Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake, Tatta Hitotsu No Koi, Emerald on the Roof, and Winter Sonata. Aaaangst!
Finished Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake at around 2am.
GOD.
Surprisingly, I was actually happy with the ending and not a sobby mess. Being tired out of my mind probably had something to do with it. But if you think about it, Keigo is happy with their daughter and his music and he is at peace. Keigo and Masaki ended up creating a child and having months of happiness together, living a family, and they got married, and she saw their daughter walk.
It’s as kind an ending as you could have with that premise. And I think it’s those months of normalcy, even more than having the child, that enabled Keigo to go on and be a happy human being once she died. Because if she died when giving birth, he would have seriously killed himself, child or no child because he was feeling so shatteringly guilty.
Yeah. Child.
Masaki ends up pregnant from her perfect night and decides to keep the kid and she is born HIV-negative and you have no idea how hard I was rolling my eyes at that. I also think bringing an HIV+ child into this world is utterly irresponsible (and she lucked out) so I am afraid I got a bit annoyed. But it did provide for plenty of drama so I can’t complain too much.
Because Keigo flips when he finds out, as not only it’s a crazy idea and a serious threat to Masaki’s health, but he is having déjà vu to his dead gf. And they fight and yet she finds out he will never work again because he is refusing to go on a promised tour to stay with her and she does the Gift of the Magi thing and tells him she’ll abort if he goes on the tour. And she is almost in when you see him stop her because he’s discovered the baby book she was making and he only then realized how important this is for her and for him she always comes first (just see him always stay by her bedside when she was sick).
So she makes him go on tour, and they exchange video letters but of course, when he gets back, she collapses and is taken to the hospital in a very serious condition and we have Keigo flipping out angst and then he takes her to a church (he had a ring for her earlier but she insisted he give it to her AFTER he gets back) and they do a Maria and Tony wedding thing by themselves and it’s gorgeous and then…
She ends up going to delivery and she tells him she’d die to have the baby so pick the baby over her and even though it kills him, he is carrying out her wishes, and the cuts between Masaki suffering so much and Keigo falling apart in the hallway is the angstiest, coolest thing. I am bawling at that point so hard that my glasses need wiping. And she gives birth and it’s a girl who is all frail and Keigo RUNS to Masaki who is critical and tries to lie to her the child is alright but Masaki demands to be taken to her even though the doc says she shouldn’t be but…
OMG
OMG
OMG
She pulls out her tubes and Keigo picks her up and carries her to the incubator (HOT) and she touches the little girl and it’s the most amazing scene and he is crying and then she ends up in ICU and he is just standing there, and he keeps hitting the wall over and over as if he is trying to punish himself and Masaki’s mom comes in and he tells her it’s his fault, he shouldn’t have let her keep the baby and he is falling apart and can’t even pretend to control himself.
And Mom gives him the video Masaki made and he is falls in front of it on the floor.
And then there’s news and he goes to Masaki who looks dead and he is crying and pleading and she opens her eyes and then the baby is brought in and it’s all very sweet but I can’t really be too coherent because now only am I brain-dead tired at that point but I am crying so hard I’d be scaring the neighbors and the whole ep is a giant blur of emotion for me.
And then they live for months happily and she dies after their (proper) wedding, while helping their child not to fall and he just holds he in the church.
And then he is left with the child and the music and the memories and it’s not a bad ending actually. But still.
FRELL.
BAWL.
OH HELL.
Got to say, Masaki says ‘Keigo’ an awful lot.
I have also watched ep 3 of Tatta Hitotsu No Koi and my squee cannot be contained.
Poor Hiroto. Poor poor guy. That scene where he was pleading with the new boss of some company to not take work away from them and the guy told him to literally grovel, in a public place, in front of his (company guy’s) subordinates and all the while doing the mimicking thing that Hiroto’s father hung himself?
It was completely unbearable, and you see Hiroto grab the edges of his jacket to sort of steady himself and deal with this because this is like a horrible nightmare and then he goes down on his knees, in public, prostrates himself even. Wow. No wonder he has self-esteem issues. He has to humiliate himself like this after all and what it does to his spirit is pretty horrible, I am sure. But how much do I love it that he did it, because he wants to keep his father’s business going, and the roof over Ren’s head.
And then there is his mother, who Nao has now met and is appalled by. Is Momster mentally unbalanced or just drunk?
