Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Boo!  Hiss! But the April Fool's joke got me to write this!  Say what you want but then again, I really thought of it if Toei can make money if Saban gets the rights to Kamen Rider Fourze, first I'd stick with the name Power Rider Apollo to keep it separate from that STUPID Mashed Rider and two, this should be Saban's chance to repair himself from that stupid mistake he made years ago by getting competent writers and producers to make this.  Now for my characterizations not only based on Kamen Rider Apollo or past references to MMPR but rather, trying to keep things fresh but I haven't named them: A Latino superhero for Fourze's counterpart.  I'd probably try to keep him as wacky as Gentarou and probably closer to Sheen Estevez and get some characterizations of Sheen Estevez.  He firmly believes in the existence of the supposedly fictional Power Rider Apollo (he even has an action figure) then one day becomes the action figure he loves! For Kengo's coun...

I could remember based on my conversations with the Fantasy Leader, he actually had said that the rumors of Power Rider Apollo are just a part of an entire gag.  So what's it really?  Hee hee, but if you ask me while I'm still about to finish watching Fourze... it does come to my head that whole season is pretty much like a Nicktoon in itself like Kamen Rider Kiva is.  But really, did the writers of the rumor come from Planet Sheen?  Hee hee.

Okay I'll get it straight again I am NOT a PR hater or anything but there are some CRAAAAAP things that Saban did like his infamously stupid Mashed Rider.  Yeah, Mashed Rider was really that bad that I guess anybody who dislikes Black RX would rather watch the latter.  Can anybody confirm this for me?  Now just my thoughts on how the adaptation could SCREW UP... and I hope this is just an April Fool's joke.  I will take down this article if anybody and I mean ANYBODY CREDIBLE can prove me to be dead wrong.  Am I wrong?  Just COMMENT.  I really need all the help I can get. Fourze is what I'd call "Saban's Mashed Rider done right."  So we have teenagers forming the Kamen Rider Club. But really Saban can you STOP with that MMPR nostalgia overuse?  If you want to use the "teenagers with attitude" theme then CUT all links to MMPR so you can get the idea done better will ya?  I was watching Megaforce and really LINKING GOSEI TO ZORDON IS W...

If there are two series in the Heisei era that started it all, it's Naruhisa Arakawa's first job as a headwriter and how he wrote Kamen Rider Kuuga and Toshiki Inoue's best work Kamen Rider Agito.  Now let's take a look at how these two series managed to create a revolution: First there's Kamen Rider Kuuga.  Kuuga began to define the new seasons, introduced the "realistic approach" to where the hero doesn't immediately master his new forms, removed the silly monster plot of the weeks that we love about Tokusatsu but gave a nice substitute, made most battles a two-parter and began to interweave the characters together.  It's too important a prototype not to be credited even if there were others that I like better but still, Kuuga is the molding of Heisei era that's too important to ignore.  I guess most of the writers or even Toei is ignoring the mold that is Kuuga.  What really I think is a major part of the mold is the "realistic appro...

It's been some time since Vicki Zhao got married but I can't really forget her contributions to TV drama and movies.  For a little planning... hopefully this blog will get more fertilizer to grow: Vicki Zhao's Huan Zhu Ge Ge.  I definitely want to see some imperial drama. Kamen Rider Hibiki.  The Fantasy Leader recommends this a lot.  So I should probably give it a watch after Fourze. If I should really backtrack a lot, I might watch some Qiong Yao dramas of the past namely with Qin Han and Liu Xue Hua since the two really continued to play very important roles as parents these days.  The story of "Seagull's Home" or "Courtyard".  "Seagull's Home" features the first character dying and the leading guy falls for the missing twin sister while "Courtyard" is pretty much a "kabit-serye" because Ha Ye must fight for her rights as the legal wife against the bitchy mistress. Or the rather long Ti Amo Chocolate ...

While I was thinking that Qin Han still appears usually as an important parent either for the leading guy or the leading lady, I thought of the following roles he could have played as: Jerry Yan's father in Hot Shot.  Made me think that even if it's just a short role, it would look like a real father/son team to think about.  Hmmm... maybe Liu Xue Hua as Jerry Yan's mother even if it's just guesting?  I mean, he appeared in a Taiwanese talk show showing a jollier side of him. In "Black and White" he could have played as any senior officer, the head of the San Lian Hui or maybe even the president.

