Posted on July 7th, 2010
Drama to watch for in Summer 2010
GOLD
HAMMER SESSION!
Hotaru no Hikari 2
JOKER Yurusarezaru Sosakan
Kasouken no Onna
Mioka
Tobo Bengoshi
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Robin Hood 2010
Posted on June 13th, 2010
Robin Hood 2010
[Rating: 7.5/10]
It is the late 12th century an archer in Richard’s army makes a promise to a dying knight, only to find himself saddled with a task that will seal his fate.
This is the beginning of the outlaw known as Robin Hood.
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Movies Watched
Posted on June 8th, 2010
I shall start a list of these just so I can keep track
In cinema ‘09
Alice in Wonderland
Legion
Robin Hood
Sherlock Holmes
The Prince of Persia
Read the rest of this entry »
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First Impressions of Spring 2010 Drama
Posted on May 16th, 2010
In no particular order (based on first episode only, unless indicated otherwise)
1) Team Batista 2: General Rouge no Gaisen
I was quite excited to see that there was another season of a drama I really liked come back for a second season, although I was afraid it wouldn’t be as good. From the first episode, the two recurring characters are no other than Taguchi and Shiratori. Their dynamic is still strong as ever, and once again they make an otherwise serious story lively and humourous. In this season we are taken to a whole new hospital with a different case (although at this point with the title ‘Team Batista’ retained, I wonder if there will be any Batista surgery performed~ will just have to wait and see). One thing I totally didn’t know that pleasantly surprised me was the casting of Nishijima Hidetoshi as the main surgeon. I had just finished watching Real Clothes before watching this first ep and was like “hey, it’s Tabuchi!”~~
2) Tumbling
Your typical ‘rebellious teen reforms through a form of sport (and falls in love with a girl)’ series. Honestly I wasn’t planning on taking this one up as teenage/sport drama doesn’t stick out for me that much anymore, only there were two things: Tumbling is about rhythmic gymnastics, yes you heard me gymnastics, and not to mention a boy’s team (although there is a girl’s as well in the school), which already perked my interest more than baseball/football/basketball/etc… Gymnastics is one of the few events of the Olympics I’ll actually watch. Secondly a couple of the actors in the main cast: Yamamoto Yusuke and Seto Koji. I have not really watched YY in starring role, and I began taking more interest in watching some of Seto’s work after seeing him pop up in a few dramas, as well as starring in Kamen Rider Kiva. The first episode was not too bad, and I quite enjoyed it, I think that it has potential, especially in terms of the two lead actors.
3) Zettai Reido
I’ll probably be waiting a bit more to see if this is worth continuing till the end. So far the premise is like Cold Case, whereby a team of detectives specialise in investigating cases from the past. The thing about Ueto Aya’s dramas is that they’ve been a hit or miss for me. Sometimes I think she’s a bit too cute and innocent for some roles, though granted she often plays a rookie character. Kitaoji Kinya makes an awesome fatherly-type boss though. And there are some other familiar faces I won’t mind continuing for – Minami Keisuke, Kimura Ryo… well mainly both of them, although their roles are rather minor at the moment.
4) Mother (ep 1-3)
This one is probably the emo series of the season, well, compared to the others I have watched. Basically a teacher runs away with one of her pre-school students when she realizes that said student is being abused by her mother’s partner. The pair have to survive without revealing the kid’s identity while masquerading as mother and daughter. The girl, Reina, is played by Ashida Mana, and is really cute. I think the teacher, Nao (Matsuyuki Yasuko), makes an interesting lead her story and that of the drama itself is rather unusual compared to other single parent family dramas I’ve seen, not having that happy fluffy scene at the end of the eps… and her own family situation is also pretty complicated, adding to the plot. I have no idea whether these factors makes it more real or surreal to believe but it definitely has a unique flavour.
5) Sunao ni Narenakute (ep 1-3)
On first glance, I thought this would be a romantic comedy, but it’s slightly more heavier than that. This series is a take the increasing number of young people making friends online, and in this drama’s case, Twitter is chosen platform. It also deals with people’s perceptions of each other based on net handles, compared to the reality of their situations. The cast for this one is what intrigued me as you have Eita, Ueno Juri, Tamayama Tetsuji, and interestingly, JaeJoong ‘Hero’ of DBSK/TVXQ fame (yes, that massively popular Korean pop group that is like everywhere nowadays… not criticising it or anything, I actually quite like their music but am not crazy over it). So far this series seems like a mid-20s version of Love Shuffle, which means it’ll be hard to top it as LS is one of my favourite romantic dramas.
6) Tsuki no Koibito
Here we have a Pygmalion type story where a poor chinese factory worker is chosen by the president of a huge Japanese furniture company to become the company’s next poster girl. I predict this is going to be one of the most popular dramas of the season as not also is it a Kimura Takuya drama, but it also boasts an impressive cast list featuring the likes of Shinohara Ryoko, Kitagawa Keiko, Matsuda Shota, Abe Tsuyoshi and Lin Chi-ling (Xiao Qiao in the Red Cliff movies). I decided to watch the show for the rest of the mainc cast as they are some of my favourite Japanese actors/actresses. Regarding Kimura, despite his popularity, I actually haven’t seen a show of his that particularly stood out to me… then again I haven’t seen many as I haven’t been that interested with the synopsis-es I’ve found. I tend not to base my wanting to watch on reviews as my personal taste tends to differ… Tsuki no Koibito seems promising though, and the acting so far is pretty good. Since I don’t know much about the actors’ backgrounds as I’m not the type to read up every single thing about them, I was surprised that Abe Tsuyoshi speaks decent Chinese on the show, and Chi-ling, Japanese – speaking of Chiling, she looks quite different from her Red Cliff role and I didn’t recognize her until read her filmography and looked up some of her non-historical work. I think it’s cool she has a main role in this drama.
