Mioka

[Rating: 8.5/10]

Genre: Drama, Romance

Taichi, a university student saves a girl from jumping off a rooftop. Her name is Mioka and he gets drawn by her vibrant and carefree personality. One day Taichi finds out the truth about Mioka and is even more determined to be with her.

I don’t normally watch very angsty shows, especially those pairing incurable diseases and romance, hence I haven’t really gotten into korean dramas. However Yoshitaka Yuriko is one of my favourite Japanese actresses, and in Love Shuffle, she played the part of girl suffering from depression and one who lost her memory in Tokyo DOGS pretty well, so I decided to give Mioka a go. Not to mention Maya Miki and Tanihara Shosuke were part of the cast as well, playing Mioka’s mother and doctor respectively.

Mioka wasn’t as angsty and melodramatic as I thought it would be, thanks to the vibrant character of Mioka and the development of the romance was actually interesting to watch. It only became more dramatic in the last few episodes when the disease progressed into its final stages, and I couldn’t help but feel for the girl. Maya Miki and Terawaki Yasufumi who played Mioka’s parents gave stellar performances that you’d think they are a family in real life. A scene that really tugged on my heartstrings was when the family went to visit the ailing grandmother and grandma was telling Mioka how she (grandma) had lived a full life and was satisfied, and told Mioka to become an adult and have a family of her own and make happy memories, and poor Mioka has to smile and nod as granny doesn’t know about her granddaughter’s disease. I really liked Mioka as a character because instead of locking herself up at home and angsting and fretting she put up a brave and positive front and really seized what she could.  I’m no expert on paralysis but I felt Yuriko acted out the symptoms quite convincingly. One thing I wonder is whether Taichi ever managed to reconcile with Mari and if they got together in the future. Although Taichi and Mioka have good chemistry I think Mari deserved something after what she had to put up with. I mean, Taichi would have ended up with her if Mioka did not come into the picture, and they would have made a sweet couple.

Mioka is definitely one of the more positive fatal illness plot centric romance dramas I’ve seen and I certainly recommend it.

[Rating: 7/10]

Genre: drama, romance

Five young people meet on Twitter and decided to get together in real life…

You know how big an impact social networking has made on the world today when it becomes the vehicle plot of a show. It is a good attempt of getting younger viewers back to watching tv as nowadays there are so many other forms of entertainment that distract us from the tv, which is rather amusing to think of. I would categorize this series under ‘slice-of-life’ and in a way it reminds me of Love Shuffle targeted at a slightly younger crowd (LS’s main cast were in their 30s and 40s whereas SNN’s characters are in their early-mid 20s). As with such shows, this story is about friendship and also the line between being friends and something more, also how far people will go for each other in the name of frienship. Of the characters, my favourites were Peach and Haru. It was interesting to see another jdrama with another foreign cast member as one of the main leads (ie. JaeJoong as Doctor, previously it was Li Chin Ling in Tsuki no Koibito). It was also refreshing seeing these young actors and actresses in roles that were pretty different to what I had seen them in previously. My gripe is how Linda’s character suddenly dropped that surprising revelation only nearer the end of the series, I felt they could have built that up more as it seemed rather random and somewhat unreal. Still I think Tamayama Tetsuji did a good job with what he had. I couldn’t really fell much for Nakaji, even though he was meant to be the ‘hero’ of the show. I would have preferred Haru to end up with Doctor, I feel they could have managed to make it work over time if Nakaji hadn’t shown up at the airport. What is with jdramas and breaking up multicultural relationships…

While the concept of this jdrama is certainly original, I felt it wasn’t very outstanding and could have developed more towards the end events. However, I think many people will easily enjoy it as it isn’t too heavy with the romance and is a nice show about friendship.

[Rating: 6.5/10]

Genre: drama, romance

A poor chinese factory worker gets entangled with the dealings a Japanese furniture king who is thinks only of expanding his empire. Will she be the one to melt his cold heart?

