What’s worse than the sound of a dentist drilling a hole in your cavity?  It’s the sound of Jin-sensei’s hammer, pounding a hole in Koide Keisuke’s skull. JIN is the japanese drama you want to pick up this fall.  It’s a little bit on the slow side during the first 15 minutes, but wait until formalin-kun shows up and from that point onwards, it’s gonna be a breathtaking, gritty ride.

JIN is the story of Minakata Jin, a doctor from the twentieth century, who gets thrown into the Edo period (1603-1868).  What sets this drama apart from all medical dramas is not just the time travel part.  What I like about it is that they focused more on the development of medicine. Of course, like almost every medical drama, JIN tries to work up the audience with its bloody spattering reenactments of brain surgeries.  JIN takes up the tension a notch by performing it in the 1800s and doing it a dozen times over in an episode with a hammer and a chisel. I’m exaggerating, maybe a couple? But by the second episode, it swerves away from these overkilled surgeries and switched to less-examined themes such as cholera, syphilis and the discovery of penicillin.

However, for the historical portion of the drama, it may take some effort for us, non-Japanese, to catch on with the plot. But  thank goodness for Wikipedia, we will know what the deal is with Sakamoto Ryoma.  As for the sci-fi element, I have my theories but I have since stopped entertaining their development.  Why? Because, with these dramas, they always end up getting predictable.  So now, I say…”go ahead JIN, surprise me.  I’ll help you by shutting down my thoughts.”

Now for the actors:

This is the first time I have seen Osawa Takao on screen.  Nothing special at first sight but as you see more of him, you’ll realize his acting capabilities.  He turned Minakata Jin’s character into someone believable and  authentic.  Fortunately, Ayase Haruka was casted for the part of Saki.  I would have cried if it’s someone like Ueto Aya or Ishihara Satomi.  Ayase is more dependable,  You can throw different roles at her, and you can almost always expect, she’ll make something memorable out of it.  Her Saki is no different.  Nakatani Miki is a splitting image of Shibasaki Kou, but other than that, I am not really interested in her character.

I am more fond of Uchino Masaaki’s Sakamoto Ryoma.  Too comic, I don’t mean comical but rather animated.  He literally breathed life into a manga/anime character.

Love this kid

I highly recommend this drama.  This might be the one to beat IRYU as my favorite medical drama.

She's my girl <3

Whew! Safe again.  For the last three weeks in Module 4, I have submitted my assignments 1.5 hours before the deadline.  Today, I thought I wouldn’t be able to make it.  I flipped through the pages and saw that I would have to write a 2 page memo along with the FIT calculations.  An hour later and still panicking, I looked at the question again, and the memo requirement had magically disappeared.  I realized then I was looking at the Week 2 narrative before.  Stupid.

Anyhow, I just submitted my assignment. I really thought I was gonna die…the only thing that fueled me the entire time except for coffee is the remnants of Shin-woo’s “This is my woman” scene from Episode 10 of one of the well-made fan girl dramas of this year and last 6 years, even: YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL.

To the Hong Sisters, I thank you.  I have previously criticized most of your works, but you do learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others.  From Delightful Girl Choon Hyang to Hong Gil Dong, you have turned me from a hateful critique to a follower. You created  a combination of Hana Kimi, Boys Over Flowers and Coffee Prince but made the outcome entirely yours.  But a well-written script cannot survive without the current combo of Jang Geun Seok, Park Shin Hye, Lee Hon ki and Jung Yong Hwa.  One could have casted them in all three said dramas (OK, probably not Gong Yoo of Coffee Prince), and they would have turned out better.

I wasn’t in the mood to blog about dramas for a quite a while because CASB is wiping all the after-effects of drama-watching until I started watching You’re Beautiful.  Three more weeks of pure enjoyment, enough to last me until the CASB face to face in November.

Alright, now, I gotta do some blog housekeeping.  I apologize for all the questions in the comments that I have not answer.  When one asks me what is CASB and why I am still doing it if I hate it so much…Good question. I ask myself the same thing every day.  Why oh why?

There are going to be a few days during your CASB years when you think you’ve had enough.

Today is one of those days.

Enough, enough, enough of this crap… I hate consolidations, foreign currency translations, and fracking hedging.