Although Deric Wan is known to play mostly protagonist roles, but he also got to play antagonistic roles and I love how awesome this guy is in doing them!  Now for each of the three roles I've seen him... Pretty much he was VERY deadly in So Close, perhaps the most dangerous role he's played and my favorite villain role from him.  So, he gets his brother assassinated, he commits adultery with his sister-in-law behind the scenes then they are later seen as lovers (they planned it TOGETHER) and the worse is how he really could get the job done well.  So he manages to get Shu Qi killed and Karen Mok arrested though everything turns against him.  In fact, this character was so evil he had to die at the end of the movie! In Dolphin Bay, his character as Eddie the REAL antagonist of the show that showed up later as Man Qing's manager.  While he seemed a good guy to the people, he was always out there to make sure Xiao Gang doesn't succeed EVEN if it means cheatin...

Well now it's time to really write much about my really passionate dislike for Zaido (Though relax, no hate fic coming!).  I could say as much as I'm not really a fan of Power Rangers but the latter is more acceptable but let's focus on Kamen Rider Heisei era vs. Zaido: Hero execution is way better.  Naruhisa Arakawa started it with Kuuga, Toshiki Inoue managed to furnish it with Agito (but sadly sucked with Faiz IMO, that series was painful but I'd rather watch it than Zaido if I were given a choice then he got better again in Kiva for me!).  As far as concerned, though I did take SOME TIME to adapt to the two-partner way things went with Heisei era, however the hero execution is so good it really still keeps a Tokusatsu heart.  True these guys act typically like TV drama heroes but it's done in a good way.  What about Zaido?  My problem is that why is everything so snail paced?  We had to wait for SO LONG before the Zaidorks even transformed to ba...

Some people may find it awkward or weird for me to write down Kamen Rider Heisei era in here as a drama. review.  Now here's my reasons: Not too standard!  When I first saw Kuuga, I pretty much had a difficult time accepting it but Arakawa's starting point though I've grown to like other series better than this, should be credited for its writing styles.  In fact here's what seems to be the norm of the Heisei era Rider compared to the classic Showa Rider which both should be respected to their own merits: 1.) How the episodes are written differ greatly from the Showa era.  Maybe Agito quite defines it better, Kuuga was the essential mold but whatever both series are great in their own respects but Agito got Arakawa's brilliant writing defined more and without Kuuga, it just can't freaking happen so kudos to Arakawa's first job as a head writer and to Inoue for writing Agito (his best work with a good finale in contrast to Kiva's wacky finale).  Ryu...

Some people unfairly criticize me that say that I'm being childish for watching Kamen Rider or Tokusatsu in general but to be honest, my fellow Tokusatsu critics are ADULTS.  So far, here's why I don't really count Kamen Rider to be childish can can appeal to different age groups: Tons and tons of mature drama you can't find in TV-Y7-FV rated TV shows.  The Heisei era of Kamen Rider has a lot of these.  I at first wasn't able to appeal to these until I saw all the engaging plots.  Ryuki for example had a pretty depressing atmosphere, moral dilemmas and even deaths that made the show far more complex than Kamen Rider Ryuki.  Little kids may enjoy the action but older audience can enjoy the engaging plots or the fact that there's blood, deaths and all that doesn't make it too "kiddie" at all.  That's what I hate about American TV shows- they are too easy to outgrow.  On the other hand, Heisei Kamen Rider as stupid as it can get actually has...

Vic Zhou could actually do possible remakes for Qiong Yao novels as the newer Qin Han, so here are his possible pairings for me: Him and Ady An could play good in the Qiong Yao drama "Yang Shuo Chong Lou" with either Linda Liu or Liu Xue Hua as Meng Han's abusive mother-in-law (strangely, Liu Xue Hua was cast as Meng Han before!) ever since I was impressed with her role in Yun Niang.  Hmmm... I wonder who should play as Vic Zhou's brother who dies and he falls for Meng Han?   With Liu Yi Fei, my suggested casting with her would be Courtyard or Seagull's Home.  For Seagull's Home, Liu Yi Fei will be playing two characters- the first love of the leading guy and the twin sister who has been gone missing and develops a romance with the main character.   With Esther Liu, I could work it out with Flower Falls Flower Blooms or Years Flowing Like Water.  Esther Liu playing the piano and singing various songs while she cries, she could play as Vic C...

Ah Kaede Doumyoji that mean witch.  But I'd probably give credit to the actresses who played her and here they are: Zhen Xiu Zhen's portrayal of Doumyoji Kaede (renamed Dao Ming Feng) is the best.  I'd say she's one incredibly awesome actress.  In her past roles, she usually plays the daughter-in-law who's bullied by the awful mother-in-law, now she plays the evil matriarch that has the potential to bully her own daughter-in-law.  I'd say she's the best portrayal because one, she really LOOKS like the Manga character and she can make the evil character come to life.  Really, if she were my mother (the actress) I would definitely say to her, "Good job mom.  For those scenes you really made me scared!"  See the similarities appearance-wise too?  She does make the Anime character look too pale and I would LOVE to make her another villain again though lately, she's back to playing mostly good mothers and the actress herself is a great person to ...

