First Impression: Triangle

Ah, this drama is a BREATH of FRESH AIR.  I can just inhale….exhale…. and not see a single male born later than 1980 parading on my screen.  I’ll say “johnny boy” but Inagaki Goro of SMAP is a Johnny, after all.  And this is excluding the children in the flashbacks.

There are moments when I reach my boiling point of all the kiddie dramas, albeit packed with eyecandies.  Okay, who am I kidding with?  We all like our eyecandies.  If they have Ito Atsushi here instead of Eguchi Yosuke, I won’t be gushing as much.   On the contrary, Mizushima Hiro might not be enough to sit through the entire episode of Mei-chan no Shitsuji. I might come back and finish the 1st episode to see if  I can squeeze something intelligible out of it, but that is wishful thinking.

Now, Triangle, on a first episode-basis is awesome beyond words.  Episode 2 may not have brought the same impact as the debut episode, but let’s pretend I haven’t seen episode 2 yet.  The soundtrack and direction style of this drama made me realize how most kdramas pale in comparison with jdramas (based on such criteria).  I mean, no matter how enjoyable and grand (props-wise) BOF is, you just have to admit, Hana Yori Dango is superior in terms of camera work and music direction.  Oopps, I’m getting sidetracked again.

Hana Yori Dango – the movie

As requested here is a detailed spoilerish summary of the movie.  This isn’t really like me, giving away spoilers.  But when one bashes, one needs material.  Bash? that’s what I intend to do.

Just to warn you, this post is overly nitpicking on details that were enjoyable to most.  It was not that bad for a kiddie movie.  It was cheesy as it was supposed to be, but I still can’t help but complain.  Because that’s what I’m good at.  Therefore, I highly discourage you from reading this post unless you’re a hater and you want some company on your side.

Ryuusei no Kizuna [END]

Truth be told, I was not impress when I saw the cast list for this drama three months ago.  Kudo Kankuro was my only hope.  For others, it’s probably Higashino Keigo.  Higashino Keigo wrote the drama-thriller Byakuyakou, the cheesy- mystery Galileo, and the movie Tegami.  Actually, those are the only three shows of him I’m familiar with, but of course, if you ask me of Kudo Kankuro – I could just go on and on and on.  Kudo Kankuro usually works with the older Johnny members so I was surprised when I saw Ryo and Nino casted as two of the three siblings in the story.  But what really devastated me was learning that Toda Erika will be completing the triumvirate.  How could a weak actress work with Kudo-san, I thought.  Fastforward to today,  I still think that Toda Erika is more suited for a backstage role but if you put her with Ryo and Nino – they are one unstoppable trio.  If I only get to watch one drama this season…Ryuusei no Kizuna will be it.

Bits and Pieces

• It’s hereeeee—>> Yayyy!
• Just finished episode 9 of Taiyou to Umi no Kyoshitsu, yesterday.  I can’t discuss it without spoiling it, so I’ll zip in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet.  This still stands as my favorite seishun drama this season. Akari and Hachi stole the show.  Yoshitaka Yuriko is like a tamed Aya Ueto – a better actress, and love the way she talks!
• Like what I wrote from a comment under my East of Eden post…East of Eden is filled with crappy melodramatic junk, stay away if you can’t stand this kind of stuff.  I’m sticking with it though, in case the ajumma screenwriter pities us and give us the Resurrection/Green Rose treatment this drama desperately needs.
• Watched two episodes of Beethoven Virus and I’m not impress.  Even an amateur like me can tell how fake the playing is.  It’s so bad to the point where you can actually notice that the music was laid on top of the movements.  Main actor is way more snobbier than Chiaki sempai and way less funnier as well.
• I’m on the 6th episode of Love & Marriage…I’m sorry guys, but it didn’t do it for me.  The characters have no charisma.  The exboyfriend – I don’t care if he’s a model in real life – but goshdarnit, he’s worse than a whiny 5 year old.
• Started CASB this week…if you don’t see me the next few weeks, you know where I am.
• Oh yah, Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, everyone!

Chopin on the beachside

Let’s play some drama trivia, ready?

The Sensei

If you put a piano on the beach-side and start playing Chopin…well if you wanna be anal about it, you can put on a white suit and rent out a matching white piano as well, now tell me, in which popular drama does this scene appear?

One, two, three…time’s up!

‘Tis the season for Chibi couples!

I am still in the middle of going through this season’s dramas, but one thing I noticed, there’s definitely an influx of chibi actors and chibi love teams in most of the shows. Probably, the most mature pairing I have seen so far (excluding the childish acting by Kanno Miho) are the leads from the medical drama, Tomorrow.

