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

Secret's Hyosung as Adorable Ghost in "Cheo Yong"

Hyosung in Cheo Yong: Ghost-Seeing Detective

 As my bias in the cheerfully cute group SECRET, it piqued my interest when I first heard pretty Jeon Hyosung was going to be in a drama, (and as a ghost helping a detective, no less!) But as the months went by, I only heard about it in a roundabaout way, and it wasn’t until just this past week that I finally decided I’d better hunt the drama down and see if I could get it!

The Ghost and I: Hyosung meets Oh Ji Ho

 Well, the drama “Cheo Yong: Ghost Seeing Detective” wasn’t hard to find, and I found that in the time since I’d first heard about it, it had aired and actually finished! Usually these K-dramas run for 22 episodes or so, this one only ran 10. I downloaded all of the episodes and found a subbing team that translated it (albeit a very englisshy translation, oi!) and have JUST finished watching the first episode!
   First off, I have to say that Yoon Cheo Yong (as played by cool Oh Ji Ho, the actor I always thought looked like a Korean Hiroshi Abe) is an intriguing character from the onset- He’s been born with the ability to see spirits, and his mysterious battles with the undead start off the show with a bang, but it’s when he transfers back to the main  Police station that things get good- 
   Seems Hyosung’s an adorable ghost named Han Na Young who spends her days with the people at work in the station, skipping back and forth between rooms, cheerfully talking with them and advising them, never minding the fact that no one can see or hear her! 

So cute watching her having one-sided conversations with the workers, her chipper and spritely persona just making me smile!

But when Cheo Yong arrives, she is stunned to find that this gentleman can see AND hear her, a fact that thrills her to no end! As a ghost bound to the building of the station and with no one to actually interact with, she makes it her mission to follow Cheo Yong all over the place, chatting excitedly about every thing that comes to mind!

"You can see me, right, mister?"

"I won't let you pass until you acknowledge me!"

DAEBAK!!!

Man, Hyosung is REALLY stealing the show for me, she is SO doggone innocent and CUTE! Really, by the end of the episode, I had a hard time believing that that busty, sultry femme fatale leading SECRET was this same girl playing sweetie NaYoung! But when she smiles that huge toothy smile, I’m all like, “Ah yes, that’s my girl!”

   PS: In a timely coincidence, right as I began watching the show, it was announced that Hyosung was going to be releasing her very first SOLO album outside of Secret! Since I was high on Hyosung love, I immediately put in MY order (which tempted me with it’s free poster and DVD!) so it looks like there’s gonna be a WHOLE LOT of Hyosung love here in the coming weeks!!!

Hyosung's first Solo Album "Top Secret"

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

KARA's SeungYeon in New Drama "Her Lovely Heels"

Han SeungYeon as Ji Hoo in Her Lovely Heels

  With all the dramatics going on within the KARA camp, with the news of both Nicole and Jiyoung departing and the possibility of two new members joining, it’s nice to hear that the remaining girls are still keeping busy with things and just this week, the new mini-drama Her Lovely Heels just started, starring my own KARA bias, my beloved SeungYeon!

  Episodes One and Two ran today and our dear Hamtaro looks as lovely as can be! The story of Her Loevey heels is about a shy, naïve girl who is inexperienced in love, and as main character Ji Hoo, Seungyeon exudes this sweet, natural beauty about her, a true breath of fresh air!!!

 The sweet, wide-eyed gazes she makes and the stunned confused reactions when things go topsy-turvy are too adorable, and you know, throughout both episodes, she kept reminding me of someone, and a the halfway point, I realized who it was- actress Mirei Kiritani! Maybe not in looks per se, but definitely in attitude! Too Cute!

Ahhhn, crossing my fingers that someone can translate this show!!!! Granted, it’s a sweet little show that is so basic in premise I can follow along with the story fairly well, but I just KNOW I’m missing out on all the little things that make up a fun script! Not sure how “popular’ this drama is, but I noticed that there were about 826 seeders sharing the show, so I know that the INTEREST is definitely out there!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

New K-Drama "You Who Came From The Stars" Totally Rocks!

Arrival! Byeoreseo On Jeudae (You Who Came From The Stars)

  Just finished watching the first episode of “You Who Came From the Stars”, that new K-drama being touted as the next big thing- so much that I felt I just HAD to check it out! Now, I haven’t watched all that many Korean Dramas, counting from “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” through to “The Prime Minister and I”, there have only been about five or six shows I checked out (and all with only varying degrees of completion), but I have say that judging from the first episode alone, this may be one of the BEST ones ever!

