her to look back. *melts*
Off to watch what Joss has in store for the season finale of Dollhouse…
*hugs* Belleza
Happy Mom’s day!
gah, y brought up P&P? I need to dig that out to rewatch… (nycgirl, I do that yearly ritual too….it was esp trying for my gfs when I keep replaying it at our get togs for a wedding prep….)
yes, it’s the tights…and CF in a wet shirt @Pemberley *looking innocently violated when Lizzy cant take her eyes off him..
I’m not really a fan of the 05 movie though, that Darcy is not attractive to me.
Re : What happened in Bali,
WTF ending? hahaha. It’s one of my all time favorite Kdramas.
I was waiting for job interviews when I watched it, so I had plenty of time, and I was really drawn into the story.
It was the first time *I think* I watched drama with strong female lead, Ha Ji Won doesn’t easily ‘give up’ to the richer man, and she fights back with JIS’s character’s evil mother.
During the drama, I kept thinking, hell, I can really understand why HJW drawn to JIS character, despite his annoying snob spoiled irrespondsible attitude.
I pity him so much, and when finally I saw the ending, I cried the whole day. ( luckily I didn’t have to go anywhere the day after, it’d be embarrassing to explain my red eyes in a job interview )
It stucked in my head for weeks, but then I can understand about the ending, and I like it! It wouldn’t be so memorable to me if the ending went to the other way.
WHIB made me want to watch more ‘dark’ dramas, and I now almost never complain about any sad endings.
Sere, I think you should give it try. It is worth to watch. really. if not, you can always look for me here to complain and argue.
Hugs Belleza.
@203 djes
Yeah, I’ll give it a try. When I’m done with a couple *coughs* of dramas I’ve started.
@198 nycgrl Re: P&P
Whee, so many fans! I love that book too. I think Mr Darcy was my first literary crush *headdesk* My fave adaptation is the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
“And yeah I love guys who struggle with their love.Nothing easily won is cherished. Isn’t that one of the reasons why we watch kdramas? Because it hurts so good?”
That is definately one of the reasons why I watch kdramas!
@every P&P fan out there
Have you guys watched Lost in Austen? Regardless of the plot that may make some fans shudder and run away screaming, I think Elliot Cowan was a nice Mr Darcy. He’s no Colin Firth, but I surprisingly didn’t hate him. Which kind of happens often to me with non-Firth Mr Darcies.
@199, Belleza,
“Due to some bad luck and some really bad advice, I ended up missing the Korean Music Festival tonight.”
I don’t get how bad luck and bad advice made you miss an event like that…
Hope you feel better tho.
Sorry for shouting, and I don’t know if this has been covered already in the posts above (I skimmed but didn’t see it, but then I am not sure if I really skimmed or glossed over):
BUT IS ANYONE WATCHING ATASCHINCHI NO DANSHI??? IF YES, DISCUSS! IF NOT, DOES ANYONE WANT TO WATCH IT “WITH ME” (for the next open thread discussion)?
@196 Cubit: I don’t recommend Atashinchi no Danshi for you because it is pretty didactic — pretty overtly so — but it is a lot of fun and it has a two pretty serious specimens of eye candy.
Brief summary: It’s about a homeless girl who becomes a “mother” to six wealthy men. It is a pretty biting commentary on the breakdown of family, the vanishing role of the parents, and increasing isolation of the individual, etc.
Yeah, it sounds like a downer, but it is actually a super fun show, very silly and very cute (think Mei-Chan’s Butler with a brain and a heart). It is manga-ish in the way the episodes unfold, so don’t expect it to make sense, which adds to its charm. Not persuaded? Well, at least two of the sons are super hot.
It’s currently airing. Try to watch non-stream or HQ stream because the sets are really colorful and pretty (unlike, what seems to me, the usual rather drab and dark sets of many J-dramas).
–
.
@Belleza,
Sorry to hear about your mix up
@206 Nom Kitteh Re Atashinchi no Danshi
It’s on my list. I actually even got the first ep, but I was waiting a bit to start it. I kind of suck at waiting a whole week (or several weeks) for the next ep. But if you really don’t find anybody, lemme know. I’ll watch it with you! I need a silly super-fun drama now, come to think of it.
@Sere!
Yes! You are now my Atashinchi no Danshi watching buddy! If you are in need of a silly, fun romp, this drama is it! I completely understand if you don’t like waiting a week for an episode. I feel the same way and was going to wait but I have been looking for a light comedy fix since BOF and tried this one and got sucked in.