And of course, Hiroto doesn’t call Nao any more because he’s found out she isn’t just comfortably off but is from a filthy rich family (which also comes across as such a contrast to his family: warm father, devoted mother, fun and teasing with her elder brother). And he is being an idiot, but I can so understand him. He’s been beaten down not to aspire. And I think he wants to keep around him as much pride as he can. (But the scene before that, when he waves the flashlight? LOVE).
But I love Nao, because she doesn’t give up. And I love the friends because they keep tricking the two together. So she shows up at his place with the assumption it will be a general party but finds only Ren (and they bond) and then Hiroto comes home from his hellish day and he snaps at her and then Ren (even he can notice Hiroto likes her) tells him it was mean and she cooked dinner for him so Hiroto apologizes. And they are so uncertain and he tells her he’ll call her.
And he does. I love that bit because he’s just found out that the company is going to keep the business with them and even give them more work and I think success makes him feel more confident, confident enough to call (and I love that he wants to share, and I love that she can tell from his voice he’s happy. Btw, Kame has the most amazing, radiant smile). And he tells her to call him Hiroto, not Hiroto-kun ‘because when you add things like ‘kun’ it sounds weird’ AWWWW. And I love that she is so direct and tells him she wants to see him and he backpedals that as friends is OK (poor boy) and she tells him she likes him, so no. Her straightforwardness is so adorable.
So next, Nao is getting drunk, because she’s been dumped (he said no) and the friends come in with another plan and now Hiroto believes that Nao is going to go out with Ayato in this particular hotel (where they got Nao to by telling her she is having dinner there with a friend). And he pretends he doesn’t care but he is so distracted even his workers notice. And then he runs to the hotel and finds Nao and ends up babbling most un-Hirotolike, that she shouldn’t go out with Ayato and mentions the school dog and all sort of things and he is so panicky and desperate and it’s adorable.
Nao is of course, lost, but they figure it out and find a dinner certificate and have a cute dinner (and he is so relaxed and happy with her, eeeee!) and then she says good bye and starts crossing the road and he bursts out ‘Stop, don’t go like this’ and, words tumbling over each other, almost stammering, he tells her that he would like seeing her like this, and he didn’t like the thought of her with Ayato and that he isn’t good with words but…
And she just launches herself into his arms and he looks so startled and pleased. And he tells her he has no money and she replies ‘I know’ and he tells her ‘I don’t even go to college’ and she replies ‘I know’ and he is so vulnerable and open at that moment and she tells him, ‘Hiroto is Hiroto’ and OMG. I was literally screaming at my computer.
And he leans in and kisses her on the cheek. And she looks disappointed and asks ‘what was that?’ and he says ‘A kiss’ to which she adorably sulks that if he kisses her, he should kiss her properly (you go girl!) and to stop laughing and he tells her, and he is grinning (and I die) ‘Too many orders’ and as she starts out to say ‘Sorry’ he swoops down and kisses her. With the Ferris wheel in the background. OMG OMG OMG OMG. And they stare at each other dazed.
And then, in case we’ve been to happy for more than a sec, we get the ominous Hiroto voice-over ‘But that was the beginning of our tragedy.’ ARGH. No. I like them and want them to have children and bunnies.
I have to say, I really like the attention to detail in this dorama: Kame wears the same clothes over and over, he is twirling the phone cord in his fingers when he is nervous on the phone with Nao. They do the dichotomy with her being always almost ethereally pale and clean and his face being smudged. And I like that the show acknowledges Kame is good-looking (the company man picks on him because of it, Nao mentions it, he was able to get girls’ phone numbers etc). In American shows, they are often populated by beautiful people but everyone treats them like they are your average-looking Joe and that’s kinda silly.
I can’t wait for next ep.
And speaking of things I can’t wait for. Once I finish Pride (next on my hit list), I think I just might watch Winter Sonata, the very famous Korean dorama which is to kdramas what Meteor Garden is to twdramas: the mother of them all. It’s the usual kdorama story of lost childhood love, amnesia, and very pretty images. It was apparently crazy psycho popular in Japan (saw posters for it all over the place in front of Panchinko Parlors for some reason). Actually, before I saw a single dorama, I posted an article on the WS phenomenon and on the lead in it, Bae Yong-Joon (who was also the lead in the very different Untold Scandal) in this entry. Funny how things turn out.
I hope for the non-frozen-to-death ending.
And another dorama I am anticipating very much is Wallace Huo’s Emerald on the Roof which started airing in September, and has recently been picked up for subbing.
