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
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
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
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!!!
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
It hasn't even been a week since f(x) began promoting for their new album RED LIGHT, and they've already announced that it's set to drop NEXT WEEK MONDAY!!! MAN, I'm so excited about this new release, more excited than I've been for all the other recent releases including Girls Generation, AOA. Apink and 2NE1, because f(x) is ONE group that consistently pushes the envelope with new, unusual and exciting creations, and we're going to be blessed with an entire ALBUM's worth of new material!!!! The girls have been releasing individual teaser images of the new look and concept for Red Light, and the dark, gothic look is yet another new venue for them!
I already went online and pre-ordered it, they were offering up two editions, a version "A" and a version "B", I didn't know what the difference was, so I just ordered them BOTH, and then they had a choice of one or two poster option, I of course chose the TWO poster option, MAN, i'm telling you, I'm SO gearing up for this release! It's gonna be f(x) Red Light Pandemonium when that package arrives here!!! Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
Man, seems like not even a year since I was captivated by Nine Muses' Lusciously sexy Ryu Sera and now it's been announced that she's leaving the band! Nine Muses have been going through quite a bit of member shift, since even LeeSem and Eunji have recently departed, but Sera was not only one of the original members, but the group's leader as well!
I'm hoping that the real reason for Sera leaving is to focus on a solo career, since she's been making a lot of these great homemade videos featuring her singing her favorite songs in relaxed sittings. My favorite one has to be of her sining the classic King Harvest "Dancing In The Moonlight", Sera is so cute just hangin' around the home humming tunes to herself!
After a few successful purchases from Kpopmart, the online dealer had become my go-to place to shop for new K-Pop CDs, but this all changed once I ordered the new Hyosung CD and Poster from them. I’d put in the order for her new CD “Top Secret” from them (21.98 for the CD/poster and a whopping 15.60 for shipping) and expected it to arrive within a few weeks. Those weeks became months, and just when I was about to write them and ask what was up, I got an email from them telling me that the package had been returned to their shop as undeliverable. WHAT! Looking at the picture they sent me of the package, I saw that the label with my address on it had rubbed off during transit, leaving the mail carrier without an address to deliver to! So that explained the delay- but THEN, they told me that if I wanted them to re-send it to me, I had to pay them another $15.60 to ship it again PLUS an additional $3.50 “return” fee!!!! I said that that was ridiculous, I wasn’t going to pay ANOTHER 15.60 for shipping which I already thought was expensive, THEN make me pay for the return fee? They remarked that it was MY country that sent it back so they were not the ones to blame. Yeah, but as the shipper, shouldn’t I have a reasonable expectation that THE FREAKING SHIPPING ADDRESS would be adhered to the parcel in a way that won’t RUB OFF in transit? So I told them forget it, I’m canceling the Hyosung order. They refunded me the cost of the CD (21/98) but not the shipping, of course. SO I was out that. Plus, they took the $3.50 “return fee out of the Hyosung return amount. So I got back a total of 18.30 out of the initial $37.40 I paid. So I’m out 19.50 and no Hyosung CD. Maybe it isn’t their fault and the rubbed off label is just “one of those things” but boy, I’m not ordering anything more from them. On to new dealers…. Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
Lisa See’s new book came out the other week, and seeing it on the shelf got me thinking about a few years back when they’d re-released her book Snow Flower and The Secret Fan to tie into the new movie that had just come out…I’d made plans to check out that movie at the time, but it must have came and went without much fanfare because I didn’t hear anything much about it after that. With renewed interest, I went onto ebay and found that there were a good many affordable DVD copies for sale, and I was able to grab a deal of about 7 dollars for the Bluray version which arrived just the other day!
Now, I didn’t remember much about the movie except that it was noted that Wanye Wang, the director who’d done “The Joy Luck Club” had also directed this film. I didn’t know who any of the actors or actresses attached to the film were either, so imagine my surprise when I got the bluray movie into my hands and found that one of the girls (the aforementioned “Snow Flower” in the film’s title), was played by none other than Gianna Jun, AKA Miss Jun Jihyun, the sassy actress who recently took my heart for a ride with her cute and sexy take as Cheon Song Yi in “You Who Came From The Stars”!!! WOW!
Gianna Jun and Bing Bing Li
Snow Flower and The Secret Fan tells the tale of two girls in 1893 China who are bound together as lifelong companions in a ritual called laotong (the ceremonial choosing of one's confidant, think arranged marriages, but for friendship among girls) and the support they have for each other as they grow up, get married and pursue their own paths through its ups and downs. It’s also a tale of two modern-day friends who have the same friendship pact between each other, and the rituals they got through relying on each other.
Friends comforting each other in 1839 China...
...And in Modern Times, too.
