tentative dorama listing.

[fivil]

This isn't the intro post I mentioned earlier, more like trying to map out how all the doramas I've watched rate against each other. With pictures! So I suppose it could also work as something to make y'all curious about these

Comments

[vierran45]

Re: Mars: I think it continues to be as good throughout the series.

The mother flashbacks are really well done. I desperately want to know more about that stuff but even more I want to know more about Qi Luo's past.

You will find out more about this stuff later on :).

[fivil]

Yay & w00t! :D

[miss_dian]

Hi! *waves* Came here from dorama_watch :)

I haven't watched My Girl, Hana Kimi, Mars, or ISWAK, but My Name is Kim Samsoon is my #1 fave k-drama so far :) It's got the perfect mixture of angst and romance for me. The 4 protagonists are excellent, and even the supporting cast amused me very much (in a good way).

Out of your to watch list, I highly recommend The Snow Queen 'cause it's just SO GOOD. I'm not a fan of Hyun Bin, but in this drama I have to admit he looks HOT. So good. And his acting improved a lot since Samsoon.

Do check out Nobuta wo Produce 'cause eventhough it may be an acquired taste, I loved it to bits. It portrays a really beautiful friendship and the leads are wonderful. I liked Full House a lot, and though it has its glitches, Meteor Garden is still ranked highly as my second fave dorama (mainly due to OTP and Dao Ming Se/Jerry Yan love, LOL) ^^

[miss_dian]

Ooops... I meant to say that I came here from dorama_chat instead of dorama_watch.

Didn't even know the latter existed! :D

[fivil]

Hee, it doesn't seem to but LJ makes the lj user= tag link to something anyway. :D

[fivil]

Yeah, Samsoon is very very good. I appreciate it more in hindsight because once I'd seen all of it, I realized what an awesomely realistic drama it was.

Yay for Snow Queen. I wasn't the biggest fan of Hyun Bin in MNIKSS because I definitely preferred the heroine to his character but it's cool to hear he's better in SQ.

I'm thinking I'll definitely watch Full House and try Meteor Garden... With Nobuta I'm still undecided. Will see.

[strawberryjoy]

Over from dorama_chat.

We seem to have enougn in common (by which I mainly mean Hana Kimi, ISWAK, Jiro^^) that I'll be following up the other recommendations, so thanks for those!

I enjoyed most of Snow Queen but it's very slow moving and once I'd worked out the ending (which wasn't hard) I struggled to stay interested for the final episodes. Good series though - although personally I prefer Age of Innocence and Piano (for K-drama).

[fivil]

Oh, Jiro. Mad love. <3

For a sort of comedy-focused dramas that HK & ISWAK are, I think you might enjoy My Girl.

Hmm, interesting about SQ. I'll definitely see it to see if I can figure out the twist. ;D

[strawberryjoy]

He certainly is!

Was thinking Mars and My Girl in particular.

[fivil]

Mars is recommendable because it's very well-made but as a fair warning, it's not very light. But My Girl is excellent - I've not really run into any people who didn't love it or like it.

[scottishlass]

The Rose - Joe and Ella, could be good, could not be, I don't know but to think about those two gives me the cutest mental images. Because, duhh, Joe!! Ella!!
Well it is okay-ish if you don't feel icky about incest. Joe and Ella play half-siblings where Joe's character is in love with Ella's character. Additionally, there are m/m kisses as well as gropings.

Nobuta wo ProduceI don't care for Kame as well but that drama is really cute. You laugh, you angst a wee bit and sometimes it is sad, but most of all it is a celebration of friendship and of being different (Akira played by Yamapi is an extraordinary character and if you like Jiro's over the top characters in HK and ISWAk, than you will love Akira, he is such a goofball with a heart of gold who gets high on soy milk

omg massive comment love.

[fivil]

Joe and Ella play half-siblings where Joe's character is in love with Ella's character. Additionally, there are m/m kisses as well as gropings.
M/m not a problem whatsoever. ;D I have a half-sibling myself, so hmm, yeah that could be a problem. I'll watch the first episode & decide.

not all JE bands have bad clothes (not anymore) ;-)
I'll trust you on that. Some NewS videos have scarred me for life, though.

The other recs sound really fun, especially Hanazono & 1% of anything. :)

Nobuta!

[_endofdecember]

JE kinda freaks me out, too. It's like a factory and Johnny is very controlling of the the boys' images. And JE fangirls can be really obnoxious..however(!) you shouldn't let the fact that JE boys star in Nobuta wo Produce deter you from watching it. It's really one of the better japanese dramas I've seen. One of my favorites. Plus the girl that plays the female lead in Kurosagi also plays Nobuta! This also has the best acting from Yamapi that I've seen thus far. His character is really great

Re: Nobuta!

[fivil]

My objection is more to do with the music - just not my thing, I guess, but what I've heard/read about the machinery behind the bands is also pretty disturbing, yeah.

People are so into HYD the jdrama, yeah. The heroine is adorable but something tells me I wouldn't be so into the hero.. Hmmm.

I'm such a newbie I try not to make many generalizations but I'd say Mars definitely has 'substance' in terms of good storyline and interesting characters. Same with Sam-soon, really. My Girl also has fantastic characters but it's more comedy-geared than Sam-soon, I'd say. I don't know how kdramas in actuality compare to jdramas as I've seen so little and anyway, whatever I watch probably doesn't give an accurate view into the overall thing since I stay away from the "everybody dies" type of tragic ending dramas. :)

Re: Nobuta!

[_endofdecember]

Most of the music is pretty bad and pretty much only one member in all of Johnny's can sing (Ohno from Arashi--actually, I have a soft spot for these boys, the only JE band I can tolerate--some of them are quite talented). And the stylist should be shot...

Hm..I think the substance thing is that..I've just sat through a lot of boring j-dramas that go nowhere and are just full of untalented idols..of course, every country has its fair share of completely crap programming. But they make up for it by producing some really great dramas as well. (Nobuta *winkwink*)

And I think t-drama, k-drama, and j-drama ALL have that cliche "I have cancer and I love you but, oops! time to die at the most inopportune time!" thing going for them..haha. It's gotten to the point where if I start watching a drama where the main character has some sort of illness I groan and stop watching..because I've seen it aaaaall before...a million different ways. ;)

Re: Nobuta!

[fivil]

Yeah.. Oh Christ the clothes. >_< I should be immune to bad fashion by now, I mean, hell, I love Bollywood and those films can be fashion crime galore but still.

That's exactly the reason why I'm so picky with dramas, I think. If it at all feels like like a waste of my time, I drop it. I mean, yeah, it could get better at episode 7 or 10 or 15 but I don't want to watch it that long just to see if it does get better. I can watch mediocre films or bad films even, but watching bad or really mediocre dramas feels like a bad choice so I avoid that by being elitist. :D

Hehe, I've not run into the cancer thing too much so far, thankfully. I hate that cliché. I read this "10 commandments of kdrama" thread on d-addicts which listed kdrama clichés and one of them included the classic rich-boy-who-owns-three-hotels and poor-girl-with-big-heart-and-feisty-personality and rich-boy's-ex-is-an-evil-whore etc. But really, some clichés are okay if the drama is good. But if the quality of the drama isn't too good then the clichés are super-annoying.