This drama was surprisingly short, and the ending kinda threw me off a little. I not sure whether the ending was saying long distance/multi-cultural romances are not worth it and it is better to stick with someone closer to home, or that it was trying to be more realistic in that Cinderella did not get her Prince and as a modern woman found her niche and is happily living with her family. The cast at first glance was a hit and miss for me; Shinohara Ryoko is one of my favourite actresses, and Lin Chi Ling (who I had only seen as Xiao Qiao in the Red Cliff movies) sounded intriguing as it is rare you get non-Japanese cast members play a main role in jdramas. However the lead being Kimura Takuya did not appeal to me despite him being one of the most popular Japanese actors and lots of women fawn over him- personally I don’t find him that attractive and I’ve not been too impressed with the shows of his I’ve seen (Beautiful Life, Hero, Mr. Brain, Wonderful Life)… He was a little better in Tsuki no Koibito though, but it could be because this time the story wasn’t boring and the other characters helped made the show more interesting. One thing I enjoyed was Lin Chi Ling’s character, Xiu Mei, who was the rather cute and fresh element of the show and as a person learning Japanese, she spoke in simple sentences that I could understand with my limited knowledge of the language. I was also quite impressed by Matsuda Shota and Abe Tsuyoshi who spoke pretty decent Chinese, though I am not sure if their chinese lines were dubbed… in any case Abe had to speak Chinese for his entire role, as his character didn’t know any Japanese, and Matsuda for about half his role. Even though the latter’s character turned out to be the bad guy, I actually preferred him to Kimura’s. Ren was rather annoying most of the time, leading the two girls around… not to mention he’s so chauvanistic, which I found was a big letdown with the male characters. Maemi could do so much better than Ren best friend or no. I actually quite liked her with Sai/Cai… Another strong role was Keitagawa Keiko’s, who really developed from a spoilt model to a somewhat wiser and independant lady. She could have spiralled further and become the stereotypical vengeful ex-partner but once she pulled off the jealousy/selfish googles, she was rather likeable and provided a nice contrast to Xiu Mei.

This drama would suit those who like soap opera type romance in a drama rather than romantic comedy, as it does get a little angsty in some parts, but nothing depressing thankfully. And while I felt it could have lasted a little longer, eight episodes is pretty compact for someone wanting a quick jdrama fix and don’t want something too fluffy and happy.

[6.5/10]

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Carrying off from where the drama series ended, this special involves the resurrection of  Tenjo Night, android boyfriend extraordinaire, by a scientist with her own personal agenda. However, Night’s reunion with Riiko does not go as planned… what has happened in the time he was away, and why does he seem to have lost his most recent memories?

This was a nice conclusion (well, I don’t think they’re making another one are they?) to the series. It was sad how it ended but I felt it was much more realistic than for Riiko to end up with Night, who is afterall a robot. Soshi is an awesome guy who was very patient and understanding throughout the whole fiasco, and has similar interests and passions as Riiko, so they’ll fit very well together. I’m just a little sad there wasn’t a wedding scene at the end. And leaving Night there like that, poor boy. The government weapons plot was unecessary I found, but the subplot of the scientist (forgot her name) and Jun?, her past lover was quite touching, especially the flashback video scenes with the time capsule. This is a brief review but it was nice to see the good ol’ cast together again.

[Rating: 8.5/10]

Genre: Romantic Comedy

While the movie revolves around the romantic entanglements of nine individuals, the main story is about a woman who is unlucky at finding love and ends up getting a dose of reality from an unlikely source.

The first thing that comes to mind as I search for the right words is Love Actually. Why? Because all of the nine main characters are connected to each other in some way, although I must commend that the connections were much better established than in Love Actually. I didn’t expect there to be more than one story when I heard about the movie, but I’d glad it turned out that way, because I loved the other stories much more than the main one. It was just that the ‘main girl’, Gigi, was pretty annoying. Clingy and in denial of being clingy, and at times she was a little stalkerish. But let’s not dwell on what I didn’t like~ My favourite story was of Beth and Neil. The proposal at the end was so cute, and Neil was just the perfect boyfriend… the scene at her family home was so touching! If I were Beth I think I wouldn’t mind not getting married. He was just so comitted to her and sweet, and it was one of Ben Affleck’s best performances ever~ My other favourite character was Conor, Anna was just so selfish I was so glad she didn’t end up with him or Ben, even if Ben is a jerk. It was quite disappointing because at first I was hoping he’d patch up his marriage with Janine. Janine was probably my favourite female character after Beth. She remained collected and strong after what Ben put her through (the scene with the poor construction worker was funny), and I was glad the script let her remain a single mother instead of matching her up with someone at the end. The scene where Janine shifted all of Ben’s clothes downstairs was kinda epic. You go girl! I found the movie was actually pretty realistic in depicting relationships. It was a romantic comedy yes but rather toned down for one (didn’t really exaggerate things) and was steering more towards a drama about relationships with romance intwined. The script was also very sharp and funny. Drew Barrymore had some of the best lines in the film, but it was a pity her character didn’t get enough screen time to develop. I’d be interested to see what became her meeting with Conor~ One of the best romantic films for the year I reckon~