There are four episodes out now, I think (I watched three), and the subs seem to come out super fast and there are good HQ streaming versions up. If you want to wait a few more weeks, that’s cool too. I will just wait to chat with you then. Your call. Hopefully this won’t turn sad like Absolute Boyfriend and so far there is no indication of it.
Are you watching Slingshot? It’s been good so far but I have a feeling that they will go a more conventional route and make the bad guy just a bad guy and everyone will gang up on and sideline him, in which case I might bail on it then.
Don’t forget MR. BRAIN! You have to watch it! http://www.tokyograph.com/news/id-4591
@thisiswhyimbehindonmymaster’sthesis,
I really like your points about Slingshot and how the story is about varying degrees of truth. Congrats on completing your thesis!
@Samsooki,
“I don’t get how bad luck and bad advice made you miss an event like that… ”
The bad luck was that a lot of stuff went on in the morning, and so I had to leave the house later than I wanted to. The bad advice was in taking some driving directions and then ending up somewhere where I didn’t want to. Ending up mad all night. Now I’m just sad because the upcoming week is going to be hectic and I really wanted to take my mind off it.
@hjkomo,
“Is the Korean Music Festival and annual event?”
Yup, it’s annual, and it’s a lot of fun. It has something for both young (i.e. SM/YG audiences) and older audiences (a few bands, some trot, etc.) Apparently, KMF effectively turned into a Kim Chang Wan gig as his band played 6 songs and practically monopolized the show. I know the Soompis weren’t happy about that, but Coffee Ajushhi is a rock legend yo.
It’s also a lot of fun for out-of-towners, because they often stay at the same hotel as the acts, and can actually meet their idols. Even if you’re not really a fan of the music, KMF is really about the happy vibe.
@all,
Happy Mommy’s Day everybody. Here’s a favorite song for the occasion, esp. if you’re still in school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK0GgLKUU_I&fmt=18
@ djes
I also enjoy dark dramas, and I don’t mind sad endings. It’s just that WHIB’s ending was too abrupt for me…hence, the WTF? reaction. In a similar vein (though not that similar, really), I wasn’t thrilled about Damo’s ending, either. After such a beautifully written, directed, and acted story, I wasn’t satisfied with the ending – not the turn of events per se (I was fine with that), but rather, the execution of it. That DVD’s a keeper, though.
Hong Gil Dong’s ending, on the other hand….I thought was beautiful AND well-executed.
Also, Happy Mother’s Day!
).
I hope the men remembered to do something nice for their mothers (yeah, I’m looking at you, Samsooki and kb
@208 Nom Kitteh
LOL Deal! I’ll try to watch as many eps as I can. *g*
No, I haven’t started A man’s story yet. I will though. I need silly romcoms now. I’ll be watching the ending of Flowers for my life soon and I’m pretty sure I’ll be devasted after taht. So silly romcom are in order to recover.
I won’t forget Mr Brain and the other zillion dramas I want to watch. That’s why I keep updating my list which has turned into a ginormous thing. *facepalm*
@209, hjkomo -
“I hope the men remembered to do something nice for their mothers (yeah, I’m looking at you, Samsooki and kb.”
Well, grandma, mother and mother-in-law all got phone calls, cards and gifts of the monetary persuasion.
Thanks for checking up on me though.
I know I promised all y’all a treatment and/or Act I for my Binnie In Space Revenge Drama, but it is Sunday afternoon, and I’ve not started yet. So, it looks like it will have to wait until at least next weekend. My apologies!
@189 mookie
How have you been? Haven’t seen you much lately… (i don’t go to Hyun Bin’s thread and you don’t go to Kim Sun Ah’s thread either – that’s why. lol )
About Kim Sun Ah’s acting cute in City Hall, I believe otherwise. I think that Kim Sun Ah is one of the few actresses who can get away with Mi-Rae’s role (acting all cute with this princess syndrome and being funny and all). I think her strength is and will always be comedy. And I don’t see her trying hard acting to be cute. Had it been other actresses (who can’t act well) I don’t think I can even stand watching them.
But, yeah, I am a fan of hers and you are not. That explains our different views. ^^
Ciao~
@ Nom Kitteh
I AM ALL CAUGHT UP ON ATASHINCHI NO DANSHI. LOL. But quite honestly, that is my “crack” J-drama of this season. It’s amusing to watch and all, but it really hasn’t got all that much substance. LOL. And I feel like I’m watching it because I need to see Kaname Jun end up with the main girl character in SOMETHING before I die, because he never ever does.
