rambles & mumbles...

Well, another episode of carrot dangling before the slaughter begins, and worse, it'll spill over to the next episode where they put in another carrot on the preview. What's more infuriating is how they make Hae Soo's lack of trust in So, but kept on the trust in Wook that he won't do bad things (even the evil king already blatantly hinting that Wook is the shitty bad guy, come on, surely Hae Soo can use her brain, right?). Sigh, hasn't So done enough for Hae Soo to earn her trust? He's literally sacrificed his own life drinking the poisoned tea for her. What's wrong with this girl? I get the flashes affect her in the earlier episodes, but not now, that's just plain bullshit altogether. That's just seeds of the ugly foreshadowing for future episodes. Must the Korean version follow the C-version towards the shitty sad ending? I seriously don't want to see precious pup So turns evil with more eyeliner.

I need more happy fanfic of SoxSoo to heal my soul and sustain my frustration until next week. Or watch the cute BTS again... Also lots of hugs for i_am_zan for sending me the super fluff LavixLenaLee fic, that's just cuteness overload considering where the anime left us LOL.

In the meantime,enjoy the pretty cinematography of the date scene from Epi 14. Those rare happy moments... argh... So needs all the happiness that he deserves...


That beautiful lake is so lovely that it'll soothe your angry soul from watching Epi 15... grrr...

Might as well make this list before I forgot what I've been watching. I should have done this a long time ago before I stopped on K-drama so that I know where I left off, not that it matters but it could make my watching routine/binge more structured and more efficient because right now I'm just jumping around on any drama that I thought would be interesting, though some ending up in the dumping bin. I won't mention those that have gone to the dumping bin, only those that I managed to finish, whether with tons of fast forward or not. It'll be still a long list, but I'd think still be lesser than the J-dorama. And since it'll be a lesser list, I'll just put a short thought on what I like or whatever.

Again, emphasizing of my criteria of a drama. Visual is the utmost importance. There's no point watching a drama unless the story is really good and appealing to me if there's no visual. I'm dealing with lots of shit and excels everyday, so I need to see something pretty and think less at the end of the day. Another habit of mine is going through actors' resume if I want to do a binge watching. I like to see how an actor grow (or not) and the type of works that he'd chosen.

( Here we go... )

Yes, this 2016 harem drama finally graced us all with not just 2 but 3 episodes for the first week, and so far? It looks amazingly beautiful. Bigger budget makes a difference. And off course, with the eye candies overload, the visual effect is just multiplied by a lot.


The cinematography is breathtaking and impactful! The prettiness!

Plot wise it moves quite fast for a saeguk drama, a good effort to cram in the over 30 episodes of Chinese version. However, I'd strongly suggest not to compare this with the Chinese version because it's different from the get go. I'd say this drama is inspired by the Chinese version or the Korean take of the novel rather than a re-make. The concept is the same, the girl time travelled and landed in another girl's body in the past, and the past is the kingdom with lots of handsome princes. But from here, comes all the differences. The most apparent is the princes' cliques. In Chinese version the 4th and 13th were like BFF, not in here, and 8th prince didn't hang out with 3rd prince in Chinese version. The queen's favoritism is the same though, but the 14th prince character is different. He's more gullible and well loved here, which is interesting on how this will go later (I have high hope in Ji Soo's portrayal of 14th prince in the future episodes). Heck, even the 4th prince has a completely different take in here. The 4th prince that I know from the Chinese version is a rather stoic with the calm outer appearance but we all know that he's scheming inside his head. Completely different from here whereby we're blessed with a broken wounded misunderstood awkward tsundere who could actually looks cool in modern time, but ended up being feared and loathed (by his own brothers and even mother to booth!) in this ancient period. The king in here is also very different from the Chinese version, he's more humane, as in the drama gave the audience his inner thought of slight guilt/regret towards how he treated the 4th prince, while the Chinese version focused more on how the king was feared and a literal tyrant (how many people being executed for silly or valid reasons, regardless, in that drama? Countless). All these differences may merged later in the future episodes, but so far, these are the gaps in my book.

So, what's this drama is in for me? After episode 3, this drama is literally a homefield game for Lee Jun Ki, and the drama team knows it, hence so many (literally) close up face shots of him. And the person himself seemed to have too much fun playing the 4th prince, and he never fails to impress me with his acting. His facial expressions here, the eyes (his eyes speak a million words, and in here with the mask and only clearly showing 1 eye, it's even more impressive), the gazes, the movements, are very smooth and natural. You'll feel for 4th prince (plus pet & hug him and telling him it's all right) even though he just killed 10 people at one sitting and for those scenes his half of his face is covered with blood (and the other half is with the mask LOL). Look forward for more prettiness, angst, and more angst from 4th prince.

