The Dechronization of Abe Hiroshi

Abe Hiroshi and Ueto Aya in Thermae Romae

Remember in the Naka Risa movie “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, where she slips back to the past and meets Akiyoshi Nakao, and even though he’s a freakin’ amateur DIRECTOR, once he gets past the basic “Wow, so you’re from the future”, bypasses any insight a FREAKING GIRL FROM THE FUTURE might be able to tell him, and goes straight to the boring “How can I tell her how much I care for her” cliché crap? Well, as readers of this blog may recall, I sure had an issue with that movie, so it was with great trepidation that I approached the Time-Jumping movie THERMA ROMAE…would this movie follow suit or rejuvenate my interest in the time traveling genre?

Roman Bathhouse Architect Lucius Modestus

Struggling Manga Artist Yamakoshi Mami

Hiroshi Abe plays a down-on-his-luck Roman Bath Architect named Lucius Modestus in 128AD in need of new ideas who time slips to present-day Japan where he is starstruck by the amazing structures of the modern-day bathhouses. He takes back with him the ideas and inventions that eventually make him famous in ancient Rome. Every time he slips to the present, he crosses paths with a struggling would-be manga artist named Mami (played adorably by Aya Ueto) work whose fate seems intertwined with him.

A Manga Artist's Inspiration

A BathHouse Architect's Inspiration

 Though things are pretty mundane in Mami’s life, she gets inspiration whenever this strange, dark, muscular Roman He-Man keeps appearing half-naked before her, and through clues and sleuthing, she deduces that this geletleman is somehow from Ancient Rome and thus she begins studying Rome History as well as learning Latin to communicate with him better. As the only constant in his travels, he bonds with her, and she finds herself attracted as well…

Dodging an Omiai

Meeting Up with her Dream Man

Then on one of Lucius’ trips to modern day Japan, an unexpected twist happens, where he and Mami are (accidentally) embracing and they fall into the Hot Springs, sending them BOTH back to Rome! “Ah!”, I thought- “Now we’ll see her experiencing Rome from the OTHER side of time! And as a MANGA artist in need of inspiration, this is probably as close to Heaven as she can get!

This...Is...ROME!

But, no. She finds that Lucius has refused  to build a Bathhouse on principles, and will be sent to the Battlefield. Having read her History, she knows that if Lucius goes into battle, he will die, and soon we find her running through the city looking for Lucius, not giving two hoots that she HAS GONE BACK IN TIME and is RUNNING THROUGH THE STREETS OF ANCIENT ROME, and only “I must find Lucius and stop him before he goes to War, why won’t he listen to me?!”

"To Hell With Rome, I must find my Love...!"

Send In The Clowns: Geezers Go Timejumping

 It was here that I feared the movie was starting to veer towards that Risa Naka movie, and then when the old geezers (comedy relief characters) who bathed at the Japanese Bathhouse ALSO fell into the time-warp and transported back to Ancient Rome, I held up my hands going OH NOES! Thankfully, my fears were unfounded…once there, far from being wacky comedy relief, the old geezers used their bathhouse knowledge to help Mami and Lucius find a solution that keeps Lucius out of Battle and ends up redeeming him in the eyes of the Senate. At this point I breathed a sigh of Relief, thinking, “Whew, OK, the movie’s back on track…” LOL. 

Ueto Aya as Roman Beauty...

...and as a Modern-Day Dork! LOLOL

I'll tell you one thing- they really did a good casting job in Thermae Romae, specifically, if you’re going to have Japanese Man playing a Roman, Hiroshi Abe, with his strong features, makes an excellent choice! His calling the Japanese People he meets members of a strange “Flat-Faced” race had me howling with laughter! And of course, if you’re going to have a girl playing both a Roman beauty AND a modern-age dork, there’s no better choice than Aya Ueto! Ah, in the end, I have to say it was a most satisfying Flick!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Sweet Deal On “Ice Cream”!