So yeah, I am up for watching Atashinchi no Danshi with you. The previews for episode 5 seem to be indicating a nice indication of what I’m hoping LOL – I am such a hardcore Kaname Jun fan, even though he has only appeared for like 5 seconds in the last 3 episodes and in episode 4 he [surprisingly] was there for like a minute.
AHHHH. I want me some silly romcoms.
Oh guys, if you haven’t watched Flowers for my life, do it, do it now! that’s just amazing!
@214, Sere -
We’re on Dal Ja Spring and thereafter we have Hong Gil Dong and the last 4 episodes of Snow Queen to finish.
My wife was really getting into Snow Queen, but she didn’t want to watch the last few episodes because she had a feeling it would get sad. So, I think she is sort of making her own ending to Snow Queen in her head. I’ve already seen Snow Queen in its entirety, but I’ve not said a word about how it ends.
Dal Ja’s Spring is pretty darn good, and the real star, without question and no possible argument – is Chae Rim. Why am I always underestimating Korean actresses? Before we started watching, I saw internet pics of Chae Rim as Oh Dal Ja, and even a fan-made MV of her on youtube, and I got this sort of negative impression – it was going to be this “oh, why am I still single” song on infinite repeat. And the first episode almost confirmed it for me, and I was going to be bored watching this drama. But, wow, I was so wrong. As for comedic timing and acting, I can’t think of another Korean actress that comes close? Maybe it is because I’ve not seen so many, and maybe it is because we’re watching Dal Ja Spring right now, but even so, Chae Rim is so talented! To quote Yoda, “unexpected, this is.”
I could talk about Chae Rim for a long time, she rocks! Still, Dal Ja Spring is an acquired taste, I think, for guys. I still feel a little bit uncomfortable watching it sometimes due to its point of view being sort of entirely from the female vantage point…
Okay, Sere and A, we have a Open Thread date for next week!!! (Sere, no pressure — just watch what you can and we promise to not “spoiler” it for you).
@A.: OMG, who is this Kaname Jun ( http://wiki.d-addicts.com/static/images/c/c9/Kaname.jpg ) and where has Japan been hiding him? He is gorgeous. Japanese PDs must be crazy because, like you said, he has shown up for like a minute in 3 episodes. What the hell, Japan, WTH? *head meet desk*
But for now, Mukai Osamu ( http://p2.p.pixnet.net/albums/userpics/2/7/798127/492c378c90c7e.jpg ) is keeping me happy.
I will try to catch 4 and 5 before next Friday, and we can chat!
Until later, and happy upcoming week!
hjkomo,
i’m one of those who doesn’t really believe in these consumerist ordained holidays. my mother is the most important person in my life, and i let her know every opportunity i get.
it’s funny how when i was living at home or close to home, i took her for granted. now that i’m living in another state, i’ve grown fonder for what she has done and what she still does for me.
i grew up in a relatively poor household, and my mother hasn’t experienced some of life’s luxuries others have. i do not have the financial means yet, but when i do, my mother knows in no uncertain terms that she will be very comfortable during her golden years.
@ Nom Kitteh
I KNOW. SERIOUSLY. I watched Himitsu no Hanazono with Kaname Jun and was so upset he didn’t end up with the girl – in fact, the girl ended up with NOBODY. Yeah, yeah, okay, fine. And then he took on several like “comical” characters that I didn’t really care about. BUT SERIOUSLY. Kaname Jun. Please get together with Maki and make me feel happy because otherwise, SERIOUSLY, what the heck??!
But yes, Mukai Osamu looks EXCEPTIONALLY good in this. He looked good in that Shida Mirai drama with Yamada Yuu, Seigi no Mikata… but this he looks EXCEPTIONALLY good. If Kaname Jun wasn’t in this, I’d want Maki-chan with Mukai Osamu. Hah. [He looked horrible in his last get-up in the Mei-chan butler drama. And that was just bad. It was quite honestly an eye candy drama, but even staring at Mizushima Hiro is not good enough.]
Ahh. I’m sorry. I accidentally slipped into fangirl mode. LOL. But yes, we have a date at the next Open Thread for sure. Meanwhile, I was afraid to watch episode 4 of Smile in fear of like crying buckets of tears and freaking out for Matsu-Jun’s character.