20-23 year old doctors/interns in Code Blue: To watch these kids do an amputation, flock around the ER, and not to mention the Grey’s Anatomy-esque competition had placed this drama behind my watch list…but who am I to complain when the catchphrase itself is so “engrish” – Doctor Heli? Ha. Ha. Cute!

Gakko ja Oshierarenai: Talk about chibi love teams times five! Let’s not forget the eternal immature Fukada Kyoko who gives a whole new meaning to the word, “airhead.” But this drama is a guilty pleasure to watch! I have to find time and write something about it, because it is surprisingly great.

Maou: I guess, the Maou actors fit more in to their roles, age-wise. But Kobayashi Ryoko ruins it! For some reason, I cannot stand her face on screen. I’ve mentioned this already and I’ll probably repeat it again in the future when I do my Maou review, but geez, she looks like 10 frickin’ years old. A tarot reader…A librarian…Pffft!

I’ll skip our chibi love teams in Seigi no Mikata and Yasuko to Kenji as I have blabbed about those two from my previous entries, so I’ll jump right ahead into my main subject…

Of course, when it comes to chibiness, we can’t just leave out the ultimate babyface of jdoramas: Kokei Teppei.

Yasuko to Kenji: Another pair that can’t get along

Similar to Seigi no Mikata, Yasuko to Kenji is another drama that is based on a manga about a story of two siblings who love each other dearly. Deep down, they really do, alright? 10 years ago, little Yasuko (played by Bara no nai Hanaya’s Shizuku – Yagi Yuki) and biker gang boss Kenji (TOKIO’s Matsuoka Masahiro) lost their parents in an accident. To support his sister, Kenji quit his gang and began writing shoujo manga under the pen name, Reiko-sama. The sweet kid who idolizes her tall onii-chan, with the big hands and the big feet, grew up into the tama-no-koshi-gal of Yamada Taro Monogatari, Tabe Mikako. Be prepare to get another version of the silly chick who daydreams about boys and nothing else. The pigtails..the twinkling stars…the bone-eyed stare…yup, we’re in for another ride of this girl’s antiques. One thing I’m definitely not looking forward to.

But who cares about this couple when we have Shida Mirai and Hongo Kanata of Seigi no Mikata to root for?

Definitely not a slow season for drama addicts

I might have misled my co-otaku readers from the title of my last post, if so, I apologize. It might be a slow season for accountants but definitely not for d-addicts! I can’t say the same for every drama this summer, but from what I’ve seen of Seigi no Mikata, this is going to be a good season. Seigi no Mikata is from a genre and format that usually hits it or not. If it doesn’t, fine. I’m not going to be crying because I haven’t piled any of my eggs in its basket. But when it does hit it, the unexpectedness of finding a good drama amplifies the interest and reception.

Code Blue and Maou, powered by Johnny’s Entertainment and now, along with a very mild Edison-Chen-scandal for the Maou anti-hero, had sadly didn’t do it for me. If a medical drama wants to get my attention, a bland and stoic YamaP will not suffice. IRYU has risen the bars for the medical genre. Yutaka Takenouchi’s Tomorrow might be a little more promising; I’m a little icked out with Shin Mina’s character counterpart in Maou (what is she, 9 years old?), but I’ll stop right here because I intend to push it through the fourth episode for these dramas before I place any faults in them.

Since the only drama that has gotten me to that point, voluntarily, is Seigi no Mikata, why don’t we start on that? But where do I start? This drama is so awesome I don’t know where to begin!

A procrastinated post

I’m officially one month in my job and oh yah, I saw The Dark Knight last weekend. Before I bore you to death about my JOB, let’s talk about the number one movie this summer.

Is it worth all the fuss it is getting? Heck, I can’t even begin how frickin good it is. At first I was one of those girls who if you asked to go see Batman with, I won’t laugh…I’ll snicker. Batman. Tun-dun-dun-dun, Batman? Hak Hak Hak (That’s both my fangirl laugh and my snicker laugh). But this time, having seen the abnormally high imdb rating, my sis didn’t need to drag me to the theaters.

Unfortunately, we had problems convincing our other girlfriends. You can just insert my hypothetical reaction in place of what they told us when we tried to invite them to the Batman movie. Girls, how can I convince you that it is really that good? Perhaps, a final show of respect for Heath Ledger? Ah, it still breaks my heart that Ledger isn’t with us anymore (it’s like Rico Yan all over again). What more, his Joker is phenomenal. Most of the memorable lines were spoken by the Joker. I’m getting giddy over here just reminiscing about the movie. Love it love it love it.

One more love today is that my dream car has finally arrived from Japan.

Zettai Kareshi [END]

I’ve been writing and deleting every word I typed during this past 15 minutes, because I can’t easily explain what had just happen to me in the last episode of Zettai Kareshi.