I don’t know how Taiwan dramas move so fast when it comes to filming. The TW-version of You’re Beautiful started filming late last year and already a 3-minute teaser is out. Starring Jiro Wang and newbie Su Li Wen (who reminds me of a cross between Joanne Zheng and young Ariel Lin), this version comes a year after Japan already … Continue reading →
Dur, I’m kinda not liking how the story is progressing in Cheongdamdong Alice based on the previews. Of course once the episode airs it might make sense, but to be honest I felt like episodes 9 and 10 continued to lack the zip of the earlier episodes. It’s probably due to Se Kyung spending a good chunk of both episodes … Continue reading →
Now that Flower Boy Next Door is off to a solid start, the rest of the first half of 2013 is shaping up with a diverse bucket of dramas that I am mostly curious about but not necessarily all that rabid to watch (That Winter, The Wind Blows, IRIS 2, The Incarnation of Money). I’m sure another K-drama will come … Continue reading →
The new Sunday night SETTV drama premiered this past weekend and I actually was interested enough by the previews to check it out. The hilariously named King Flower (whut?) better known as 金大花的華麗冒險 (Jin Da Hua’s Extravagant Adventure) didn’t have the ratings lure in Roy Qiu so its premiere episode was the nightly leader but dropped down to 1.26 from … Continue reading →
Has it really been almost a year since Ethan Ruan was shipped off to the army? Ethan arguably left at the height of his career, with both critical and commercial success in the pocket. He won a Best Actor Golden Horse award for Monga, then starred in the box office hit LOVE with a large contingent of Chinese and Taiwanese … Continue reading →
This is weird. And squicky. Not to mention a little bit icky. Korea has a fixation with Lolita much? I love both Lee Sang Yeob and Kim Yoo Jung, but to see them in the same frame as anything other than cool uncle takes his niece out to the amusement park does not work for me. Lee Sang Yeob was … Continue reading →
Isn’t that a lovely Wintery shot of leads Yoon Eun Hye and Yoochun in the latest episode of Missing You? Taken out of context, they look like a happy couple out on a date together. Except in the context of the drama, they are running from law enforcement because she is a suspect in a series of murders. Does it … Continue reading →
I love that Han Hyo Joo is so open to experimenting in both her image and her projects. She burst onto the scene in Spring Waltz with her glorious long hair playing the type of bright Candy heroine K-dramas love to trot out onscreen. Since then she was a fresh-faced sageuk ingenue in Iljimae, then she lobbed off her hair … Continue reading →
Wannabe rapper So Ji Sub say whut? I can’t decide if this is a good or a bad thing, probably a little bit of both. What’s undeniable is that it’s a reality and not just a figment of So Ji Sub’s musical aspirations. For a guy who has gotten accolades for being an actor, So Ji Sub is trying way … Continue reading →
Flower Boy Next Door has such a dichotomy between the two leads. Park Shin Hye as Go Dok Mi has barely any dialogue whereas Yoon Si Yoon as Enrique can’t seem to shut up and natters on a mile a minute. It’s going to be a pleasure seeing these two warm to each other. I already ship these two characters … Continue reading →
MBC is a really odd-duck of a channel. It has had the biggest ratings hits in the last few years not based on quality but more on inexplicable forces colliding such as The Moon Embraces the Sun. Conversely it also produces the crappiest turd like Time Slip Dr. Jin and May Queen. This network is all over the place and I … Continue reading →
I hope the Rurouni Kenshin movie sequel starts filming soon because I’m already chomping at the bit to get deeper into the story. As much as I loved the movie adaptation, narratively there were deeper motivations and conflicts that were just skimmed over due to running time that are much more fleshed out in the manga. I hope the sequel … Continue reading →
I just let out a sigh of relief that likely could have been heard halfway across the globe. Flower Boy Next Door is good. It’s not great, but it’s a solid start to a story without any quibbles from me about the acting, directing, script, or production values that take me out of the narrative from the get go. The … Continue reading →