HyunA "Melting", Taiwan Edition

  About a month ago I was all set to purchase the latest single from 4Minute’s more outspoken member HyunA, a cool little mini-album called “Melting” which included not only the title track but some pretty catchy other tunes as well (especially the cute “Green Apple”), but just before I was set to order it, my friend told me he’d just gotten the TAIWAN version of Melting which not only had all the songs off the regular Korean version of Melting, but a bunch of bonus songs, too!

 I figured the bonus songs would be remixes of the tracks, but I was floored to realize that not only were they “real” songs, they were in fact the entire BUBBLE POP mini-album (minus “Attention”) and the kick-butt (and very 4Minute flavoured) digital download song “Change” !! Can you say WHOA!!! Looking at this tracklisting of this Taiwan import, it almost reads like a Greatest Hits package of sorts, and in fact, if they had included “Troublemaker” on this CD, that’s EXACTLY what it would have become!!

 So Mathematically, It breaks down like this:

  

Along with those awesome tracks came a beautiful 24 page photobooklet (I presume this was part of the original Melting release?) just chock FULL of sexy HyunA goodness (see pics)… And HOLY CRAP, if THAT wasn’t enough, this set ALSO came with a BONUS DVD with the videos for Ice Cream, Bubble Pop AND Change!!! And all region-free, to boot! Man, when they say that K-pop gives you the most for your money, they were TOTALLY talking about releases like this! I am just AMAZED!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Perks of Being a CD Japan Customer

  When it comes to purchasing my J-Pop and K-Pop CDS and DVDs online, there are basically three ways I go about doing it- either through a few reliable “Online Store” Vendors that I frequent on ebay, or, if they are new releases, through CD Japan or YesAsia. YesAsia has the perk of offering free shipping if you buy over a certain amount ( I think about $40USD, and hitting that mark is never a problem for me!), but CD Japan has the bonus of awarding you “shopping points” for every purchase you make, and I have to tell you, with all the Bluray and DVD Concerts I’ve been getting lately, those points have been adding up!

YesAsia: Free Shipping Over $40

CD Japan: Shopping Points To Be Applied for Discount

 The way CD Japan does it is this: every 100 points adds up to a dollar, points that can be applied to your order during checkout, and occasionally I’ll have so much points saved that the actual amount I pay goes mostly to shipping! This happened before when I bought Mirei Kirtitani’s new Album/Shashinshuu, and though it doesn’t happen quite as often as I’d like, it happened the other night when I went online to pre-order the new Girls Generation Japanese Single “Love and Girls”:

The cost of the new SNSD CD was 1800 yen, and the amount of Shopper Points I had was…1800!! Applied to my order, the cost of the CD itself was NOTHING! I only paid for shipping! Fortunately for them, I will be adding more stuff onto this order long before the May Shipping date, so they WILL get my money one way or another!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

AfterSchool, Collected

So my copy of AFTERSCHOOL's Japan-Released Greatest Hits package came today, and like the previous Japan-Based Greatest Hits releases from T-ARA, 4MINUTE and KARA, is pretty standard fare:  A Simple Jewel Case with two-sided holder featuring one CD of their  Singles and a DVD of their Videos. Not that I'm complaining, as Japan seems to be the only ones even interested in making collections of singles for K-pop artists, something that Korea never seems to do!

  One big motivator for me getting this CD collection besides the awesome DVD Videos, is the fact that they've included AfterSchool's "Happy Pledis" songs which I'd never gotten around to purchasing, including "Love Love Love", Someone Is You" and their duet with sexy unni Son Dambi "Love Letter". Though this will be the first time I'm owning the actual CDs of these songs, I've had the various VIDEOS downloaded and have liked them for a long time, especially "Love3x!" If only they'd also included "Snowy Town" on the collection, that would have taken care of ALL my Afterschool "loose ends", LOL

Tracklisting:

CD:

1.Play Girlz

2.Ah!

3.Diva

4.Because of you

5.When I fall

6.Bang!

7.Shampoo

8.Into The Night Sky

9.Wonder Boy

10.LOVE LOVE LOVE

11.Someone is you

12.Love Letter

13.FLASHBACK

DVD:

14.Ah!

15.Diva

16.Because of you

17.Let’s Do It!

18.Bang!