Why? I adore well-made twdrama the best, Wallace Huo is gorgeous, and then there are the plot and stills:
Official Site:
http://www.gtv.com.tw/Program/B051420060930U/
GTV trailers:
Trailer 1: http://www.youtube.com/v/3ZVA6KPq2PA
Trailer2
mms://218.32.210.220/GTV/B051420060930U/060915_03.asf
Short Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9NOpntEtJ
"I heard... when you give your loved one an emerald on a Bai Lu, when the sun is about to rise, you and that person, no matter how long, in any situation, will have an everlasting love"
The story begins at the Hainan island, two boys Nian Zhong (Wallace Huo) and Nie Kie (Hu Yu Wei) accidentally fall for a pretty yet unpredictable rich girl Mo Chia Chi( Sun Li). At school, Nian Zhong, to join the music class, intentionally uses his friend's name Nie kie and rightfully pretends as him. As an exchange, Nie Kie forces Nian Zhong to write love letters for him for Chia Chi. Because Chia Chi and Nian Zhong are attending the same music class, she finally gets to meet him as Nie Kie thinking that he is the mysterious person behind those letters. Nian Zhong, to lessen up conflicts finally reveals his real identity, after all, Chia Chi accepts it and likes him even more. To make it more real, Chia Chi , with full intention, inserts the other pair of emerald that she owns into Nian Zhong's pocket, one is with her and the other one is with him. One day, Nian Zhong's mother becomes very ill and eventually dies not so soon after. Nian Zhong then accepts his rich aunt's invitation to live with her family in Shanghai. "I will wait for you on my birthday.." those are her last words, Chia Chi then bids farewell to him. Unfortunately, on the actual day of her birthday, Nian Zhong sees her being kissed by Nie Kie, a heartbreaking moment that results into a complicated separation. But right, we are not even lovers, do I really love her?
After some time, after a long wait, on a cold street in London, they meet again and become lovers. But what kind of spell do legends give? bad tricks or joy? or might be both? One day, Nian Zhong receives a tragic news of Chia Chi's death in a plane crash.
Many years after, Nian Zhong goes back to Hainan and takes up a position in a first class hotel. He is surprised to find out that Nie Kie, his long lost friend, is also working there. And what is more surprising, is to see a familiar figure cutting across, Chia Chi is alive ..with both legs paralyzed. She survived a car crash and not a plane crash. Now that he is about to marry someone else, will things change?
I have more still to upload later but am too lazy to do it now.
GOD.
Surprisingly, I was actually happy with the ending and not a sobby mess. Being tired out of my mind probably had something to do with it. But if you think about it, Keigo is happy with their daughter and his music and he is at peace. Keigo and Masaki ended up creating a child and having months of happiness together, living a family, and they got married, and she saw their daughter walk.
It’s as kind an ending as you could have with that premise. And I think it’s those months of normalcy, even more than having the child, that enabled Keigo to go on and be a happy human being once she died. Because if she died when giving birth, he would have seriously killed himself, child or no child because he was feeling so shatteringly guilty.
Yeah. Child.
Masaki ends up pregnant from her perfect night and decides to keep the kid and she is born HIV-negative and you have no idea how hard I was rolling my eyes at that. I also think bringing an HIV+ child into this world is utterly irresponsible (and she lucked out) so I am afraid I got a bit annoyed. But it did provide for plenty of drama so I can’t complain too much.
Because Keigo flips when he finds out, as not only it’s a crazy idea and a serious threat to Masaki’s health, but he is having déjà vu to his dead gf. And they fight and yet she finds out he will never work again because he is refusing to go on a promised tour to stay with her and she does the Gift of the Magi thing and tells him she’ll abort if he goes on the tour. And she is almost in when you see him stop her because he’s discovered the baby book she was making and he only then realized how important this is for her and for him she always comes first (just see him always stay by her bedside when she was sick).
So she makes him go on tour, and they exchange video letters but of course, when he gets back, she collapses and is taken to the hospital in a very serious condition and we have Keigo flipping out angst and then he takes her to a church (he had a ring for her earlier but she insisted he give it to her AFTER he gets back) and they do a Maria and Tony wedding thing by themselves and it’s gorgeous and then…
She ends up going to delivery and she tells him she’d die to have the baby so pick the baby over her and even though it kills him, he is carrying out her wishes, and the cuts between Masaki suffering so much and Keigo falling apart in the hallway is the angstiest, coolest thing. I am bawling at that point so hard that my glasses need wiping. And she gives birth and it’s a girl who is all frail and Keigo RUNS to Masaki who is critical and tries to lie to her the child is alright but Masaki demands to be taken to her even though the doc says she shouldn’t be but…
OMG
OMG
OMG
She pulls out her tubes and Keigo picks her up and carries her to the incubator (HOT) and she touches the little girl and it’s the most amazing scene and he is crying and then she ends up in ICU and he is just standing there, and he keeps hitting the wall over and over as if he is trying to punish himself and Masaki’s mom comes in and he tells her it’s his fault, he shouldn’t have let her keep the baby and he is falling apart and can’t even pretend to control himself.