While Fourze is basically a fun series for me, quite a departure from the more serious Tokusatsu in the past (feels like it's a tribute to Megaranger with the space station, to Kamen Rider Super-1 with the space theme) with Shun.  Okay I didn't like Shun for the first few episodes because he's so much of a narcissist at first but in episodes 7-8, I see what's going on.  He's got that stupid stage dad of his and finally he sheds very manly tears.  Men should shed their tears when they are crying, it doesn't make them sissies, men can cry and in fact, I am a straight guy and I cried hard during my grandmother's death.  Overall, I'd say though there were some funny scenes but this is one of the best character developments ever done in the Heisei era of Kamen Rider.  Well I'm still watching it and I may not write much about it but I'll do whatever critiques this blog can do.  Hmmm.... I wonder how my other fellow critics think of this?! =)

I would probably say that there was a time I took a hiatus from Tokusatsu since "It just didn't feel like my childhood anymore." bias came into my head.  Now I'd probably give my good reasons for returning back to watching Kamen Rider and I'm currently watching Fourze.  Here they are... Japanese Drama story style of writing and the hero's friends playing important roles than it was in the Showa era (except for Black RX where that concept started to take root even if that show wasn't really spectacular for me, just my average cup of tea).  At first, it didn't appeal to me or perhaps I was suffering from extreme favoritism of Super Sentai but not in the way I picked on Power Rangers fans and Kamen Rider fans.  The execution of Heisei era Kamen Rider is pretty much like J-Drama in this way: two part episode arc against the monster to be defeated, not so much on the incredibly ridiculous plot of the week as still seen in Kamen Rider, the hero and his f...

Well Naruhisa Arakawa did a good job with Kuuga though not exactly much of my personal preference he has really revolutionized Tokusatsu by taking twist and turns.  For Kuuga, he started with a darker and edgier season but as time passed he has managed to create lighter and softer seasons like Abaranger, Dekaranger and Gokaiger in Super Sentai as well as he is a very disciplined writer on top of that.  So pretty much, I think he could be a good J-Drama writer as well and two, I think he should be the head writer of another Kamen Rider series because I believe he can do much better than what he started out as a "prototype" now has revolutionized Kamen Rider even if he sadly didn't do more head writer work.  But still, I think he can do a good job especially with how he writes drama elements in a very disciplined way which made us look past his earlier mistakes while doing some Jetman episodes.  For starters, maybe Arakawa could do fantasy-based drama that's outside t...

Well I'll soon be very busy and I may not write much new review here but here's my latest next plan- it would be viewing Kamen Rider Fourze assuming I don't get bombarded too much.  I think I need something lighter and softer because I've been pretty irritable lately to events that go around me.  Sheesh why am I so problematic with the idiotic people around me?  Doesn't mean people can be annoying like Cassidy and Devin that I should tear them limb from limb.  I probably just need to watch something lighter and softer like Kamen Rider Kiva to cheer me up, maybe Fourze might be the answer?!

This is possibly my first very bad review.  I dunno why I'm reviewing about it but maybe this should be a form of constructive criticism of sorts and I'm glad that Toei had managed to recover from the lash of this series.  So why do I don't like Decade?  I thought that from start to finish, this series is just so messy with all the "Alternate Worlds" going on and on.  I would say that this series really had marred the good identities of outstanding rider seasons like Agito or Black (I was happy to see Kotaro though!) or even mars Kuuga which is the series that began to relaunch Kamen Rider from its long hiatus.  I would personally dare say that in being a Tokusatsu drama, it really shames the new style of Kamen Rider and even the Shinkenger/Decade crossover might come to mind this series is as horrific as Saban's Mashed Rider.  One episode after the other is a bigger mess than the other, really even the ending is hanging, the special is stupid and I don't...

I am yet to see Qiong Yao drama but I'd like to get oriented wit them.  Here they are that usually gives us bucket of tears to cry: The old switcheroo.  When the main wife gives birth to all daughters and has no son then the wife swaps her baby daughter with a son who's not even related.  Then what happens is that they swapped children get married and fall in love.  It was also in Ru Yi where she has no idea her supposed mother-in-law is her birth mother while her real mother-in-law is her foster mother!  I just hate it whenever sons are always favored over daughters even if they were born from concubines.   Dysfunctional families created by divorces and polygamy.  Such was the case of Yan Yu Meng Meng.  In the story, a general is basically crazy to have had been divorced eight times and the ninth wife always picks on the eighth ex-wife while she had an affair with another man.  There are other dysfunctional family ties so much ...