Reflections after a car accident and broken arm
So, I could have died but didnt. The worst that came out of it was a broken arm that will probably need surgery to fix. I wont find out until wednesday. Ive had plenty of time to surf the net and revisit livejournal which I havent really updated in forever. Nobodys here. Nobodys on livejournal anymore. All my old buddies have moved on and weve
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Its weird returning to livejournal and seeing my friends page is empty when it used to be bursting with posts. People used to complain about their flists being too long. Not anymore!
I generally enjoy Toma's work. Maou was fantastic because it had my two favourites, Ohno and Toma in it. Also, I am a tarot reader so that added bonus of including my favourite hobby. What a gift that series was. I really liked Mole Song and am planning on buying the DVD soon. It made me laugh so hard. Now I'm getting paid more I should put my money where my mouth is and follow through on buying all the things I said I would.
I remember watching hanakimi every week on tv so watching Ouroboros has kind of reminded me of those good old days. Its hard to get back that real giddy excited feeling I used to have though.
I need to reclaim my squee. I think making new friends on here will help that so I hope you don't mind that I friended you.
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Will your wrist surgery be soon or will the doctors wait till you're more recovered? Ja... regardless, hoping for a speedy recovery.
Heehee^^ It is indeed weird returning back to LJ, especially after abandoning it for a long while. I always thought, considering how busy it used to be, that it will always be around. Just goes to show, you can never take things for granted. Even the old Elfwood is gone, don't know if you've ever been on it?
Same here ^^ Toma was the reason I got to watching Maou in the first place. In effect it's a combi of Shun Oguri, Toma, MatsuJun and Inoue Mao that baited me into Arashi. Now, Ohno Satoshi is like my most favourite idol/ person.
Have you seen the KDrama Maou was based on?
Cool^^ I don't do tarot reading, don't know how. But I've consulted a few professionals before. Don't know how to treat the reading I got though. It was... overwhelming...
The Mole Song was a surprise but then again I'm loving the Takashi Miike's films I've seen. Not to mention, his films have featured a number of my favourite Japanese actors. The Mole Song was a departure from majority of what Toma has done, I think. What do you think?
Haha^^ I'm planning to show my support and purchase as much as I can of Arashi anything.
Hanakimi was hilarious and lovable, wasn't it?! Highly surprising. You know, I watched it because it had Shun Oguri. Before seeing it, and before I knew who Toma was, I saw Hanamizuki. And even though he didn't have a lot of screen-time, I was totally captivated by his character. So it was a pleasure to watch Hanamizuki. And though Shun might be more of a thespian than Toma, he really blew Shun's character with Nakatsu. I was soo rooting for Nakatsu!
Please return the squee factor! But I kind of understand what you mean. It's hard for me to squee over something lately. Ouroboros, I briefly read what you wrote in the Toma-comm. But I too feel like something is lacking. Maybe my standards for JDrama has hit it's highest bar so far with Rich Man, Poor Woman. For me, it was close to perfection: character-wise and development, etc. Well, for one thing, Toma looks really good and a lot youthful in Ouroboros, doesn't he? Definite squee ^^
Thanks for adding me^^ I added you back. Yoroshku ^^
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One thing I'll give je fandom though, its a perpetual thing, with loads of new fans joining as others leave. My problem is I just don't know where they store the good stuff anymore. I used to find everything I wanted on tudou and LJ, no worries. Today, I was trying to watch something on youku and it was password protected, so I went to sign up to message the uploader and couldn't. I think it might be some kind of country block but I'm not sure. It just all seemed too hard for a few crappy fancams. Back in my uni days I would have taken it as a personal challenge, I think.
I was Jun baited by a friend all those years ago during Hanadan. We squeed over Matsujun and Oguri Shun together and from there I fell in love with Arashi and Ohno in particular. When Hanakimi came out I watched it for Shun but gravitated towards Toma's Nakatsu character. After watching an Endless Shock fancam, it occurred to me that Toma was an incredibly graceful and beautiful man (I posted the clip in my journal.) I've been following his work ever since.
I haven't seen the original Maou but I'm told it's better than the Japanese version. Have you seen it? What did you think? It has been on my watch list for a while but the list isn't shifting even though it gets longer and longer.