And Mom gives him the video Masaki made and he is falls in front of it on the floor.
And then there’s news and he goes to Masaki who looks dead and he is crying and pleading and she opens her eyes and then the baby is brought in and it’s all very sweet but I can’t really be too coherent because now only am I brain-dead tired at that point but I am crying so hard I’d be scaring the neighbors and the whole ep is a giant blur of emotion for me.
And then they live for months happily and she dies after their (proper) wedding, while helping their child not to fall and he just holds he in the church.
And then he is left with the child and the music and the memories and it’s not a bad ending actually. But still.
FRELL.
BAWL.
OH HELL.
Got to say, Masaki says ‘Keigo’ an awful lot.
I have also watched ep 3 of Tatta Hitotsu No Koi and my squee cannot be contained.
Poor Hiroto. Poor poor guy. That scene where he was pleading with the new boss of some company to not take work away from them and the guy told him to literally grovel, in a public place, in front of his (company guy’s) subordinates and all the while doing the mimicking thing that Hiroto’s father hung himself?
It was completely unbearable, and you see Hiroto grab the edges of his jacket to sort of steady himself and deal with this because this is like a horrible nightmare and then he goes down on his knees, in public, prostrates himself even. Wow. No wonder he has self-esteem issues. He has to humiliate himself like this after all and what it does to his spirit is pretty horrible, I am sure. But how much do I love it that he did it, because he wants to keep his father’s business going, and the roof over Ren’s head.
And then there is his mother, who Nao has now met and is appalled by. Is Momster mentally unbalanced or just drunk?
And of course, Hiroto doesn’t call Nao any more because he’s found out she isn’t just comfortably off but is from a filthy rich family (which also comes across as such a contrast to his family: warm father, devoted mother, fun and teasing with her elder brother). And he is being an idiot, but I can so understand him. He’s been beaten down not to aspire. And I think he wants to keep around him as much pride as he can. (But the scene before that, when he waves the flashlight? LOVE).
But I love Nao, because she doesn’t give up. And I love the friends because they keep tricking the two together. So she shows up at his place with the assumption it will be a general party but finds only Ren (and they bond) and then Hiroto comes home from his hellish day and he snaps at her and then Ren (even he can notice Hiroto likes her) tells him it was mean and she cooked dinner for him so Hiroto apologizes. And they are so uncertain and he tells her he’ll call her.
And he does. I love that bit because he’s just found out that the company is going to keep the business with them and even give them more work and I think success makes him feel more confident, confident enough to call (and I love that he wants to share, and I love that she can tell from his voice he’s happy. Btw, Kame has the most amazing, radiant smile). And he tells her to call him Hiroto, not Hiroto-kun ‘because when you add things like ‘kun’ it sounds weird’ AWWWW. And I love that she is so direct and tells him she wants to see him and he backpedals that as friends is OK (poor boy) and she tells him she likes him, so no. Her straightforwardness is so adorable.
So next, Nao is getting drunk, because she’s been dumped (he said no) and the friends come in with another plan and now Hiroto believes that Nao is going to go out with Ayato in this particular hotel (where they got Nao to by telling her she is having dinner there with a friend). And he pretends he doesn’t care but he is so distracted even his workers notice. And then he runs to the hotel and finds Nao and ends up babbling most un-Hirotolike, that she shouldn’t go out with Ayato and mentions the school dog and all sort of things and he is so panicky and desperate and it’s adorable.
Nao is of course, lost, but they figure it out and find a dinner certificate and have a cute dinner (and he is so relaxed and happy with her, eeeee!) and then she says good bye and starts crossing the road and he bursts out ‘Stop, don’t go like this’ and, words tumbling over each other, almost stammering, he tells her that he would like seeing her like this, and he didn’t like the thought of her with Ayato and that he isn’t good with words but…
And she just launches herself into his arms and he looks so startled and pleased. And he tells her he has no money and she replies ‘I know’ and he tells her ‘I don’t even go to college’ and she replies ‘I know’ and he is so vulnerable and open at that moment and she tells him, ‘Hiroto is Hiroto’ and OMG. I was literally screaming at my computer.
