It’s truly a pleasant surprise to see how my affection for Vanness Wu has grown over the years. He was the totally forgettable fourth F4 member in Meteor Garden, the one who was greasy and acted way too cool. As an actor he was bottom of the barrel for me, and as as singer he was merely serviceable as the … Continue reading →
As much as I love Taiwan and Japan dramas aplenty, one thing Korea has that can’t be matched is a treasure trove of talented child actors. They aren’t necessarily the cutest or the prettiest, but hot diggity some of them can easily out-act their adult counterparts, and then some. I’ve actually found some terrible K-dramas memorable because of the childhood … Continue reading →
The powers that be over at SBS are really the sole culprit I blame for the sudden and precipitous decline in narrative and visual quality for Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love. The cast is still delivering swimmingly (aside from the over-acting since day one Dowager Queen Kim but I treat her as a deranged piranha and leave it at … Continue reading →
I seriously cannot recall a year in K-dramas where there are so many sageuks in every shape and form, from primetime 24-episoders to daily dramas to cable thrillers. MBC especially is really stacking its line up with an unending line up of sageuks in the Mon-Tues timeslot – starting with the anniversary 50 episode sageuk Horse Doctor which premiered in late … Continue reading →
2013 really has been a year of K-drama casting randomness. I don’t think there has been a single lead pairing that I’ve longed to see, almost every one feels like it came out of left field and bonked me over the head. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, just that I never thought about putting those two together in the … Continue reading →
With episode 12 of Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love, the rumblings of the last few episodes are finally complete in its transformation. This drama has jumped the shark, people! It is now no longer a fusion sageuk romance with thoughtful political intrigue and subtle power plays. It’s now a full blown daily makjang drama wearing pretty hanboks and produced … Continue reading →
King Flower crack feels like those old after-school special commercials. This is your brain on KF crack, accompanied by the image of an egg sizzling on the frying pan. Will I be able to pick myself up after experiencing this wild drama filled with ups and downs? Most assuredly, for every single brain-dead line of dialogue to come out of … Continue reading →
I had an epiphany today when watching episode 18 of King Flower. It was an amazing moment of clarity made all the funnier because of how crazy this drama is. This episode confirmed for me that it no longer matters how it ends and which guy Da Hua picks. I finally realized there is some method to the writer’s madness … Continue reading →
I’m feeling a teensy bit of disjointedness for Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love. It mostly comes from the feeling that the delicate details, heady aura, and thoughtful political battle of wits is being pushed aside for more heavy-handed doses of everything. Now that Ok Jung and Lee Soon are romancing out in the open, suddenly everyone around them ratchets … Continue reading →
I’m rather ambivalent about how quickly and how heated the romance between Ok Jung and Lee Soon went from longing to rolling in the sack in episode 10 of Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love. Yes, they are both adults and at least this drama is honest that sexual chemistry and desire plays a big part in people falling in … Continue reading →
Breeze is one of Taiwan’s largest department stores (though I’m partial to Uni-Hankyu 統一阪急 and Shinkong Mitsukoshi 新光三越) and the flagship store is in the Shinyi district along with the other main department stores and next to the flagship Eslite Bookstore. The homegrown fashion conglomerate holds an annual star-studded Breeze Night fashion fete every year attended by the stars and … Continue reading →
This isn’t one of the weirdest onscreen pairings I’ve ever heard off, but it definitely so was far out of left field I blinked more than a few times to make sure I didn’t read it wrong. First some context – TW-media was all in a tizzy when Ariel Lin was confirmed to be starring in a modern police thriller … Continue reading →
I have no idea why I’m even following along with Fabulous Boys, the Taiwanese remake of the Hong Sisters cracktastic K-drama You’re Beautiful. The original wasn’t a drama I loved wholeheartedly though I was crazy addicted when it initially aired, along with a good chunk of the online drama viewing world. The Japanese remake Ikemen desu ne was actually not … Continue reading →