The Mole Song was certainly a different role for Toma. I think he is doing a great job of showing his versatility as an actor. He's done comedy roles, romances, dramas, psychological thrillers, etc. He certainly hasn't been typecast. Shun is a fantastic actor but lately all I've watched from him are these slightly cold, cool, aloof characters as he is again in Ouroboros. Rich Man, Poor Woman was a wonderful series (I marathoned it in about 3 days. Fantastic!) but his character again needed to be kind of cool and aloof for the story. I thought Binbo Danshi was Oguri Shun at his most endearing. He was gorgeous! It wasn't the greatest of dramas by any means but I just gravitate towards that kind of character. Do you have a preferred character type?
Ouroboros is certainly showing off a lot of Toma. I can't complain about that. I'm slowly getting my squee back on and that has in turn improved my enjoyment of the episodes. Phew I typed a lot.
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Although a recent new fan, I noticed the surge of new fans and old fans leave. Of course there's also the long-haul or for-life fans ^^
Besides Arashi and Toma, I know nothing else about je. Boy^^ But je must leave quite an impression. It's the first I've heard a talent agent just as prominent as its talents.
One of my friends re-ignited my love for South-East Asian TV and films the year before last. But long since early 2000s, the stuff that was so readily available are definitely hard to come by of late... Cool Japan Initiative, maybe?
Lately, I kind of torrented my earlier stuff, and a lot of them were really hard to get. Do you use google chrome? I found apps that reroute your location so you can access country-restricted websites.
Ah, I was tooo stubborn and had fallen out of love with SEAsian stuff back at Hanadan's height. Kind of regretted it really. I squeed all by myself in 2013 when I finally got round to watch lol. Btw, have you seen the other versions of it? I got the HK and Korean version. Only, I couldn't get pass the first episode of the Korean version. I saw the American version on vicky... that was disastrous O__O
Looking for more JunMao vids ultimately made the path for me towards Arashi. Someone had uploaded VSA epis - and even then I had no idea who Arashi was or that I've seen Ohno before (Lol) - but as weeks went by, I started shifting from a reluctant by-passer to someone who ultimately fangirl about them. See, initially, I dislike or am disinterested in general towards boybands and idols.
But how could anyone not fall for the guys and their adorkable-ness? Honestly, Arashi helped me get pass that final barrier of 'being-lost-in-the-dark' period. I feel like I owe them something because of that, even though I don't know them personally.
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Hanakimi was something I got because of Shun also, and I put it on like really late in the morning (close to 4) as background noise. I ended up watching the whole series and getting really heavily-heavy eyes that time. Toma's Nakatsu was soooooo charming that it's almost tangible lol^^
I find Shun also graceful and down-to-earth, at least in the very few variety appearances that I've seen. Endless Shock is something I've never heard of, so thanks for posting the clip. I'm meandering over to that post after this.
And me too! I've been following Toma's work ever since I discovered him. Toma, Shun, Yamada Takayuki... lately there's other actors I want to follow but there's soo little time and resources.
I've never seen the K.Version of Maou but this time around, I heard that Maou was 10x better lol^^ Personally, and in general, I prefer Jdoramas over Kdoramas. They are to me much leaner when it comes to scripting and story-pacing. What do you think? Mah.. I still have a plan to eventually watch the Korean version of Maou.. someday...
Toma's desire to stretch his acting range in different genres is something I really respect^^ I'm not the type of person to fall for just a pretty face. And I'm sooo glad he's not typecasted.
Shun definitely likes to play tsudere-types. My favourite portrayals are Genji and Hyuuga Toru. Genji for the confused intensity in the first film and struggling intensity in the second film. Hyuuga Toru is definitely aloof, but cool.... hmm.. he definitely dresses like one but during the house scenes etc. you can tell he's actually (I hate this word) a 'freak' and obnoxious - but not in a bad way. Just completely oblivious that it's not cool lol^^
I thought he was going to end up with Yamada Yu's character in Bindo Danshi. Speaking of Shun, what did you think of Nobunaga Concierto?
I do gravitate towards a character type but I can't for the life of me right now remember what lol! I guess any character with a hint of naivety for one. Like Genji in Crows Zero.