Both the Olden China story and the Modern Day girls’ story’s characters are played by the same two actresses, Gianna Jun and Li Bing Bing (playing main character Lily), and it’s fascinating to watch them jump back and forth from the rigid ceremonial past to the free-wheeling electronic age, but best of all, you get to see Jun Jihyun in not only her traditional China garb, but also as the sexy-hot Jihyun we all know so well from You Who Came from the Stars as well as films like “The Thieves” !
Jun Jihyun and Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman in Snow Flower
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a pretty straightforward tale of true friendships that endure all the pitfalls and heartaches of life, and though it didn’t rock my world or anything, I still came away afterwards thinking about the movie (as well as wiping away my tears) and will definitely be watching this one again!
PS: one drawback about getting the movie in bluray is that I couldn’t play it in my computer, and therefore wasn’t able to make any screencaps! Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
So I’m watching one of my very favorite fancam performances of APink of the girls doing a rehearsal of “BuBiBu”at the 2012 DMZPeace Concert (Bomi in particular looks sooooo pretty with that very girly white dress)… Anyway, so I’m watching it, and though I’ve watched this clip a hundred times before, for the first time, I noticed Hayoung stuffing something into her pocket at some point in the performance:
After pausing and rewinding that segment, I realized it was her glasses! But why did she have her reading glasses with her onstage? I rewound the video to the beginning as saw that she’d originally had it in that pocket:
But during the course of her dancing, it started coming out and when her hand brushed against it, she realized it was about to fall and grabbed it, all without missing a beat!
I love that even though It’s only the rehearsal, she was a total pro! Check it out!
She grabs her glasses at around :47 sec , and stuffs them back in at around 1:50!
Didn’t realize I’d be enjoying the new SBS reality show “Roommate” so much- I’d initially only tuned into it because I'd already seen the hilarious footage of the messy Afterschool dorm when they went to interview cast-member Nana before she moved into the Roommate Building. The first episode was pretty much what I expected (awkward greetings and small talk among residents), though it was pretty cool seeing a side of Nana I hadn't before, I wasn't sure how much I'd be checking into the show.
Nana and Hong Soohyun
This all changed with the second episode and the sole reason for this sudden spark of interest in the show is because it was episode two when eccentric “4-Dimensional” 2NE1 vocalist Park Bom showed up! Holy CRAP, I FORGOT how freaking fun she is- she has SO MUCH personality and dizzy attitude that from the MINUTE she showed up, she had me cracking up and wanting to tune in for more!
The One and Only Park Bom
From waking everyone up at 3 in the morning as she tried (unsuccessfully) to get ready for bed while the others slept, and finally giving up and sleeping in the living room (and how hilarious when the late night arrivals came home and found her sleeping there, LOL)
...to mischievously sneaking drinks and snacks into her bed and nibbling them under the sheets when she thinks no one is looking:
...as well as talking to the cameras in her room like they are real life friends standing right next to her, it was like watching 2NE1TV all over again!
examining the camera as Song Gayeon looks on
I’ll admit, when the other (guy) roommates are on, I ain’t that interested, but BOY, whenever Bom is there, it is as fresh and funny as anything! Recently, both Nana and Lee Sora have stated how much they love Bom, and it’s easy to see why- she is so naive and sapcey about things, she’s like a wide-eyed innocent child- a child who can belt out the ballads like a goddess!
Orange Caramel meets 2NE1
Future best Buddies Nana and Bom
Bom's quirky habit of speaking exactly what's on her mind has also paved the way for some fun scenarios like when she confessed that she wasn't keen on "Mom" Shin Sung Woo cooking their meals with his full mustached and bearded face, so with her pressuring, they trooped out into the yard to shave it off! Bom giggled throughout the segment, and when Shin needed water to wash off the shaving cream and she sprayed her water moisturizer all over his face, she was dying with laughter! So much fun!
"Mom" Shin shaving off his beard and mustache at Bom's request
And trips to go shopping haven't been so entertaining since that 2NE1TV show when they went to London- as usual, Bom's 4-dimensional way of tlaking ans thinking had everyone cracking up!
Just shopping with the girls
...and even back at home, she's entertaining just sitting in bed all day (which she does, all the time, ahaha) bonus points for her venturing out sans makeup- though she DID have a bit of shyness when Nana came into the room straight from a Music Show appearance in full glamoured-up makeup!
Eeek! You're so pretty and I'm all ughhhh!
Aw man, sad to say, I've been hearing quite a bit about how poorly the show is doing in the ratings, but for MY money, it's all the other boring storylines that are bringing the show down (I'm particularly bugged by the forced "lovelines" that they're always trying to start between flatmates) because when Bom is onscreen, it is 100% pure fun entertainment!
