When I was watching Rich Man, Poor Woman, another dorama came to mind that actually could use the same name. That would be the execrable Tsuki no Koibito (Moon Lovers) starring Kimura Takyua as the rich man and Taiwanese supermodel/wannabe actress Lin Chi Ling as the poor woman. KimuTaku has a new dorama coming out next month called Priceless, and with two consecutive flops under his belt now, if Priceless doesn’t break 20 in rating then its clear the heyday of the Crown Prince of J-ent might really be over. If that happens, I would lay the moment of his downward trajectory at the door of TnK. I actually like older and more weathered KimuTaku, and the poor ratings and reception for TnK and Nankyoku Tairiku is truly the result of terrible screenplays above all else. TnK was one of those dramas that was SO BAD I actually watched it all for trainwreck purposes. It’s run was cut short, which is unprecedented embarrassment for a KimuTaku drama, and the final outcome was rewritten on the fly and made no narrative sense but at least salvaged a tiny bit of the horror that was unfolding onscreen. This dorama was panned all across Asia, even in Chinese-speaking countries where the netizens were by and large embarrassed to send Lin Chi Ling out to represent. In the end, this dorama was hilarity all around, but for all the wrong reasons. Continue reading →