I'm getting a feeling I've typed up even more lol! Gomen ^^
Edit: I had to split this because I got the pop-up-text-limit message lol! Sorry, I got carried away; I really enjoy talking about peformances :D
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I haven't watched the Korean or HK versions of Hanadan since I only watched the Japanese version because it was on TV. I used to live in Japan and they were showing it during the afternoons. I watched a lot of afternoon dramas (without understanding Japanese LOL) as I worked night shifts over there. My first ever Japanese drama was Umizaru with Itou Hideaki, my flatmate and I had no idea what was going on but we loved it. Then the first movie I ever saw in Japan was the Umizaru movie. I went on from there and just got sucked in.
Arashi are strongly mixed in with my memories of living over there. Like laying in an emty room on the tatami floor, watching Matsujun sing La Familia on my laptop (the first time I saw him as a singer in a band), the shoji door open to the balcony with the cicadas so loud outside and me sweating like a pig in the summer heat. That's probably why I've loved them for so long instead of moving on. They made up part of my experience there. Toma too. I can't remember Japan without remembering them.
Oh, I hadn't heard of Nobunaga Concerto. I've got something new to watch along with Ouroboros. Thanks! Shun has done so many good movies and dramas. Crows Zero was awesome, another great Takashi Miike movie. I'm a fan of horror so Ghost Train was a fun one for me. So many dramas and I'm always behind. I think if I started on Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong dramas too I'd never get anything done. Mind you, I remember Coffee Prince was HUGE with the housewives. I watched a bit of that. LOL
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Honestly, I've been thinking and wishing lately that everything that Arashi did was available to buy as DVD sets. I would definitely shell-out my money to purchase them. Everytime I come across deleted Arashi sites, comms or defunct ones or closes ones, I feel real defeated lol!
If it wasn't for certain torrent sites, I won't have found old-school Toma, Shun and Takayuki stuff. Akihabara@deep is available to download from a torrent site. I've been meaning to get it but I'm waiting for my credit to grow even more. Torrenting takes almost like forever! I'm trying to get Shinigami-kun via that way. But man... 200 AUD is A LOT. I converted it to pounds, and it's £101.86! And it's not like it's a long show!
Once, a long time ago, I came across a L'Arc~en~Ciel album in a London HMV outlet that cost £30. And it was an album with not many of a song on it. Rounding it off to AUD, it's basically 59 AUD. That's expensive right?!
I've never heard of Umizaru but I had a similar experience with my cousin and brother over Chinese dramas and movies. No subtitles but we were all totally fixated with what was happening on screen haha! Actually, another time, with a Chinese friend. He was watching his dramas when I visited and I ended up watching with him. Although he would explain now and again, it's fun correctly guessing what was happening lol^^
You have such lovely memories about Arashi. Feeling nostalgic? No wonder you're attached. How was your experience in Japan? I'm jealous :P
Really? You too? I haven't watched a lot of Asian horrors because it seems like my disposition to 'take-it' has devolved. I actually get scared watching horrors these days. But we have Netflix at home so I often watch english-language horrors on it - they're not as scary, I think, as the Asian ones. I'm definitely checking out Ghost Train. You see Rigor Mortis?
I used to balance and watch a couple of Korean, Japanese and Filipino dramas. I gave up on the Filipino dramas. They were too much of a headache. And Korean dramas... I just can't get their love for extending melancholic scenes. I'd rather watch Korean movies these days.
What did you think of Coffee Prince? Ah, out of all the Kdramas I've seen, that's the one that stuck with me. My Vietnamese friend and I used to use the private rooms at the library to watch KDramas. And Coffee Prince left such an impression on me. I think it's my favourite. Lol! Housewives haha!
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Honestly, I've been thinking and wishing lately that everything that Arashi did was available to buy as DVD sets. I would definitely shell-out my money to purchase them. Everytime I come across deleted Arashi sites, comms or defunct ones or closes ones, I feel real defeated lol!
If it wasn't for certain torrent sites, I won't have found old-school Toma, Shun and Takayuki stuff. Akihabara@deep is available to download from a torrent site. I've been meaning to get it but I'm waiting for my credit to grow even more. Torrenting takes almost like forever! I'm trying to get Shinigami-kun via that way. But man... 200 AUD is A LOT. I converted it to pounds, and it's £101.86! And it's not like it's a long show!
