Asian drama update

[alexandral]

I have watched quite few different things recently:

Slow Dance. I gulped it in one go on Thursday which resulted in huge under-sleep on Friday. This is a lovely drama if you are a fan of the story how "an older woman helps a younger man to find himself and after that they marry in a very happy way". To be fair, the drama felt a little as if it was made to cater for the needs of over-thirty working ladies. But I didn't mind this at all because any drama that has both Fujiki Naohito and Tsumabuki Satoshi brooding, angsting and falling in love is wonderful by default.

I would appreciate recommendations of any dramas with Fujiki Naohito and Tsumabuki Satoshi very much.

Money's Warfare I have almost finished it, I just don't want to watch the last episode because I don't want the drama to finish. I have fallen in love with it's crazy ways completely. It scooped Baeksang awards for the best drama and the best male perfomace by Park Shing Yang. I must do a full post on "Maney's Warfare" to try to lure others into watching it :D, but at this time I have to mention that the episode 13 had the best kiss in the history of Asian drama. :D

Powerful Opponents (Kangjeok) I loved the first two episodes for the sake of the female herouine who is the cutest thing and the secondary guy, Yoo Gwang Pil who is wonderfully gloomy. He rocks my socks with his reserve. On the other hand, this drama has the ugliest lead male I have ever seen up to date. The President's Son has: Rabbit Teeth, Scared eyes, Bad dress sense and the haircut of Hong Gil Dong. I intend to call him Rabbit Teeth (or RT in short) from now on.

See what I mean: (Update: I watched more of "Powerful Opponents and Rabbit Teeth is improving on me).



One question: Do female bodyguards wear high-heels? Wouldn't this interfere with the duty? Don't they have "sensible shoes" dress code??????

Zettai Kareshi Love, pure love. If anyone have read the manga, please spoil me - Whom will the herouine (Riko) will choose at the end? The Robot? The Cheeky Manager Guy? I am rooting for the Cheeky Manager.. because he is human and the Robot (a gorgeous looking guy, no doubt!) is not and Riko won't be able to have many cute babies with the Robot, right?

Around 40.
Big plus: Fujiki Naohito!
Big minus: He plays a militant ecologically conscious guy and this self-righteous type annoys me to no end. I have personal reasons. :D
Some more big plus: I have only seen two episodes but so far I like the way the drama is dealing with the questions of "What is more important for a woman? Her career? Her family? Her friends? And should a woman marry and live in her marriage without love, just for the sake of the social acceptance?". The main female herouine is awesome and absolutely free of any stereotypes.
The result: I would recommend this to any fan of grown-up range of Japanese dramas.

Comments

[amandioka.livejournal.com]

*puts Slow Dance on list of to watch doramas*

I watched with a lot of fastfowarding the first two episodes of Powerful Opponents. I didn't like the leads so I think I'll just give it up. The girl kinda annoys me and the president's son is a rebel without an angst act that attracts me. Hehe.

The Zettai Kareshi manga is about Riiko, a highschool girl, her robot boyfriend and her neighbor-childhood friend Soshi. Other than those simple facts, the dorama remains true to the manga, so perhaps the ending will be the same: Riiko chooses Night over Soshi, but for some reason Night stops working overnight (he keeps getting more and more sleepy, than one morning he doesn't wake up). After some time of "mourning" Soshi comes back from a trip he took so he can get together with Riiko because Night, who knew what would happen to him, asked Soshi to take care of Riiko. Kind of a sad/happy ending.

One thing I don't like about the dorama, though, is that dorama!Night is too stupid. Didn't Riiko select the "inteligent" option? He acts way too much like a robot, which is obvious, but contradicts the manga, which shows a very much human Night to the point of actually confusing the main character. Other than that, I love the dorama :) And those creemy things Riiko cooks look delicious!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Fujiki Naohito: Hotaru no Hikari. Also GalCir, though that one's incredibly cracked out.

On the Zettai Kareshi front...I don't know who she ends up with, but in the end, I stopped following the manga because it seemed to have Riko and Night as the big epic love, and I just couldn't swallow that.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I really liked Slow Dance too, eventhough it was slow in some parts. For some reason I always think that there is a resemblance between the actress and Zhang Ziyi ^^ I don't know if you've watched Itoshi Kimi e, but Fujiki Naohito is supposed to be real hot there. ah_chung told me that Itoshi Kimi e is about a photographer that will go blind in 3 months and a pediatrician in training who ends up falling for him and the obstacles that they have to overcome to be together. She also recommended Kou Kou Kyoushi 2003, despite Fujiki playing a dark character. She says that "Naohito plays a teacher who learns that he has a terminal illness. Because of some misunderstandings, one of his students ends up thinking she has the disease instead of him. And Naohito's character instead of correcting things lets her believe that she will die when in reality it is him. There's also taboo stuff like teacher/student relationship, etc. It's a really good drama but definitely not a feel good fluffy one."

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ZK. She ends up with boss. Night dies.

Re: powerful Opponents. Awww, I adore the President's Son with unholy love. Aww, well, more for me :)

Fujiki Naohito dramas? I am sure everyone will rec Hotaru No Hikari, and it's very good, but I want to rec Itoshi Kimi E (just look on that tag in my LJ). He is a photographer going blind and falling for a pediatrician. It's my second fave jdrama ever.

As to Satoshi, he starred in Orange Days, which I haven't seen but is widely loved.

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I avoided this post because I didn't want to be spoiled for anything! :)

I just have to say though that (as you know), I also love Fujiki Naohito, and you should try out Hotaru no Hikari, which was one of my favorite dramas from last summer. It was just fun and cute and quite adorable. I also like Itoshi Kimi e, and I am definitely enjoying Around 40. I would not suggest that you watch Proposal Daisakusen because I really didn't care for it overall, but Fujiki isn't bad. I'm hoping that we get complete new subs for Antique, an old drama that Fujiki did with Takki which I have, but it seems to be a very bad translation of Chinese subtitles so the English subs are horrible - I got through 2 episodes and gave up, but I hear that someone might be working on new subtitles now.

Re: Tsumabuki Satoshi, have you seen Orange Days - it's a wonderful drama, and he's one of the main leads, along with the always-wonderful Shibasaki Kou (Good Luck!, Galileo).

[joonni.livejournal.com]

I am looking forward to your post on money's warfare.

AS for Zettai kareshi, I love. and I am rooting for the manager guy but I totally love the robot too.