[Rating: 8/10]

Genre: time-travelling romance drama

Amanda Price, a huge Jane Austen fan, thinks that she has gone crazy when she finds Elizabeth Bennet standing in her bathroom, claiming the cupboard where the pipes are is a portal of sorts. That is until she goes through the said portal and is stunned to find herself in Elizabeth’s world (aka the novel of Pride and Prejudice), and to make things worse, she is trapped there and cannot go back; and Elizabeth is trapped in her world. So Amanda has no choice but to live with the Bennets. Her presence causes chain of events that threaten to change the whole story, but as much as she tries to prevent that from happening, Amanda grows attached to the people there and wonders if she could just accept things as they are.

Let me start off by saying that while I do think Austen did something right with her novels, I actually prefer watching film adaptations of them then reading the books (at least Austen film adaptations have been pretty decent in comparison to some other book to film attempts). While I have seen both versions of Pride and Prejudice, the BBC tv series with Colin Firth and the more recent adaptation starring Keira Knightley, I must say I like Lost in Austen the most of the three! It was actually really well made and the sets were lovely. This series is underrated! Also it was funny to see Amanda’s reactions and thoughts as her ‘perfect’ world turned out not to be as perfect as she had imagined it to be. Though I did expect the ending it still left me a little surprised. I thought it was daring of the show’s producers to go the non-conventional route. Something they did not address afterwards which I pondered over was – with that ending, does that mean the book in Amanda’s world was re-written? Because time-traveling to me usually comes with a price of sorts. I’d also have liked to see a bit more of Lizzy’s adventures in 21st century London. I felt she just more or less completely disappeared and randomly popped up in the end. I’d love to have seen her find a modern man for herself, since Amanda ended up with Darcy. Another interesting change was Bingley’s sister, Caroline… that was just really random and kind of extra if I must say, like a bit of fanservice thrown in for the male viewers or a weak attempt at spicing up the Austen created world, but it was an unexpected twist no less! And I do think that Elliott Cowan made a better Darcy than Colin Firth (never really got the hype about that lake scene haha). My favourite character of the show was Jane, who sort of took over Elizabeth’s role of responsibility since Elizabeth wasn’t there. I’m so glad she did not end up with Mr Collins. The fact that the actor for Mr Collins managed to make me repulsed by his character means that he played the role well I guess… seriously, the most repulsive version of Mr Collins I’ve seen so far. But yeah, I really recommend this short series (4 episodes) to any Austen fan out there~ or any literary fan. The through the pipes cupboard scene was rather reminiscent of Narnia~ It was just fun and original, and a delight to watch.

[Rating: 4.5/5]

Genre: Regency Romance

Order:
Once Upon a Summer’s Night, It Happened One Autumn, Devil in Winter, Scandal In Spring

Summary:
Four unlikely women who are tired of being casted aside at the ton’s parties band together to find each of themselves a husband!

Okay, despite the very typical regency romance plot it a very worthwhile series to read! Why did I not start on it sooner~ There were bits in each book which made me smile, laugh and feel a tug at my heartstrings. Every character had their own personality and weren’t cardboard cutouts at all. Each story was different in it’s own way and writing quality stayed consistent throughout the series, an important point for me. It’s one of those things which sound so cliche (I mean, women looking for husbands, sounds like some Jane Austen rip-off) but it was very refreshing and not as light-hearted as they look. They have nicely driven plots with enough action, adventure and romance to keep me satisfied. And recently I realized that there were spin-offs which involve minor characters in the series. I’ll update on my progress when I’ve finished them. I could bundle them together with the series but they aren’t exactly the same as the main Wallflowers series is about well, the four wallflower girls.  My favourite of the series was The Devil in Winter. It’s always fun to read about rakes falling in love. Devil in Winter had my favourite heroine of the quartet and It Happened One Autumn had my favourite hero of the series. Another strong point for me were the lovely covers because they cleverly (okay actually it’s been more common amongst romance books of late) hid the stereotypical racy covers behind the front cover (which were of landscapes in the four seaons corresponding to the titles) so it’s a romance series you don’t have to be shy about reading in public.