( 4th prince close up shots appreciation since he's so bloody damn pretty here... )

The flu bug is flying around me non stop for the last 4 days :(. Having porridge as your diet is good for a day or 2, but it's getting annoying now because we don't have that many condiments here (the thought of having to go city to buy them while you're coughing and sneezing is... nope). I already did the chicken porridge, the dried scallop porridge... what else? Leek porridge? I basically run out of ideas, and the flu is still here...

Watched D.Gray-man ep. 6 & 7 and OMG, human beings are just so cruel. Kanda didn't really deserve all those painful memories and to even snoop around his memories without his permission, sobs sobs, how many episodes they plan for Kanda vs Alma battle? I don't really want Kanda to kill Alma again for the second time, it's just too heartbreaking.

And speaking of heartbreaking, W ep. 9 is equally heartbreaking, and Kang Chul's solution backfired too! The killer has too many variables, can't wait for the next ep, 1 week is just too long of a wait. Kang Chul'd better pay Yeon Joo's heartbreaking scenes with quadruple cuteness overload in near future episodes!

I shouldn't have watched this when it's still on air. This is not healthy and it's painful to wait for each week for new episodes and especially when we have the possible cancellation due to Olympic. Very painful.

The OTP is so adorable. The flirting is too much for the heart (or rather, basically Kang Chul flirts with any human beings he encounters). The kissing scenes are funny or sweet. No wasted characters so far and I like the Yeon Joo and Professor Park's scenes. Hillarious and get you back to the ground from too much day dreaming.

Don't forget to throw any details out of the window. Nevermind that the rain always pours during Kang Chul's angst moments, but his hair and suit are in perfect and prestine condition. Nevermind how many handphones that Yeon Joo has lost so far 2? 3? 4?... I lost count tbh. Nevermind not washing hair very often means it's not even oily but perfectly soft and fluffy.

( Some screencap, basically tribute to Prof Park snarky comments... )

Finally, I managed to watch D.Gray-man. I kind of lost on what happened to Allen, but I don't want to re-watch all the old episodes (too many people died in this anime, same like Shingeki no Kyojin), so I know jolly well that my current heart won't be able to take it. Then come towards the end... why the hell, oh why the hell, they killed off Cross Marian? what the hell????? I hope it's just a camouflage or something, he's not actually dead... but then this is D.Gray-man, people die like nobody business in this anime, sigh...

And then why we still have that Hitler look-a-like dude? They should have just kill him instead, and I hate that dude. He endlessly makes all the main characters suffer directly or indirectly.

PS: I don't find that I miss the old voices, which surprised me as well.

PPS: after episode 4, all I can say is... whoaa, that's BRUTAL!!! Only epi 4 and so many died!! This anime really has no mercy... and don't you dare kill Kanda!! Don't you dare!!!

I dunno, I find Dean is still not right as Hokuto. He doesn't have that arrogant sleek rich bastard look. He's cute but he doesn't look badass, the menacing look for revenge is not there. And, drama, guess you're gonna skip A LOT on what's on manga huh? Why Chiwa is not an OL and you make Hokuto working for a consulting company, not a direct Mamiya company? Is it so that you can skip the boss-staff relationship? Then, what's with meeting the whole family so quickly on ep 2? That should only happened when the relationship between Hokuto and Chiwa is strengthened and definitely not the very beginning. I'll be judging you if you make Hokuto and Chiwa fight after the family meeting. And looking at Shinoda Mariko as Shitara, are you planning to bring forward the love triangle? This love triangle thing should be only a speck out of the whole thing, which is why I love the manga. The manga emphasize Hokuto and Chiwa interaction, there's not much a third party intervention though Chiwa actually has lots of fans, which Hokuto only recognized later on. And I guess we can kiss all those bed scenes goodbye then... sigh... so much for a live action, ha! I literally have 0 expectation on that area after this 1st episode LOL.

My interest in anything related to Johnny's has been depleting for quite sometime. I think it started with the SMAP saga and at the same time, there's an over exposed of Arashi and other groups as well, in a sense. It's not about releasing more singles or albums, which I'd much prefer to actually, but it's the exposure in other media appearances which overwhelmed me. I'm not sure if it's actually already going on for quite some time and I only notice it recently OR it started right after the SMAP saga. But, bottom line is, Johnny's as a company has been pushing too many things at the same time everywhere and my imagination says it's their plan B considering SMAP situation now (I'm still waiting for Sep for the conclusion, and in the meantime SMAPxSMAP is not the same anymore to me :( ). This kind of push may not be so apparent if you only follow 1 group, but it's quite overwhelming when you follow afew, let alone majority of the groups, and if you see Johnny's as one company entity.