Once, a long time ago, I came across a L'Arc~en~Ciel album in a London HMV outlet that cost £30. And it was an album with not many of a song on it. Rounding it off to AUD, it's basically 59 AUD. That's expensive right?!
I've never heard of Umizaru but I had a similar experience with my cousin and brother over Chinese dramas and movies. No subtitles but we were all totally fixated with what was happening on screen haha! Actually, another time, with a Chinese friend. He was watching his dramas when I visited and I ended up watching with him. Although he would explain now and again, it's fun correctly guessing what was happening lol^^
You have such lovely memories about Arashi. Feeling nostalgic? No wonder you're attached. How was your experience in Japan? I'm jealous :P
Really? You too? I haven't watched a lot of Asian horrors because it seems like my disposition to 'take-it' has devolved. I actually get scared watching horrors these days. But we have Netflix at home so I often watch english-language horrors on it - they're not as scary, I think, as the Asian ones. I'm definitely checking out Ghost Train. Have you seen Rigor Mortis?
I used to balance and watch a couple of Korean, Japanese and Filipino dramas. I gave up on the Filipino dramas. They were too much of a headache. And Korean dramas... I just can't get their love for extending melancholic scenes. I'd rather watch Korean movies these days.
What did you think of Coffee Prince? Ah, out of all the Kdramas I've seen, that's the one that stuck with me. My Vietnamese friend and I used to use the private rooms at our University library to watch KDramas. And Coffee Prince left such an impression on me. I think it's my favourite. Lol! Housewives haha!
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There used to be a tiny fancam of Ohno in Kyo to kyo where he did a particular dance with ghostly voices in the background. I went to watch it again recently and it was gone. The only other version I could find was filmed at the wrong angle so had his head cut off. I thought, "you idiot Heichan, you should have downloaded it before." I thought at the time I wouldn't want to watch it again but man, you're right, I've been feeling really really nostalgic. That's why I came back to Livejournal again.
I used to use torrents but I hate waiting so long when a direct download is that much quicker. Plus finding seeders was hard for a lot of rare things I wanted. The worst part is I had Akihabara@Deep series on my hard drive but lost it. Yeah, $59 dollars for a CD is insane. I get that foreign imports are more expensive but even within Japan they were sometimes double the normal price. I don't get why Japanese dvds and cds are so expensive. Still, I'm going to finally start accumulating them. What do you think, get Akihabara@Deep now in case it goes out of stock, coz its an older series and no other place is selling it, or get Maou because I know I like it better? They are both around the same insanely expensive price.
Isn't it amazing how you can follow a story without even understanding the language? I think its either a combination of great direction, acting and filming technique or its a sign of a really cliched predictable story. Depends on the series and whether I like it, heh heh.
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And speaking of long lost videos. There's a bunch of Variety shows that L'Arc~en~Ciel guest in, which were all very funny and interesting, and used to be readily available on youtube. Now. All gone. And I'm sad.
It's partly nostalgia but also, I think it's hard to come across shows like that. And I miss it. Nostalgia brought me back too, here in LJ.
Ah... haha! I felt and know that frustration. Some can take a month or two and yep... I know how annoying it can get. That's why I want to make sure that I don't wreck the hard drive I bought specifically for all those very rare shows.
I've always wondered how Japanese people survive with such expensive commodities. It's something I'm genuinely curious about. Does that mean they get higher salaries?
Tough choice between Akihabara and Maou. I'd weight at how rare and difficult it is to get hold of one of each. Then I'd think, if it was me, I'd purchase the one that's really rare because at least the other one will probably still be around and I can purchase that later on when I've made more money again. Have you seen Akihabara? Hmm... but not to confuse you further, if you like Maou better, considering it's a double whammy of Ohno and Toma, I'd buy that first instead. But you know what, Ohno and Toma are like really popular in Japan right now that I would think it's easy to get stuff with them in it nowadays. I would think this is the case. And I'd imagine because of this, you probably can order Maou direct from Japan from a cheaper seller. Just an idea.
Stories are fascinating, aren't they? I think all of the above makes even a show in a different language understandable to a foreigner.
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