And he leans in and kisses her on the cheek. And she looks disappointed and asks ‘what was that?’ and he says ‘A kiss’ to which she adorably sulks that if he kisses her, he should kiss her properly (you go girl!) and to stop laughing and he tells her, and he is grinning (and I die) ‘Too many orders’ and as she starts out to say ‘Sorry’ he swoops down and kisses her. With the Ferris wheel in the background. OMG OMG OMG OMG. And they stare at each other dazed.
And then, in case we’ve been to happy for more than a sec, we get the ominous Hiroto voice-over ‘But that was the beginning of our tragedy.’ ARGH. No. I like them and want them to have children and bunnies.
I have to say, I really like the attention to detail in this dorama: Kame wears the same clothes over and over, he is twirling the phone cord in his fingers when he is nervous on the phone with Nao. They do the dichotomy with her being always almost ethereally pale and clean and his face being smudged. And I like that the show acknowledges Kame is good-looking (the company man picks on him because of it, Nao mentions it, he was able to get girls’ phone numbers etc). In American shows, they are often populated by beautiful people but everyone treats them like they are your average-looking Joe and that’s kinda silly.
I can’t wait for next ep.
And speaking of things I can’t wait for. Once I finish Pride (next on my hit list), I think I just might watch Winter Sonata, the very famous Korean dorama which is to kdramas what Meteor Garden is to twdramas: the mother of them all. It’s the usual kdorama story of lost childhood love, amnesia, and very pretty images. It was apparently crazy psycho popular in Japan (saw posters for it all over the place in front of Panchinko Parlors for some reason). Actually, before I saw a single dorama, I posted an article on the WS phenomenon and on the lead in it, Bae Yong-Joon (who was also the lead in the very different Untold Scandal) in this entry. Funny how things turn out.
I hope for the non-frozen-to-death ending.
And another dorama I am anticipating very much is Wallace Huo’s Emerald on the Roof which started airing in September, and has recently been picked up for subbing.
Why? I adore well-made twdrama the best, Wallace Huo is gorgeous, and then there are the plot and stills:
Official Site:
http://www.gtv.com.tw/Program/B051420060930U/
GTV trailers:
Trailer 1: http://www.youtube.com/v/3ZVA6KPq2PA
Trailer2
mms://218.32.210.220/GTV/B051420060930U/060915_03.asf
Short Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9NOpntEtJ
"I heard... when you give your loved one an emerald on a Bai Lu, when the sun is about to rise, you and that person, no matter how long, in any situation, will have an everlasting love"
The story begins at the Hainan island, two boys Nian Zhong (Wallace Huo) and Nie Kie (Hu Yu Wei) accidentally fall for a pretty yet unpredictable rich girl Mo Chia Chi( Sun Li). At school, Nian Zhong, to join the music class, intentionally uses his friend's name Nie kie and rightfully pretends as him. As an exchange, Nie Kie forces Nian Zhong to write love letters for him for Chia Chi. Because Chia Chi and Nian Zhong are attending the same music class, she finally gets to meet him as Nie Kie thinking that he is the mysterious person behind those letters. Nian Zhong, to lessen up conflicts finally reveals his real identity, after all, Chia Chi accepts it and likes him even more. To make it more real, Chia Chi , with full intention, inserts the other pair of emerald that she owns into Nian Zhong's pocket, one is with her and the other one is with him. One day, Nian Zhong's mother becomes very ill and eventually dies not so soon after. Nian Zhong then accepts his rich aunt's invitation to live with her family in Shanghai. "I will wait for you on my birthday.." those are her last words, Chia Chi then bids farewell to him. Unfortunately, on the actual day of her birthday, Nian Zhong sees her being kissed by Nie Kie, a heartbreaking moment that results into a complicated separation. But right, we are not even lovers, do I really love her?
After some time, after a long wait, on a cold street in London, they meet again and become lovers. But what kind of spell do legends give? bad tricks or joy? or might be both? One day, Nian Zhong receives a tragic news of Chia Chi's death in a plane crash.
Many years after, Nian Zhong goes back to Hainan and takes up a position in a first class hotel. He is surprised to find out that Nie Kie, his long lost friend, is also working there. And what is more surprising, is to see a familiar figure cutting across, Chia Chi is alive ..with both legs paralyzed. She survived a car crash and not a plane crash. Now that he is about to marry someone else, will things change?
I have more still to upload later but am too lazy to do it now.