Do Min Joon (Kim Soohyun)

meeting the 16th Century Cheon Song-Yi (Kim HyunSoo)

I’m not even kidding, EVERY aspect of this show rocked- this story of a man who beamed down to earth 400 years ago and has been biding his time, settling into the Human way of living until the comet comes around again that will take him back to his homeworld is as exciting as ANY sci-fi drama of its kind! I’ve long been a fan of time-travelling movies, and though not technically a time-travelling story, the way the drama jumps back and forth from his life in 1602 and the present 2013 is exactly the same in feel!

20th Century Do Min Joon

And Stylish Actress Cheon Song-Yi (Jun JiHyun)

Of course, the show wouldn’t work without some great actors to back it up, and we’ve got a perfect cast here- with Kim SooHyun as the time-travelling “Man From the Stars” (under guise of a regular school teacher named Do Min Joon),  he’s cast in a perfectly cold, stoic role, and MY GOSH, Jun Jihyun is simply STUNNING as the lusciously SASSY hot young actress Cheong Song-Yi! As the story begins, fate has somehow placed the two together as neighbors in a High-rise apartment complex, and whenever they cross paths, Song-Yi’s abrasive and larger than life personality against Min Joon’s stern and introverted outlook creates some very dynamic conversations!!!

Fateful Meeting in the High Rise Elevator

And then there’s the overshadowing backstory of the young princess he met when he first beamed down- something has happened to her (so far hasn’t been revealed yet) and he’s been chagrined over his loss so much that when he gets a flash that a young girl that looks just like her in 2001 is going to be killed, he speeds to the site and saves her.

 Little does he know that this young girl he saved is in fact the obnoxious actress living next door to him! Adding further to the fact that she’s just returned to School and has found out HE’s her new teacher, ya just KNOW that things are GONNA GET INTERESTING!

With a lead man as cold and soft-spoken as Min Joon, you really need a energetic and LOUD counterpart, and BOY does Song-Yi deliver! This is a girl that does and says what EVER is on her mind! And yet, while on one hand being loud, bossy and arrogant, beneath the surface is this really likeable girl who just wants to be loved by people and is genuinely hurt when her so–called fans attack her online and call her airheaded. I liked her from the very beginning!

   In fact, every person on this show is so enthusiastically played that they are a joy to watch in any scene ,and even the roles of Song-Yi’s put-upon assistants are hilarious- they know that their charge can be thick headed and must use the utmost diplomacy handling her!

And I really like the side-story of Min Joon’s only Earth friend- a lawyer he worked with in what appears to be the mid 1950’s. Now very old, he still meets up with Min Joon to talk, and is quite saddened to her that his friend will soon be making the trip back.

 Aw, there's just too much good stuff going on in this show that I can't even cover them all, and besides, it's time to get back to watching the next episode! O Yeah, I’m TOTALLY in this one for the LONG HAUL!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Cuteness Overload with Yoona in “The Prime Minister And I”

Yoona as Da Jung: Reporter Nam is on the case!

You know, from the very first promotional photo still I saw for the new KBS2 Drama “The Prime Minister and I” with a goggle-eyed Yoona dressed up as a housecleaner, I knew this was going to be a show chock-full of adorable Yoona goodness, and having just finished the first episode , I can happily say that the cuteness has FAR exceeded my expectations!!!!

Trying to infiltrate the joint in disguise!

There’s an oft-used gimmick in movies and dramas called the “Manic Pixie” persona, wherein the story goes, an uptight, by-the-book man meets an energetic, wide-eyed and full of life girl who opens his eyes to a bright new world, and though that isn’t quite what the show is about, Manic Pixie is a title I can TOTALLY get with regarding Yoona as the super-peppy Da Jung Nam !!

The Prime Minister and I: Yoona and Lee Beom Soo

Pretty Yoona as Da Jung

The Prime Minister and I follows Da Jung as a hyperactive girl who works as a news reporter for a trashy celebrity gossip magazine called “Scandal News”. All she’s meant to do is interview Prime Minister hopeful Kwon Yul (Lee Beom Soo) to get some information  about the kinds of things her readers like- what kind of relationship he’s in, what kind of snacks he likes, his favorite TV shows and colors, etc, but SOMEHOW, she ends up getting tangled up with him in a whole new scandal of her own!

Mini interview with Kwon Yul (Lee Beom Soo)

A new scandal in the making!

One thing I’ve always loved about Yoona is her adorable reactions- from giggly, sneaky, angry or astounded, her face always seems molded into the cutest of expressions! At first I was worried I might have a hard time getting into her character since I look at the screen and see YOONA there, but my gosh if I didn’t get into the show and fully believe in her persona after all! So much fun so far, we’ll see where we go to!

PS: In a happy coincidence, my copy of Girls Generations' new Japanese Album "Love and Peace" arrived on my doorstep today, so it looks like it's gonna be a BANNER YOONA day all around here!!!! Woohoo, can't wait to give this new album a spin!!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com