@Alodia, hihi. I knew we’ll agree to disagree. But being a fan is not really my forte. I appreciate certain actors and actresses when I’ve seen them awesome in one role, I’ll keep that in mind and I’ll take notice in their future works, but by no means they r invincible…if they keep churning out amazing works, I’ll keep appreciating them, I did try out CH out of my interest in Suna, the story does not interest me one bit (and still doesnt after ~3 eps)
I have probs with Suna’s decidedly coerced high-pitched cutesy voice and gestures in many scenes in first couple eps of CH, and to me it does not come across as natural for a woman in her late 30s (I rem her character is 36?!) I’m not saying a 36 yo cant sound and act like that, but we’ve seen her Samsoon already. I can go on with the whole ‘I think she still comes across as Samsoon’ tangent (which I noticed too in a lesser extent in Night), which is heartbreaking for me to be honest. Coz I thought she is better than that, I’ve seen all her previous works also during my craze for everything mnikss, and I’ve seen her in diff roles which she can competently handle. So it’s a mix of I knew she can give a diff take to her character in CH, but yet I still see the safe Samsoon-ism. Not every 30 sth single lady HAS to be a replica of Samsoon. I may be odd in totally hating seeing an actor/actress reliving an endearing role, but it does underwhelm me.
CH also have probs with the plot, I’m flipping thro ep4 now, and I’m not sure if a total ep of pagent is considered my kind of fun, I just thought a lot of the twists and turns of the drama r predictable and nonessential…therefore again I can either call it draggy/boring.
All in all, it’s a decent drama, the acting (Suna’s also of coz) is not problematic, but it is predictable and I do not appreciate the cliched slapstick ‘humor’. Die-hard fans (ie will watch anything and everything AND enjoy just seeing them onscreen) of both stars will find enough fodder to excite them.
@ kb
I hear you about consumerist-ordained holidays. All we do is send simple cards and call our moms. We don’t make big deals of birthdays, either, but if the person you love most doesn’t even wish you a Happy Birthday, wouldn’t you feel…a little forgotten? After all, it is the thought that counts…even if you’re thinking of that person every single other day of the year.
@216 Samsooki
Eh, you know, sometimes I make up my own ending as well. LOL But it usually happens with American/European shows that tend to disappoint me a lot more often than kdramas. I think that’s because I know what to expect -sort of- from Kdramas.
Ah I can’t wait to hear your opinion on Hong Gil Dong. I’ve dropped it after 4/5 eps, but I might be persuaded to watch more. *g*
Anyway, back to Flowers for my life. I highly rec it. It shot to #1 of my top list! The acting, the script, the characters, the editing and directing…everything was top notch! I laughed and cried and it was wonderful. I loved every minute of it. Coffee Prince, which was my #1 drama, still holds sentimental value and I never grow tired rewatching the eps, but Flowers…I must admit it really is better. Ok, well, let’s say they’re both at #1 even though Flowers has that little more umph, if you know what I mean. Oh and yeah, I’m so afraid of watching new dramas now…I’ll probably end up comparing them to Flowers and I’m afraid of the outcome.
I can’t thank JB enough. I would have never watched this if she hadn’t talked about it. It’s really a gem!
i’m always so late on open threads. damn job! it always makes me miss the important things in life…
i’m a thai drama/lakorn fan… watched more of those than anything else… 2nd would be kdramas, but only whatever has subs… a few twdramas and i’ve only watched 1 j-drama (1 litre of tears) and 1 j-movie (tears for you)…
For Thai lakorns, i’m a fan of Ken Teeradeth and Chakrit Yamnam, so whatever has them i’m watching!! For female Thai actresses, i’m a huge Ann Thongprasom fan, so i always try to watch everything she’s in.. Aom Piyada is also a fave of mine, along w/ Kob Suvanant… back in the day.
***in case anyone watched Bangkok Dangerous w/ Nicolas Cage, Chakrit is “Kong”, the student of Cage’s character. it still irks me that they had Krit speak w/ a fake accent… such BLASPHEMY when the man speaks perfect English. but you gotta do what you gotta do in a movie role, right?
@218 kb
I’m not sure, but we seem to share some similarities in how we look at things.