Well, that’s it for the Spring 2010 dramas I’ll be watching. It seems like a season with lots of potential, though I don’t know if it’ll be as good as last year’s autumn season, I’m willing to continue all of them at least~
Waiting for subs: (1 left to go! release and availibility of subs for this season has been pretty good this season)
Yankee-kun to Megane-chan
Backlog of recent shows:
Ryoma den
Tokujo Kabachi
Reviews coming up:
Real Clothes
Shukumei 1969-2010
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so far
Posted on May 7th, 2010
You know how I was lamenting over there being not much good anime to watch in the past year or so?
Well, Spring 2010 season is here and I have this massive list to sample that actually beats my ‘to-watch’ jdrama list for once. Of course, how many I will actually continue is yet to be seen. And I still have yet to clear my backlog anime as I have been solely watching dramas and not to mention playing with my shiny new Playstation 2 which I bought as a Christmas present to myself last December as JB HIFI had brand new slim ones for sale under $100. So far I have played Dynasty Warriors 5,6, Samurai Warriors 2, Orochi Warriors 2, Final Fantasy X and Okami, although I have not completed any of it as I’m not a regular gamer. As it is I stare at the computer screen long enough so I don’t really want to stare at the TV screen for too long too. Not to mention there’s also the DS which I play from time to time. It’s pretty hard to choose which to do. Lately I’ve been trying to catch up with my reading as well, as once again I am trying to complete the 50 book chellenge. I tend to have spates of reading where I’ll read a book a day, and weeks in between where I don’t. So during those ‘power reading’ periods I try to get in as much as I can, otherwise I will not hit the target in December, considering it is already May.
Speaking of reading, my amazon.com wishlist is now around 30 pages long on full-view mode with the pictures turned on… so much for trying to reduce it. I basically just dump anything that sounds interesting there, so not all the books there are stuff I must absolutely get. My own ‘must buy no matter what list’ is pretty easy to remember. That said, so far this year’s reading list has been quite enjoyable, and I’ve read things out of my comfort zone, or plan to read some anyway.
Notable authors for the year thus far would be Naomi Novik (probably the best first book of a series I’ve read), Dennis L McKiernan and Anthony Piers. I also have the urge to continuing collecting some of Stephanie Lauren’s Cynster series even though it has been a luke warm experience with the first book I read, and a not bad for the second. Having met some character who have appeared in previous books, I want to know their stories, at least just for some, so I may not read all of it (it is really long anyway), but I’ll definitely try to get my hands on the particular ones I want. Just for memory’s sake, last year’s notable authors new to me were Moria J Moore, Lisa Kleypas, Walter Moers, Allyson James, Lian Hearn, CL Wilson, and Jim C Hines. I wish I could afford more books as I’m not so keen on borrowing from the library but both money and space are constraints. I have also found some hard to find titles from the BookMooch website, which I highly recommend if you have money to pay for shipping your books to people around the world. Although in-demand titles disappear faster than you can mooch them, due to time differences. I use BookMooch for either outofprint/hardtofind books or books on the Amazon Wish List I would like to read but might not be so willing to pay full-price for. The best books I’ve gotten from there are harder to find hardbacks that would’ve cost around $30 to buy at stores.
Hm, off to watch me some Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kiten now.
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To note
Posted on March 24th, 2010
Upcoming Spring 2010 jdrama
Ryoma den
Sunao ni Narenakute
Tumbling
Yankee-kun to Megane Chan
Zettai Reido
I probably won’t be doing a wrap-up Winter 2010 drama post as I only followed one series – Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, which is still being subbed and is frankly rather so-so… I’m still waiting for the subs of Shinsengumi Peace Maker…
On the otherhand, I decided to try my luck with a random series and watched Real Clothes, which was from last year’s selection of dramas, and I’m so glad I did because I really enjoyed it (even though at first glance it sounded like a copy of The Devil Wears Prada and Ugly Betty). Made up for the otherwise bland season.
As for English movies, watched Alice in Wonderland, which was interesting and finally saw The Princess and the Frog.
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Kamen Rider Decade
Posted on March 9th, 2010
Kamen Rider Decade
[Rating: 7.5/10]
Genre: tokusatsu, action, drama
Tsukasa Kadoya is a wandering photographer who suffers from memory loss. He cannot remember his past or where he comes from, but he holds the power to transform into the masked rider known as Decade, who is apparently fated to be the destroyer of worlds. As he traverses through the many alternate worlds and eliminates the foes within each, each step seems to take him closer to what has been foretold…
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Kamen Rider Kiva
Posted on February 10th, 2010
Kamen Rider Kiva
[Rating: 7/10]
Genre: Tokusatsu, Action, Mystery?, Romance
Wataru is the teenage son of Kurenai Otoya, a brilliant violinist and playboy. Kiva is a hero who protects the human race from the soul sucking monsters known as the Fangire. And then you have Yuri, a member of a secret organisation who hunts said monsters. Just what is the connection between all of them? The story unfolds over a twenty year period…
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Bambino
Posted on February 7th, 2010
Bambino
[Rating: 7/10]
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Ban is an confident and enthusiastic university student who dreams of becoming a chef. One day circumstances bring him to work as a kitchen-hand in a popular Italian restaurant in Tokyo. There he gets a real eye-opener to what it is really like working in the restaurant-business.
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14 Sai no Haha
Posted on February 7th, 2010
14 Sai no Haha
[Rating: 8.5/10]
Genre: Family, Drama
A junior high-school student finds herself pregnant and decides to keep the baby. The story explores the repercussions of this controversial issue looking at the reactions from various characters.
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