the monster monster drama postings part II
happy february everyone!
ok, i know i said that i'd make a point to post more often, but my excuse is that life has a way of interfering with things, especially when it's grad school stuff. so yeah. i'll still try, but this semester looks like it'll kick my butt work wise, so we'll have to see.
in the mean time here is the next section of drama postings:
jdramas
BOSS (2009, Amami Yuki, Toda Erika, Takenouchi Yutaka): this is like japanese CSI or something. lady comes back to the tokyo police department after being in the us, to head a team of misfits from various departments. naturally they manage to solve some serious crime, with “boss-lady” kicking major butt. she’s awesome & it was lots of fun with plot twists!
Gokusen 1 (2002, Nakama Yukie, Matsumoto Jun): lady starts off as a 1st year teacher & she gets assigned to the worst class in the school. all the boys think she’s an easy target, but little do they know she’s the granddaughter of a prominent yakuza gang! yankumi is pretty awesome & supposedly anybody who’s anybody in doramas is in this. also lots of fun, though some of the posturing gets a bit old.
Hana Yori Dango 1 (2005, Inoue Mao, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, Matsuda Shota, Abe Tsuyoshi), 2 (2007):& movie (2008): don’t think i need to summarize this, since if you don’t the plot after meteor garden, this, the sequel & movie & the korean boys over flowers came out, you need to come out from under that rock where you’ve been living. i saw meteor garden first, so my impression of this version is a bit tainted by the taiwanese version in that matsu-jun did not look big or strong enough to kick anybody’s butt, much less a group of thugs & i felt that there wasn’t enough character development. the guys were all so skinny! & i wasn’t sure what to think about the pageant thing towards the end of #1, but apparently that was in the manga, so eh - whatevs. i found the movie & #2 to be utterly ridiculous, especially the part when girl #1 punches out a bear on the island. i mean, come on.
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, aka Hana Kimi (2007, Horikita Maki, Oguri Shun, Ikuta Toma): girl dresses up as a boy to follow/stalk her idol who goes to an all-boys school to try & convince him to resume high-jumping. naturally love & hijinks occur. SO much better than the taiwanese version, where i couldn’t get past episode 5. maybe because the girl was so much better. the entire thing is pretty much crazy & over the top, but somehow, it worked, making it utterly crack-tastic.
Kimi wa Petto (2003, Koyuki, Matsumoto Jun): an office lady who is rather un-ladylike (she likes pro-wrestling & is taller & stronger than most guys) finds a scrappy modern dancer beat up in a box in front of her apartment building one rainy night. since she misses her childhood pet dog, she makes the dude her “pet” calling him momo. basically in exchange for companionship, she provides him food & shelter. when i first watched it, i have to say, i wasn’t sure what to think. it’s such an odd situation & i kind of didn’t like koyuki’s character, but in the end, she’s quite a sympathetic character & it definitely grew on me.
Lunch Queen or Lunch no Joou (2002, Takeuchi Yuko, Eguchi Yosuke, Tsumabuki Satoshi): tough girl finds this restaurant run by a family of brothers & loves their omrice since it reminds her of the dish she ate with her dad. in order to get a job at the restaurant, she lies & says she’s the eldest bro’s (he ran off due to some money trouble or something) fiancé. 2nd & 3rd bros fall in love with her, with the youngest developing a crush on her & stuff happens. this was my 1st jdrama & i have to say that i absolutely hated it. not much happens in it & what little plot development there is never builds up to anything. there is absolutely no resolution & the entire thing just ends. turned me off of jdramas for the longest time.
Nodame Cantabile (2006, Ueno Juri, Tamaki Hiroshi): nodame & chiaki are polar opposites. she’s a messy, dirty, absent-minded & lazy pianist, while chiaki is a neat freak, ambitious, perfectionistic & driven conducting student. they both go to the same music school & live next door to each other. they have a chance meeting, & while nodame falls in love at first sight, chiaki is, shall we say, less than thrilled. but like all asian dramas, they are OTLs despite their differences & much hijinks occur along the to become that OTL. nodame is frightfully annoying, though perhaps because i was prepared for the utter crack that this drama is, i didn’t mind her so much. my favorite character is the rock violinist & the music is wonderful.
thanks totimeripple , my jdrama repetoire has increased greatly, though on the whole, i'm not such a huge fan. thing is, they tend to have open endings, & not a lot of emotional resolution, which is something i really like in my entertainment. still, i shall keep an open mind about any forthcoming dramas that may come my way
ok, i know i said that i'd make a point to post more often, but my excuse is that life has a way of interfering with things, especially when it's grad school stuff. so yeah. i'll still try, but this semester looks like it'll kick my butt work wise, so we'll have to see.
in the mean time here is the next section of drama postings:
jdramas
BOSS (2009, Amami Yuki, Toda Erika, Takenouchi Yutaka): this is like japanese CSI or something. lady comes back to the tokyo police department after being in the us, to head a team of misfits from various departments. naturally they manage to solve some serious crime, with “boss-lady” kicking major butt. she’s awesome & it was lots of fun with plot twists!
