Worrisome News on Sulli and f(x)

Man, VERY freaking BUMMED to hear that Sulli of my beloved group f(x) is taking a hiatus from the “entertainment industry” for an undisclosed amount of time. She’d been absent from the past few weeks performances but though the statement at the time said she had the flu, the word has come down from SME that she is “tired” and saddened by the negative comments and vibes she’s been getting in the press (which I can see and totally understand)…netizens are super harsh on her.

 So sad because as you all know, f(x) is one of my VERY favorite K-pop acts, and with Sulli’s departure, SME has cancelled all f(x) activities right in the middle of their RED LIGHT promotions. Very ominous, since the last time a member went on hiatus (Amber, back during the “Nu ABO” promotions), the other 4 continued to work and do their stage activities, but this time, a clear cut.

 When will Sulli be back? WILL she be back? And what does this mean for the future of f(x)? I don’t know, and that’s making it all the more worrisome. Sigh, and I was JUST telling Car how much I was loving Sulli in this latest venture. This will put a big bittersweetness to Red Light when I listen to it from now on…
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Catching Up With My Drama Crushes, Kitagawa Keiko et al

Kitagawa Keiko in the new drama HERO

  Seems it’s been a while since I last checked out any Japanese or Korean dramas, but when I perused the awesome Plotboxes site and saw that two of my former reigning “Crush Of The Day” Princesses had recently come out with new Television shows, I knew I just HAD to check them out!

Kimura Takuya and Kitagawa Keiko

 Kimura Takuya’s drama “HERO” about an unorthodox prosecutor never really attracted me even though its’ earlier series featured Matsu Takako and Ayase Haruka, and to date I’ve never sat down and watched any of them. But with Keiko Kitagawa now firmly in the sidekick seat in this latest venture, I figured I had to at least watch ONE episode! 

Keiko looks sooo sooo pretty here, so that’s a plus, and even though I really didn’t know too much about the original storyline, it wasn’t all that hard to figure it all out. A nice ensemble cast, and Yoshida Yo looks particularly delectable!

Yoshida Yo in HERO

   Next we have the latest drama from my darling Emi Takei, who slowly but surely is turning into a fine young WOMAN, at least from what her new drama ”Zero No Shinjitsu”  shows us! 

Takei Emi as Matsumoto Mai in Zero No Shinjitsu

This show deals with a young girl named Matsumoto Mao from the US who, with an IQ of over 150 and an almost fanatical expanse of knowledge has already performed over 200 autopsies and is now joining the Japan Medical Team. When a body is brought in under questionable circumstances, she uses her abilities to extract the truths the bodies tell her and to bring justice to their loved ones.

Emi Takei with Kuranosuke Sasaki

I’m not a real big fan of Medical Mystery dramas, but with such a stellar list of actors including Sasaki Kuranosuke, who played Emi’s befuddled interest in Otenki Oneesan  (and in fact, Zero No Shinjitsu kind of reminds me of Otenki, with a super-smart girl with NO personality whatsoever shaking up her field) and Maya Miki (playing yet another sexy medical examiner a la Galileo), I’m already enjoying myself with this one!

Anne as the titular Hanasaki Mai

 Out of all of the new shows I’m watching, though, Anne’s show “Hanasaki Mai ga Damatte Inai (Hanasaki Mai Can’t Keep Silent!)” is the one I love the MOST so far… When I originally read the synopsis of a clerical back teller who gets put in a group that investigates Bank related problems and whose habit of speaking her mind gets her in trouble-and usually solves the cases-, I wasn’t too intrigued. I guess after that somewhat disappointing end to “Hanzawa Naoki”, I didn’t feel like another Bank series.

Kamikawa Takaya and Anne in Hanasaki Mai

 But after only 20 minutes into the show, I totally fell in love with Anne’s character Mai Hanasaki, she was so sweet, thoughtful and DETERMINED, I was totally sold on her and wanted to see her do her magic!! Blustery superiors and Jackass bosses are what we’ve come to expect from shows dealing with shady shenanigans and criminal dealings, it’s SUCH a TREAT to see this dorky and demure waif of a woman stepping up in defense of the weaker people, lashing out at them and taking them down a notch!!By the halfway point of the first episode, I knew this was a drama I was going to be watching to the end, and I quickly ran back and downloaded the entire series to watch!!! MNA, so good!