Who cares about the equity method and significantly influenced investments.  Why are they making me write a software recommendation memo again? Didn’t I just write one two modules ago!!!???

Arghhhhh…Why am I procrastinating, even?   I want to sleep…sleep is the most beautiful thing ever bestowed to human beings.

Why do I have a manager who thinks something can be done in an hour?  I am not friggin’ superman, you know.  You are, but I am not. Why do you have to be so frackin’ cute though – my only consolidation…CONSOLID…CONSOLATION.  Whew, that was close.  Frackin’ consolidations.  Now, I can’t even type consolation.

I. hate. CASB. very friggin mucho.

I’ll probably write that sentence down a few more million times till I reach the finish line.

Pardon my nervous break-down.

That still hasn’t calmed me down, though.  Maybe I should try banging my laptop against the wall.

When I was in fourth grade, or perhaps younger, I had a dog which caught rabies.

My parents were away and my siblings and I were playing in the yard with our dogs.  I was about to put my hand on Brownie, but she bared her fangs and almost caught one of my fingers.   I thought she was joking around.  I’ve never seen her this mad.  I tried again, and this time she bit my forefinger. Just a small scratch, nothing serious.

It was only then that I realized something was wrong with her.  She was salivating heavily and was cooped up in a corner.  I washed my finger and stayed out of her way for the rest of the afternoon.  When my parents arrived, we told them what happened.  One look at Brownie and my mom grabbed my hand and dragged me to the faucet.  She squeezed my forefinger and re-opened my wound.  She squeezed and squeezed  and squeezed, ignoring my cries of pain.

The next day, my mom and I went to the hospital.  I can’t remember it clearly but an image of Brownie’s decapitated head in a cooler comes into mind.  They had to test her brain cells to confirm that it was rabies.  The results were positive and I could remember my mom and I jumping from one hospital to the next because the prior one didn’t have the vaccine.

We finally found it in a small clinic. I remember the nurse plunging this long thick needle into my forefinger.  I could actually feel it penetrate my finger’s metacarpal.

My finger was a big swollen hotdog for the rest of the week.

I am safe.  But my dog is dead.

Last night, while at the Blink 182 Reunion Concert (although, I was really there for the AAR), I realize I would rather sit behind screaming and fainting fangirls holding “Marry me, Travis..kyahhh~~” placards rather than to sit behind some shirtless smelly fourteen year old fan boys smoking a joint right in my face. Ugh.  Goddamn kids.

But then again this afternoon, I just watched the final two episodes of Shining Inheritance at drama crazy, and there was a fan girl commentary throughout the entire 2 hour segment.

“Hwannieee…you’re so HOT.”

“Lucky Bitch, Hwan is MINE.”

Sigh…I dunno… Tough choice, man.

Oh God. That was the most awkward 1 hour and 19 minutes drive I’ve had in my life.

If silence could kill, I would have been cremated right now.

You’re probably never gonna read this, but I’m sorry anyway.

I didn’t mean to tick you off.  I should have just shut my mouth.  Coz everytime I open it when you’re around, I tend to say the most stupid things.

Actually, scratch that.

Can’t you take a frackin joke?  Geez.

Today, the tickets for the September 30th Jason Mraz Concert in Vancouver will go on sale at ticketmaster.  I have gone to his concert last November and I vowed that I will see him again.  He was simply amazing, if not  more, on stage than on his CDs.

Well, I looked at my Calendar, September 30th is two days away from my Module 3 exam.  Will I risk it?

If you ask me two days ago, I would have said yes.  I have already mapped a study plan in my head.  It will definitely work.

But yesterday, two hours before the marks are released,  the height of my stress came to its peak. I was almost gonna throw up that medium doubleshot I had for lunch until I got a small pop-up from my Outlook.  It says:

J, you passed!

I was relieved.  A happy day it was.  I had to take my sis to dinner as part of the bet.  I had to buy her dinner if I passed.  If I fail, well…she promised she will assist on killing myself.

I couldn’t eat at the restaurant.  I think my body released too much dopamine into my system.

So, that was the deciding factor.  I will sacrifice my Mraz concert for CASB.  I heard mod 3 is a more technical module and you need all the studying you can get.

I really want to see him though.  Maybe, I’ll buy the tickets just in case. huh.

Okay…this is crazy.