Gokusen 1 (2002, Nakama Yukie, Matsumoto Jun): lady starts off as a 1st year teacher & she gets assigned to the worst class in the school. all the boys think she’s an easy target, but little do they know she’s the granddaughter of a prominent yakuza gang! yankumi is pretty awesome & supposedly anybody who’s anybody in doramas is in this. also lots of fun, though some of the posturing gets a bit old.
Hana Yori Dango 1 (2005, Inoue Mao, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, Matsuda Shota, Abe Tsuyoshi), 2 (2007):& movie (2008): don’t think i need to summarize this, since if you don’t the plot after meteor garden, this, the sequel & movie & the korean boys over flowers came out, you need to come out from under that rock where you’ve been living. i saw meteor garden first, so my impression of this version is a bit tainted by the taiwanese version in that matsu-jun did not look big or strong enough to kick anybody’s butt, much less a group of thugs & i felt that there wasn’t enough character development. the guys were all so skinny! & i wasn’t sure what to think about the pageant thing towards the end of #1, but apparently that was in the manga, so eh - whatevs. i found the movie & #2 to be utterly ridiculous, especially the part when girl #1 punches out a bear on the island. i mean, come on.
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, aka Hana Kimi (2007, Horikita Maki, Oguri Shun, Ikuta Toma): girl dresses up as a boy to follow/stalk her idol who goes to an all-boys school to try & convince him to resume high-jumping. naturally love & hijinks occur. SO much better than the taiwanese version, where i couldn’t get past episode 5. maybe because the girl was so much better. the entire thing is pretty much crazy & over the top, but somehow, it worked, making it utterly crack-tastic.
Kimi wa Petto (2003, Koyuki, Matsumoto Jun): an office lady who is rather un-ladylike (she likes pro-wrestling & is taller & stronger than most guys) finds a scrappy modern dancer beat up in a box in front of her apartment building one rainy night. since she misses her childhood pet dog, she makes the dude her “pet” calling him momo. basically in exchange for companionship, she provides him food & shelter. when i first watched it, i have to say, i wasn’t sure what to think. it’s such an odd situation & i kind of didn’t like koyuki’s character, but in the end, she’s quite a sympathetic character & it definitely grew on me.
Lunch Queen or Lunch no Joou (2002, Takeuchi Yuko, Eguchi Yosuke, Tsumabuki Satoshi): tough girl finds this restaurant run by a family of brothers & loves their omrice since it reminds her of the dish she ate with her dad. in order to get a job at the restaurant, she lies & says she’s the eldest bro’s (he ran off due to some money trouble or something) fiancé. 2nd & 3rd bros fall in love with her, with the youngest developing a crush on her & stuff happens. this was my 1st jdrama & i have to say that i absolutely hated it. not much happens in it & what little plot development there is never builds up to anything. there is absolutely no resolution & the entire thing just ends. turned me off of jdramas for the longest time.
Nodame Cantabile (2006, Ueno Juri, Tamaki Hiroshi): nodame & chiaki are polar opposites. she’s a messy, dirty, absent-minded & lazy pianist, while chiaki is a neat freak, ambitious, perfectionistic & driven conducting student. they both go to the same music school & live next door to each other. they have a chance meeting, & while nodame falls in love at first sight, chiaki is, shall we say, less than thrilled. but like all asian dramas, they are OTLs despite their differences & much hijinks occur along the to become that OTL. nodame is frightfully annoying, though perhaps because i was prepared for the utter crack that this drama is, i didn’t mind her so much. my favorite character is the rock violinist & the music is wonderful.
thanks totimeripple , my jdrama repetoire has increased greatly, though on the whole, i'm not such a huge fan. thing is, they tend to have open endings, & not a lot of emotional resolution, which is something i really like in my entertainment. still, i shall keep an open mind about any forthcoming dramas that may come my way