EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[alexandral]

Holidays
EEEEEE! I am back from holidays!! They were wonderful!! We stayed with my sister-in-law and her family in their nice house in London suburbs. They are lovely family and Sasha enjoyed playing with her cousins very much. Weather was wonderful and this made these holidays even more special (we don't have much of the really good weather here, so we treasure it :D) We also attended our church's convention in one of the hotels near Richmond Park and this was a fabulous experience. Venue was nice, Richmond Park is beautiful and we visited few wonderful little cafés and restaurants in the Richmond area. EEEEEEE!

Spooks
Even more EEEEEEE! I am full of the new fictional loves. I am quickly going through 4 season of "Spooks" which is so fabulous and intelligent and stylishly filmed! baleanoptera, have you watched "Spooks"??? For a long time I was lamenting Tom's departure, but I must say, Adam (Captain Wentworth in another life) and also Harry And Ruth are so great!

Anego
And another new love is Japanese drama "Anego" of which I have watched 5 episodes already and I am absolutely in love with it. I think this is something I would really recommend to a person who never watched an Asian drama before. It is impeccably written and reminds me more of some Western films and shows like "Bridget Jones Diaries" then of any Asian drama I have watched previously.



Why do I like it so?

+ I really love the main heroine, Noda Naoko (played by Shinohara Ryoko who is GREAT), a 32 year old singleton in her search for happiness. She is warm-hearted, she is altruistic, she is brave and she is beautiful. Take me right, I love spirited teenage girl characters, but I seem to reach my saturation with this type of character and someone closer to my age group with problems I can really relate to makes such a welcome change for me..

+ Akanishi Jin who is playing Naoko's love interest Kurosawa Akihiko is gorgeous!! So gorgeous that his levels of gorgeousness are enough to make any show good.

+ Some really interesting cultural and social issues are raised in this show. It was, for example, very interesting for me to discover that Japanese workers normally start as temporary workers in a corporation and only if they show themselves well can they progress to the permanent worker level. Another interesting thing is a whole elaborate culture of "blind date" in Japan . And hhmm, married women with children in Japan still seem to be mostly staying at home. (I wonder if this is correct?)

So EEEEEEE! I love it!!! I would really love some recommendations for shows with Shinohara Ryoko and Akanishi Jin!!

PS: I have uploaded "Mansfield Park" and "Northanger Abbey", I will post the links as soon as I check them at home!!

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEE! Matthew McFadyen as Tom is GREAT! It was my intense obsession for a couple of years. You need to see this if you like Matthew!!! I have all seasons of Spooks in .avi format and I am totally sending them to you! First I will send seasons 1-3 of "Spooks" (the ones with Tom). If you like Adam too, I will send seasons 4 and 5 later..

Oh, ** sigh of relief ** I am so glad you liked Noda. I really felt such a "kindred spirit" in her. Especially when she talked to the guy she was blind dating and told him to get back to the person he really loved and her child. ** sniff **

Beware of the ending though. Hope it won't disappoint you! ^^

Oh, I am so worried now!! I was hoping they will get married! (I want everyone to get married and have babies, lol)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeeeee! Thank you for your kind offer but you really do not have to! :) I will find a way somehow to find Spooks myself, really. But thank you so much, I really do not want to trouble you ^^ But thanks for letting me know that Matthew McFadyen did a great job in Spooks. I think he met his wife (RL) through that series, too, right? :) I absolutely adore him after Pride & Prejudice, LOL.

I want everyone to get married and have babies, lol
*laughs* Well... you will see the end... I wasn't pleased with the ending, but I hope you will have a better take of it *grin*

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, I absolutely insist. You can get DVDs if you want to support British TV making, but it could be nice for you to "try" first!!

*laughs* Well... you will see the end... I wasn't pleased with the ending, but I hope you will have a better take of it *grin*

I have spoiled myself. ** sigh ** But I must say that the ending looks a bit confusing. He is in Mongolia??? Why???

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I kept meaning to comment to you that *sigh* I like Anego so much, but I don't like the end. It's very frustrating and in my opinion, it was a cop-out. Not to discourage you, or anything, of course!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I quite liked what calixa wrote about the ending, but I must watch it properly before I can be sure.

in my opinion, it was a cop-out

Did you think there was a similar ending in some drama?

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I just skimmed her review and she does a very, very good assessment. In fact I agree with most of what she wrote. I guess my problem with the Anego is the difference between why I disliked it and I loved the Sapuri ending. Even though Noda isn't ready to marry Kurosawa by the end of the drama, that's ok. But I would have liked to see them definitively together, and they're not. You can tell they care about each other, they are obviously keeping in touch, but it's hard to call what they're doing as "dating" or even to say that they are "together" in the sense that they would be faithful to each other despite being apart. That's my issue - that the end of Anego doesn't come to a certain conclusion (and the way it's done is even a bit silly) - and that conclusion does NOT have to be marriage for me to be happy with it - it just has to be more conclusive than what we got.

I got the impression that the producers of the drama got cold feet about pairing Akanishi Jin and Shinohara conclusively for some reason because it could very easily have been written to have a more certain ending than it had. I wonder if they thought that viewers wouldn't like to see them together? The drama did well in the ratings, so who knows? It's all speculation now. :)

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry for writing such a long comment! I hope I did not spoil you too much!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

You know that I loooove spoilers!

I got the impression that the producers of the drama got cold feet about pairing Akanishi Jin and Shinohara conclusively for some reason because it could very easily have been written to have a more certain ending than it had. I wonder if they thought that viewers wouldn't like to see them together? The drama did well in the ratings, so who knows? It's all speculation now

It was interesting to see what a big social taboo an older woman/younger man still is in Japan. For me, Noda and Kurosawa are more surely together then they could have been if they were in the same country, but I could be wrong because I haven't seen this "properly". One of the things I noticed about Noda is how reluctant she is in demonstrating her better feeling, even to herself. She obviously loves her girl-friends very much, but she is constantly banters with them and generally doesn't go saying "I love you" often. I think the fact that she is learning Mongolian is a very good indication of her feelings. :D

And I must, must watch Sapuri soon!!

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee! I must confess the ending didn't make much sense to me either. I fast forwarded a lot hence a lot of stuff I didn't pay attention to. I think he moved to Mongolia for career advancements. But same like winterspel, the thing that bugged me the most is the fact that there was no closure of relationship between the OTP. I think it was left the way it did 'cause (I think) the Japanese society still has a more reserved view on older woman-younger man relationships. Maybe :D

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Like calixa I am a fan of open endings, but they are definitely not everyone's cup of tea, I understand. I am quite intrigued now. I am on episode 8 at the moment.

Looooooove your icon!