Jung Eunji as Choi Chun Hee in "Trot Lovers"

Lastly, I FINALLY got around to checking out “Trot Lovers”- you would think that just by how much I Love APink and their versatile lead vocalist Eunji that I would have grabbed this one from the get go, but with both Yoona AND Hyosung’s last dramas still on my computer waiting for me to finish watching them, I wasn’t too keen on picking up another! But man, Eunji is so charismatic and loveable as former athlete turned singer Choi Chun Hee I MAY have to find time to squeeze her in!
 Well, these are the shows on the burner, We’ll see how they all play out…
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Calling All Sleepycats and Wildcats- f(x)'s RED LIGHT is Here!!!

f(x) Third Album Red Light: Wildcats & Sleepycats versions

  Already been spending the last two weeks listening to a downloaded version of SMEntertainment’s superpower group f(x)’s latest album RED LIGHT, and just today, my K-pop order for the physical albums came in! I’ve mentioned many, many times before how awesome I think f(x)’s releases have been, and Red Light has been no exception, blowing me away with each and every eclectic track, I was THRILLED to find that the actual album’s packaging is JUST as grand!
 Red Light came in two versions, a Wildcats version and a Sleepy Cats version. I had NO IDEA what either of these two concepts were, but I was curious about both of them, and when Kpoptown offered up a special package with both versions AND both posters, I decided to just get ‘em all! Come to find out that the “Wildcats” version is the “western” style theme I loved (where the girls looked like wanted cowboys in the old west) and the “Sleepycats” version had the girls romping around in the wilderness in a very avante-garde blurry style.

Each CD had a thick photobook with terrific pictures of the girls in a variety of looks- from futuristic, urban and pure pop fashion, and OH MY GOD look at these SEXY freaking pictures of SULLI! Holy CRAP, they are really changing her position in the group from the “Cutie” to the “Vixen”, DAMN! So Yummy!

 As well as a trading card in each CD (I got Krystal in one and Sulli in the other) and stickers, the awesome, awesome POSTERS that came with it knocked me OUT! One featured the “wanted” Wildcats cover, the other featured one of the coolest pics from the booklet of the girls in those cowboy outfits looking cool as hell, MAN, I’d wanted this picture since they used it as the intro-picture for their Music Show comebacks, to have a huge poster of it is just the MOST!

Bonus Red Light posters, both Sleepycats and Wildcats versions

Of course, the Main point of this whole thing is the MUSIC, and right now it’s just about my favorite disc! Just like their PINK TAPE album before and even PINOCCHIO from even earlier, every f(x) album is just FILLED with SO MANY cool, eccentric and just plain catchy dance cuts, and here’s just a FEW of ‘em that I really love:

The first time I played "Red Light" in my car, the bass sent my speakers into the red and it wasn't until I got a chance to listen to it at home on my Bose system that I realized how DENSE the bass is in this song- just FLOOR shaking! Super EPIC song!

Pure pop perfection as only f(x) can deliver- reminds me a lot of "Signal" off of Pink Tape.

Just makes you wanna run to the dance floor and boogie down!

After assaulting everyone with the masterpiece that is Red Light, the girls also promoted "Milk", a very "catty" song that really fits in with the album's feline theme, so sassy!

"Dracula"!!! My favorite song off of Red Light, MAN is this song catchy!!! I'm hoping and praying that somehow I'll get to see f(x) performing this one...THIS is the track that really MAKES the album for me!