I was just about to google, “Life after failing a CASB module.”  But started laughing just before i hit ENTER.

Not because I am being overly nervous for tomorrow’s marks days.  Nah, not that.

A CASB student have no life to begin with.  Failing a module and deciding to quit your job and move on to a better tomorrow and today will give you life.

Gawd, I REALLY hate CASB.  That is an understatement, by the way.

It’s good to know that I am not the only one who didn’t get any sleep the day before the exam.  I overheard a few people mentioned they couldn’t sleep at all because of the butterflies somersaulting in their belly.  Alright, alright…the last part is me.

After writing the exam, you only get 5 minutes of relief before being thrown to a complete week of nervous-wreckage.  First, you ask yourself if you have done well.  Even if it’s a yes, it turns out into a no.  I was afraid to fail Mod 1 mainly because I didn’t want to embarrass myself to the partners and my co-workers.  In Mod 2, I don’t care about that anymore.  I am going to be royally pissed off if I fail it and be forced to repeat all those frickin tasks.

I don’t even dare imagine it.  The thought of repeating gives me an insurmountable feeling of rage.

Yup, that’s how much I hate to fail and repeat.

So, I’d rather die than repeat a CASB module.

Oh man…I thought this will make me feel better.  Bad idea.  I guess I’ll succumb myself to some asian dramas now.

Credit: Luv@soompi

Now that I have finally some time to sit down with my comp without a care in the CASB world…I can do my write up for Capital Scandal.

I end up watching this drama because of Han Ji Min.  I was thinking of Han Ji Min because I was so sure she will win best couple with So Ji Sup for Cain and Abel.  I wandered over her wikipage, and as I was scanning her info, I noticed that she won best couple with Uhm Tae Woong for Resurrection and with Kang Ji Hwan for Capital Scandal.  I wasn’t really a big fan of the former, but got curious of Capital Scandal.

Capital Scandal is set around 1930s when Korea is still governed by the Japanese government.  The plot is written for simpletons.  I don’t think the writer gave much thought on Korean suppression aspect of the story.  You have to “make” yourself stupid to prevent yourself hating it.  The best they could do to make the Japanese look bad is probably the creation of Ueda Sachiko (Kim Hye Ok) and Ueda Mamoru (Ahn Seok Hwan).  The Sachiko scenes are most annoying scenes I have ever seen in a kdrama.  In my life, even.

It was more about romance than action or drama.  And that’s where Kang Ji Hwan steals the show.  It is a sin to watch this and not fall for Seon Woo Wan (Kang Ji Hwan).

Woo Wan is the son of a rich business man and ganders around the city playing paparazzi.  He is friends with the high-selling prostitute in town, Cha Song Joo (Han Go Eun), and made the brothel as his everyday quarters.  One day, while drinking with the three stooges, he made a bet of wooing the most proper and old-fashioned lady in town, Na Yeo Kyeong (Han Ji Min), better known as “Jo Ma Ja”.  Jo Ma Ja is an independence fighter, a night teacher and owns only one hanbok, which she wears everyday.  What’s lacking on Han Ji Min’s wardrobe, they compensate on Han Go Eun’s.  Go Eun carries all these beautiful costumes with grace and style.  I guess she’s making use of her modeling experience.

This is another one of those dramas where there is no rectangle love.  The four main stars don’t fight with each other either.  They actually made an effort this time to have the audience like all the main actors.  This is an enjoyable drama to watch and you will laugh your way through as Woo Wan tries all his tricks to get Maja to fall in love with him.

PS: Try to skip all the scenes with Sachiko.  Don’t say, I didn’t warn you.

Pardon my outburst last week.  I stand corrected.  Mr. Brain is the only spring drama I am fond of watching.  I-can’t-wait-for-the-next-episode-kind-of-drama.

Kimutaku’s dramas are almost always guaranteed watchable.  He is probably the only actor who can pull in big name guest stars for each episode.  I mean Gackt and Nakama Yukie???

Nakama Yukie is so far the most impressive criminal that came upon Mr. Brain’s scrutiny.  It was intense and totally creepy. Man oh man.  YOU will need your Gokusen discs to erase this vision in your mind:

I want my Yankumi back! Gosh.

You might also need your Pride or Love Generation discs to erase the vision of Kimutaku’s new hairdo from your mind.