19.Shampoo

20.Let’s Step Up

21.Into The Night Sky  

22.Wonder Boy

23.LOVE LOVE LOVE

24.Love Letter

25.FLASHBACK

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Angelic Side Of 4Minute

 The Buzz has been going around that 4Minute will be among the many K-pop artists making their comebacks in April (or thereabouts), and the first evidence that the wheels are actually in motion is the Cube Entertainment Girls  appearing in a new campaign endorsing Talent Cosmetics.

 Though I’ve been seeing Gayoon and Jiyoon on the scene a lot, and Hyuna’s always appearing in some promotion somewhere, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen the other girls Jihyun and Sohyun, and even longer since I’ve seen all five of them together, so I was really excited to see the footage of the new CMs and see what the girls have been up to-and lemme tell ya- THEY ARE LOOKING FINE!!!

The “Look” for this promotion is an “angelic” feel, and the girls are here looking their most innocent and sweet (well, Hyuna always looks naughty no matter what) but the thing that blew me away most was how much prettier Sohyun has gotten since I last saw her! She’s always been the one with the most drastic hairstyle changes during each promotion, (especially during “Mirror Mirror” where her hair was sheared to such short lengths as to resemble the Bob’s Big Boy) and this time they really compliment her well- long, pretty locks draping either side of her face- at first, I was all like, “Wow, Who’s the babe at the end?” then did a double take when I realized it was our dear “Kwonssi” rocking her beautiful new hairstyle!

Of course, she became instantly identifiable to me once they showed her talking story with the girls with her her pulled up and I saw those famous Sohyun ears (those must be the most one-of-a kind ears ever!) peeking out, and went “Yep, That’s Sohyun, alright!”

 Playing this video again and again while I looked for suitable screencaps to accompany this entry, my excitement and anticipation for their comeback is really ratcheting up, and now it’s to the point where I can’t wait!!! These next few months are gonna be a BANNER FREAKIN’ TIME!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Awesome Drumming with 14 Year Old Senri Kawaguchi!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
Holy Toledo, Just saw the most AWESOME clip of this 14 year old girl named Senri Kawaguchi totally KILLING IT on the Drums, playing along with the uber-nutty "Go Go MANIAC!!" song from the Anime Show "K-ON!" and just HAD to Share!!!

Going online, Senri's quite established and has got quite a few of these amazing performances accompanying equally frenetic songs, and as a drummer myself, I can honestly say, "Holy Crap this girl has some FREAKIN' SKILLZ!!!!"

Girls Generation Hits The Stage!

SNSD performs "Not Alone" at the Girls and Peace Japan Tour

One of the big drawbacks of being a fan or either J-Pop or K-pop is that for the most part, you’re not likely to see any of their concerts in person (barring an expensive and exhaustive journey across the sea), so for most of us, the only way to really experience an artist live was to get their live concerts when they came out on Laserdiscs and VHS), if you were lucky enough to have them even RELEASE a concert for that year’s Tour (I’m STILL sore that Pony Canyon never recorded CoCo’s “Sylph” concerts) and have them release it in a timely fashion!
  Luckily, in the age of the internet, not only is most Concert footage readily available, but the staggering amount of fancam footage makes even the most recent concert clips as easy to experience as a click of a button! And the quality! Far from those old, grainy, shaky bootleg videos of old, these clips are so well shot and focused, it’s really the next best thing to being there! So when I heard that Girls Generation were heading back to Japan this year to promote their awesome GIRLS AND PEACE album, the FIRST place I went was onto the ‘tube to look up the latest clips made by those diehard SNSD fans out there…and find them I DID!

Above and Below: "I'm A Diamond" Majestic Set!

Oh man, watching the clips of the new songs (as well as songs I’d never seen performed live from THE BOYS) just had me on the edge of my seat- these gals REALLY know how to keep the show moving and interesting, with elaborate sets, killer synchronized dance moves, and hefty helping of both cutesy AND Sexy outfits, each and every song was a mini-video in itself! Take a look at some of these stills which show how eye-catchy each song set is:

"All My Love Is For You" under Cherry Blossoms

Black and White Stripes make perfect fit for "Animal"

Feisty Dancing for  "Express 999"

Killer Moves for "Reflection"

Adorably Cute for "My J"

"Do You Remember the Nine Warriors?" asks the lyrics for the song T.O.P., and as the girls sing the words, they wield glow-in-the-dark batons, making the girls look like Jedis with Light Sabers!