And the album ends with this really sweet (and very Japanese-flavored) Paper Heart, this track wraps up the album so nicely you're left with this warm fuzzy feeling! Gotta spin it AGAIN!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Mementos of J-Pop Video Past

 I was cleaning out my drawer where I kept my checkbook and bills, and came across a stack of old video rental membership cards. I had, of course, the accounts at all three Tower Records and Blockbuster, but what blew me away was seeing all my old J-POP Video store cards! Back in the days before the internet explosion, just about the only way to get ahold of your favorite J-pop Music Programs like Music Station and Hey Hey Hey Music Champ as well as variety shows like Downtown DX, SMAPxSMAP, and those wonderful FNS “NG” drama shows was to rent them from the Japanese video stores that dotted the Honolulu area!
 I first joined most of these places for Japan Superhero stuff, but once I found you could rent not only the new music shows, but older shows like SOUND ARENA and those elusive RED AND WHITE KOHAKU shows of yesteryear, it became a MUST visit. Since no one video store carried them all, you had to go searching to see what each place had to offer, and to get your weekly fix on J-pop related music and shows, you had to have multiple accounts at ALL of the stores! Japan Video, Nippon Video, Video Japan as well as bookstores like BunBunDo and Hakabundo, I had accounts at all of them, though some I visited very infrequently and the others almost every other day!
  Folks nowadays will NEVER know the thrill of going into the stores and seeing the latest episodes of Music Station ready for rental (and these were about two weeks behind the Japan airtime), MAN, I remember running to the racks and snatching them up, reading the spines of the VHS tapes to see what guests were on that week!  It was pure joy to go home and immerse yourself with the latest catch, and that was actually something that we enjoyed it so much, because BOY, the quality of those rentals sure SUCKED. First off, they re-used the same VHS tapes over and over again, so you can imagine, the generation quality was shaky at best, but the WORST thing about rentals HAD to be the fact that for SOME reason, they only dubbed the shows in MONO! I remember when you’d accidentally get an episode still in stereo, you’d be more excited than a kid finding onion rings in his fries!
  To even DREAM that there’d someday be a way to download or stream watch just about ANY Japanese (or Korean) Music or Variety show on your computer at the touch of a button and have it all in Hi-Definition, thunderous Stereo sound and mere HOURS after airtime was just unimaginable, and I’d never want to go back to the old ways, but boy, I gotta say, coming across these rental cards touched a part of my heart that I’d forgotten all about and made me very nostalgic for those old days!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Autographed T-ara!!!

 Out of all the K-pop groups I love, I've managed to get coveted autographed CD copies from just about all of them, but one that I'd never come across was anything for CCM's turbulent flagship group T-ARA, so I was excited to find that K-Pop Dealer Soompi was offering an autographed special for member Jiyeon's first solo venture "Never Ever".
 I jumped on THAT offer, and as I waited impatiently for that special to wrap up so I could get my copy, a fellow T-ara fan on a forum I frequent announced he was selling some of his K-pop collection, and right there in the middle of it all was an autographed copy of T-ara's repackage album "FUNKY-TOWN"! To have a signed album was cool enough, but Funkytown was if fact my very FAVORITE album from T-ara! I just HAD to get it!!!
  Well, that transaction went through smoothly, and whaddaya know- the VERY WEEK that I got my Autographed copy of Funkytown was the SAME WEEK that my autographed Jiyeon CD came in! Whooot, it was a real United States of T-ara time over here!!!

Jiyeon's Never Ever contents

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Yoona Does Nodame

 Just heard the announcement that Girls' Generation's Yoona is going to be playing everybody's favorite adorable genius slob pianist Noda Megumi in Korea's upcoming version of the popular "Nodame Cantabile"!!!

Yoona will play Nodame

Hmmm, I'm a huge fan of Yoona and DO think she has the chops to play with the quirkiness and eccentricity that the role demands (her wacky disguises in Prime Minister and I confirm this), but boy, I don't think there'll be ANYONE who can out-do what Juri Ueno did with it. For my money, Juri Ueno IS Nodame!

Tamaki Hiroshi and Ueno Juri in the 2006 drama

7/14 Edit: Okay, it seems that Yoona has withdrawn from this drama to focus on a new movie instead, LOL
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com