I’m not sure to what extent, if any, you follow this principle, but for me, I dislike celebrating my birthday and I feel a little bit bad about making a fuss about other people’s b-days, etc. My thinking goes like this. I try to do what I can for other people, especially the closer people, in my life whatever I can do, regardless of what day it is. And I don’t like being obligated by an arbitrary date to be “nice” to someone, because I do whatever it is that I will do, regardless of an arbitrary date. Similarly, I don’t like it when other people are “forced” to give me a gift or whatever because of a random date. If they wouldn’t have given me anything if it weren’t for an arbitrary date, then I wouldn’t want anything from them in any event. If you want to give me a present, give it to me when you feel like it, not when you are obligated to do it, and then I’ll know that you wanted to give me a gift because you wanted to. HOWEVER, I realize that very few people subscribe to this principle, and so I follow the commercialized and arbitrary dates for those people who like to be recognized on their ’special’ days. I wouldn’t do it for myself, but I can’t apply my beliefs to others arbitrarily.
Anyway, I call my mom and speak with her relatively often (every weekday night, mon-fri, after work) and we get along just fine now. A while ago, years ago, when I was pretty messed up about all the expectations that were forced on me, and I really felt like I was living my life for everyone else other than myself, and I just wanted to disappear and start over, I went literally months without calling, visiting or even seeing anyone from my family, and it was hard on everyone…. man, it ain’t easy fixing yourself and growing up and becoming mature, repairing damaged relationships, forgiving other people, and moving on and up in your life.
Holidays are always crazy for me because I have my family and then my husband’s family. I cant imagine having a divorced set of parents thrown into the mix like some of my non-asian friends.
Being Asian, filial piety is expected by both sides and I often feel stretched trying to do the right thing for everyone. Mother’s day is pretty bad since it involves shopping for gifts, shopping for groceries, cooking, and cleaning up but times two. Both my mother and MIL prefer homecooked meals vs going out so it is crazy to feed some many relatives. Does anyone else feel like a drudge some days? I’m still recovering from this weekend
@225, nycgrl:
did you have 2 sets of parents over for mother’s day? did you go to one house and then go to another house?
Hi Samsookie
Two separate places–its the same for thanksgiving, Christmas, new years, father’s day etc. Throw in both sets of parent’s birthdays and bi-weekly visits to both sets of parents and it become a scheduling nightmare. When will I ever get time to watch my kdramas?
My sisters’ in-laws are either in korea or far away in the states. I have to say I envy them sometimes.
hjkomo,
you are absolutely right.
samsooki,
post #224 expresses my sentiments exactly. i think that’s why i enjoy reading your posts so much. it’s as if my thoughts are being written down by someone else.
@ mishane
OMG, me too! “Sugar Water” will, forever, be tied to “Buffy” for me. Oh man, that show was SO good. But, I’m going to have to watch this video when I get home (I’m still at work). Unless I can watch it and still be amazed without sound…
apologies…but this probably won’t that coherent :s …ANYWAYS
I know this thread is out of date (it’s already friday again) but a lot of the above comments really struck with me. Especially all the discussions on different types of dramas– i’m technically on hiatus from this (or else my academics would completely cease to be) but now i’m really tempted to pick them up again~ even enough that’d i’d consider a TW drama (which i’ve decided are WAAAAAY too cutesy for my personal taste– well, except for MARS. I’m attracted the shiny dramas much more too, but i was so impressed- especially in comparison to the other TW dramas i had previously seen)
@A.-
so true! you and your friend we’re really dead on about the one word drama descriptions.
@ mishane
Your comments on IJUKSA are actually the reason why i’ve decided to comment. it seems like our watching experiences were very similar. i decided to watch the drama b/c i wanted to become more familiar with Shin Minah (i was a JJH fan and this is when Devil was coming out) plus I’d seen Rain in Full House but for some reason, unlike the rest of the netizen population, i didn’t like it- and wanted to give him another chance. Somehow this ridiculously ANGSTY drama caught me off guard and i really liked it! a lot. I definately did the 4am marathons (there was one night i remember marathoning then heading straight off to the school the next morning)…i got so into it. and tho i wouldn’t consider myself a legit Rain fan i got REALLY into him b/c that drama…(haha, looked VERY good too). and the soundtrack too. even now i can’t understandy *why* i liked it so much but i know it did. I also agree (with another post? sorry forgot the name) but the ending? SUCKED! IT WAS A TOTAL COP OUT! i guess i won’t make a spoiler but i also felt empty after that. i couldn’t believe it was the end…ha, so i sat there and read all the other user comments on the page i watched the show through. oh gosh, drama withdrawal can be soo bad-lol
oh well, long story stort, mishane you’re not the only one!