In dramaland, if you notice, I haven't been writing anything since Winter 2016 season because I only literally finished 1 drama (DameKoi), and for Spring 2016, I haven't even finished any, nor do I even have the will to continue watching them. I feel like I'm searching for the magic and trying hard to find it with the recent seasons of J-drama but the magic is not sparking or there're not even traces of glitters. It's either because my taste changes (which I don't think so, my criteria for drama is still the same), or my mood changes, or the J-drama land just sucks all together lately. I don't think it's the last part (I still have some faith in J-drama) regardless whether it's complex or simple plot drama. But I find that even the rom-com theme is hard to watch. Is marriage that important? seems that TV station is painting across everywhere in their romcom drama that it's a girl's dream to get married. I'd prefer K-drama blatant inserts of girls must be married after certain age culture. It's sexist and equally annoying, but at least they don't try to be passive agressive about it. And to make it worse, I don't really look forward to Summer drama especially after I watched some episodes of Misaeng (yep, the K-drama version of that Nakajima Yuuto's new drama). If J-drama version if going for the same intensity as the K-drama, then it has better be as intense as Hanzawa Naoki (it has similar feels anyway), else, it'll go south, but I'm still waiting to be proven wrong here, because Misaeng has a good theme, which is very relatable to Japan work culture. At the same time, I'll make a note to check out more of TVN's drama. I like Queen Inhyeon's Man and Another Miss Oh (it better be happy end, else I'll be devastated). What about the live actions? I already see 2 adaptations Happy Mari and Seisei Suruhodo, Aishiteru, and to be honest I don't have good feeling for both. I love the manga version of Happy Mari, and though I like Dean Fujioka, I don't think he can do justice for Hokuto. On the other hand, Happy Mari will be a good source for K-drama because it has all the scheming of a chaebol company and inheritance, which are the regular theme of K-drama anyway, and the current K-drama makes more convincing bed scenes than J-drama (not all, but still better), and Happy Mari is afterall, a smut manga, not shoujo, so if J-drama ends up deleting all the bed scenes, then, well, there goes the so-called live action. I haven't read Seisei, but from the synopsis, it makes me wonder, how the drama actually going to turn up as, another boring live action or there's extra effort to it?

All these factors plus limited internet access (cannot download, only can do streaming with plenty of patience), leads me to... Shinhwa blackhole. Yes it's a blackhole because I only started with re-collecting Shin Hyesung's songs. I used to listen to his songs (his voice soothes me), not Shinhwa, and I forgot about him until recently when I started to check out k-pop again (he had an mini album out early this year - and it's a good one, something different from him). And while doing that, I realized why I never really listen to Shinhwa in the past... it's because their old albums have lots of R&B stuffs. Their newer albums (The Returns onwards) are easier to my ears, and now they're already matured and basically can do whatever they want with their song releases (much like the older Johnny's have a say in whatever they're releasing). Since Shinhwa is still active and started from not far from H.O.T era (yeah I listened to T.O.P that long time ago, and that's the only song I know of Shinhwa), their material is equally abundance like V6's (Kpop being Kpop has Youtube to testify for it, not like... Johnny's), and the more I read about them the more I find that they have the V6's endurance, SMAP's brotherhood and Arashi's charms. Their variety show, Shinhwa Broadcast is like 1 hour version of Arashi no Shukudai-kun. I'd think that if Arashi has V6's popularity trend, it'd be exactly like that. Right now, VS Arashi is boring for me (repeatitive), I'm indifferent about Arashi ni Shiyagare (Nino's yelling out answer is getting annoying and I realized I only watch AniShi nowadays for Matsujun's segment), and I only watch Sho-chan's Yakai show if the guests are the ones I like.

So, in the meantime, unless J-drama offer something different, I'll be going deeper and deeper into Shinhwa blackhole...
And I'd kill if V6 does this choreography!!! V6 may not be able to sing as good (cough - Ken's fault), but they jollywell can dance this and main reason is coz I want to see Ken do Andy's part!

Another nice episode, less talking more moving around this time.


So, Eikura Nana used her skill from Okada sensei? Cool move she did in this episode.


Still as creepy as ever, but...


Wait, Miyama and Sada sensei... both of them are too similar... this is going to be a good combi!