Below is one PARTICULARLY awesome set-up during their kicking performance of "Paparazzi", where the girls are situated in doorways below huge projections of themselves, and as each girl sings, their screen and doorway lights up, and when the chorus comes, the entire setup lights up like the sun!

Above and Below: "Paparazzi" Setup

The Split Screen was also used to dramatic effect for the haunting "Time Machine", where each of the 9 screens featured one girl's personal camera fixed only on her.

For the final set, the girls came out in their "GG Airlines" Stewardess Outfits, singing songs I'd been DYING to see them perform, such as the fun "Beep Beep" and the incredible and beautiful "Stay Girls"...the latter is a real ballad belter, and Taeyeon takes us there...!

Aww, I’ve been watching these songs, over and OVER again, GODS, I CANNOT WAIT til they release this Japan Tour on DVD, and I really hope and pray that they're able to capture the raw excitement these fancams exude!!! Sooooo grateful to these fancammers for taking me right to the stage, if only through the magic of the internet!

Taking a bow as the Concert Wraps Up

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

T-ara and 2NE1 Arrives!!!

Aw Yeah, my T-ara BUNNY STYLE discs came in today, and MAN, they look so nice!!!!! Though I didn’t get all the members, I did put aside enough funds to buy Hyomin, Jiyeon, Eunjung and Soyeon’s versions which came with bonus photos of Hyomin, Jiyeon, Eunjung,  and…Boram?? Boram? How come I didn’t get Soyeon? Hmmm.
  I also got the Deluxe Edition Version C, featuring the Jiyeon/Hyomin/Eunjung subunit song "Dangerous".  The bonus photo for this one was Areum, and I have to confess, ever since the Bunny Style video, I’ve been really liking her and so I was STOKED when I saw it was of her, willya lookit her pic, she's such a cutie!!!
EDIT: Okay, I just opened all the T-ara Bunny Style CDs, I didn't realize that every CD had a trading card inside as well! I got Hyomin card for Hyomin version, Eunjung for Eunjung version, but the rest were totally different, this makes me realize that they're ALL random, even the bonus photos: though the fact that the photos were almost exactly matched with the solo versions I ordered, they must all just be randomly put inside, so they didn't accidentally give me Boram instead of Soyeon, after all! LOL

I've been watching two 2NE1 Concerts I bought the other month over and over again, I love 'em so much! Hell, even my SNSD and KARA concerts haven’t been taken out more than a few times, anyway, it got to the point that I knew in my heart that I HAD to have the Japan concerts as well, and as you can see by the below pic, I ordered both the First Japan Tour and the New Evolution in Japan discs!!! For the latter, I picked up the Blu-ray for an extra 10 bucks because the bluray disc was Region-free (as you know, unlike  Korean releases, most Japan DVDS are strictly Region2 only!) so I could watch it on my main entertainment system!

  So far I’ve only watched the New Evolution concert, in many ways it’s just like the Seoul Concert, I  was surprised how many of the songs were still sung in Korean since they’ve released Japanese Versions… One big difference is of course since it’s in Japan I finally get to see them perform “Scream” live…and let me tell you, it was freakin’ AWESOME! Additionally, the performances of songs that they DID keep in Korean, it was like watching the New Evolution in Seoul perfs I love from a different angle! I especially love Bom’s “You and I”, god, that NE Performance might be my favorite single 2NE1 perf ever!
    I also ended up buying the Japan Scream and I love You releases, too. I love these girls so much, It's to the point I really need to have all the stuff they've released.LOL.
The bonus disc on both the SCREAM set and the I LOVE YOU set is 2NE1's Phillipines trip, haven't watched it yet so I don't know if both discs are of the exact same special, we'll see!
Looks Like I'll be busy watching stuff this week!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com