At this point if you’re an Asian actor and Italian couture house Prada comes calling with a brand ambassador offer bolt the other way as fast as you can. There is a scandal in J-ent this week and the male lead in the center of it is popular star Sakaguchi Kentaro, who happens to be Prada’s Japan brand ambassador. Him … Continue reading →
I am leery of having one thing work and then just repeating it thinking it can happen again but let’s hope for the best. K-drama Stove League (Hot Stove League) which was both a popular hit and also award winning will be getting a J-dorama adaptation. This comes on the heel of the success of the J-version of Marry My … Continue reading →
The J-version of Marry My Husband is becoming the buzziest Asian drama of July so far, and fitting for being a K-drama and J-dorama blended execution. It’s midway through an Amazon Prime exclusive streaming airing with two episodes released a week, and the dorama just got an opening Douban rating from C-viewers with an extremely high 8.2 The dorama is … Continue reading →
It’s only been a year and a half since the Korean drama Marry My Husband became an unexpected hit. The production company Studio Dragon went ahead and produced its own J-dorama version (rather than license it to Japan) which recently premiered exclusively on Amazon Prime. The new version stars Koshiba Fuka and Sato Takeru, and on the male lead alone … Continue reading →
Oh god this is such terribly sad news to hear and it’s definitely not been a good first week of December this year. Japanese news is reporting that actress and singer Nakayama Miho has passed away. She was 54 years old and found deceased in her home bathroom, the method by which is likely self-inflicted. She was scheduled for a … Continue reading →
A well crafted high stakes life as a game concept will always have room for variations that deliver fun and catharsis. I still remember the one-two punch of K-drama Sweet Home and J-dorama Alice in Borderland when both were released around the same time in December 2020, the perfect holiday binge watch during the height of COVID-19 stay home era. … Continue reading →
So my wee bae Kawaguchi Haruna is all grown up and in her own renai renzoku dorama this fall season called Silent with idol turned actor Meguro Ren. I’ve heard it’s a classic slow burn tearjerker type but Meguro Ren’s acting in prior doramas has been wildly bad so I was afraid to jump in but the dorama is going … Continue reading →
So this is one of my all time fave medical/forensic/procedural J-doramas and to see it getting a K-drama remake elicits conflicting feelings. On one hand more people will get to know this fantastic story but on the other hand nearly all K-drama remakes of J-doramas fail miserably. Unnatural looked like a run-of-the-mill procedural but really shone as special with the … Continue reading →
I already posted about the upcoming Alice in Borderland 2 airing on Netflix in December of 2022 but this week the pictures and promos are out from the announcement event called TUDUM Japan. There were TUDUM events held around the world by Netflix to announce upcoming dramas and shows and movies in that region and Japan may be primed to … Continue reading →
I feel so lucky to straddle so many different Asian entertainment show mediums, it opens my mind to how the differences can produce compelling but different products. The success of Squid Game is undoubtedly warranted but I understand why J-dorama watchers complain that its a lesser derivative of more complex crafted works. For early aughts there was Battle Royale which … Continue reading →
Well this is either going to be epic or a hot mess, and I’m hoping for epic and think it will actually work out. Thirty years after the release of super popular and beloved shonen manga Yu Yu Hakusho, still readable today and stands the test of time, it’s finally getting a live action adaptation. Netflix will be producing the … Continue reading →
The top J-actresses appear to have a stranglehold in the audience love for the past decade and probably even earlier almost 15 years. A top J-news publication held a poll of viewers to pick their top J-actress of 2022. To no surprise Ayasa Haruka continues her perch in the top spot followed by Aragaki Yui second and Nagasawa Masami rounding … Continue reading →
Hahahaha, OMG this looks sooooooooo bad. Like, mwahahahaha trainwreck level bad potentially. The first trailer is out for the J-version of You From Another Star (My Love From the Stars) which premieres on Amazon Prime streaming on February 23, and one wonders if there is still time to re-cast and re-film the entire thing. Starring Fukushi Sota and Yamamoto Mizuki, … Continue reading →
