Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Okay I just have done some Gaoranger rewatching, well I had my thoughts that Tetsuji Tamayama's role in Love and Form might be worth checking out.  Maybe I'm just in for Erika Toda... guilty.  Hee hee, but still I'd like to give this a watch.

Ripples of Desire is what I'd call another not feel good movie that had actually become Jerry Yan's second movie after so long.  So why does this guy keep having hiatuses?  He had all the potential to replace Qin Han!  Moving on, this is definitely another of those weepy films that feels like Memoirs of a Geisha but in 17th century Taiwan, the typical Qiong Yao feel scenario and some very hard decisions.  So we have Michelle Chen and Ivy Chen who play as the sisters White Snow and White Frost respectively while Jerry Yan is the pirate Scarface who gets into a star-crossed attraction with White Frost.  What I thought was this shows the life of a Geisha and the pirate- both not easy lives and usually laced with tragedy.  Classic actress Sandra Ng shows up as Madame Moon who has some twisted philosophies. So we are treated to the beautiful entertainment brought by the courtesans each one different in their own way.  It's quite sad that the two sisters ...

I don't know if I should ever bother picking this up again considering that I had a hard time digesting this due to the overly melodramatic feel, crying buckets of tears per episode and it feels too much like a Qiong Yao drama.  So far, I had my feeling that Vic Chou was actually doing the Qin Han type of role here... and I might compare Fan Bing Bing to either Liu Xue Hua, Brigitte Lin or Joan Lin.  It just felt too much like my paternal grandmother's days of viewing those weepy drama with a lot of of melodramatic extended dialogues that Qin Han and any of his leading ladies would do.  I didn't really want to push through considering I found this more painful to my chest than the already tearjerking "Qing Shen Shen Yu Meng Meng" (Romance in the Rain) to which the 1986 version had Qin Han and Liu Xue Hua and in the 2001 version he had Leo Ku and Vicki Zhao. Personally I think I should rewatch Silence.  It's Vic Chou's first melodramatic series.  Maybe ...

So here's Jay Chou's first film called "Can't Say the Secret" which treats us to some old and new elements, surprises, etc. and here he is the genius pianist Xiang Lun who meets a mysterious girl known as Xiao Yu acted by Kwai Lun Mei.  So Jay Chou does his first lead role while he did a role in the rather tragic "Curse of the Golden Flower".  His character Xiang Lun can be pretty much weird while displaying Jay Chou's natural affinity for piano.  I just thought that the presence of Alice Tzeng as Qing Yi, she had a very different impression than her hateful character in Starlit.  Made me really think this film was wrapped up in some mysteries like how suddenly Xiao Yu appeared and we are also treated to a rendition of "Lover's Tear" which I really wanted Poon Sow Keng's voice badly.  But oh well.  This at first seems to be just your typical love story but it travels into the realm of science fiction slowly. So the big deal is th...

Okay I'll admit I wasn't very easy on accepting Kuuga until a second rewatch, I thought it would be good to have Naruhisa Arakawa do another head writing job for Kamen Rider.  Why's that?  Here's my reasons: Kuuga was his fresh start. Though I wouldn't credit it as his best work BUT this is his start.  So pretty much, he defined the writing style of what Kamen Rider for the Heisei era should have and can improve.  So pretty much, he's got a lot of success in his first job as Kuuga which would help define the new era. He's a very disciplined writer.  So he may have examined his blunders from his previous works (like that Jetman episode featuring Dryer Jigen), resolved them and then transformed his good start with Kuuga for better writing which he did with Super Sentai.  He's the head writer of Abaranger, Dekaranger and Gokaiger.  Okay I'll admit he's not very good with villains in Gokaiger but hey, he can certainly enhance the villains from...

Yup that's Toshiki Inoue and I wonder if he's even related to one of my favorite actresses Mao Inoue.  I was reading the post at Them's Fighting Words about Inoue and endings .  Now here's my share.  I don't know what other critics like Fantasy Leader or That Chick will think or comment, well I could accept if they disagree or agree but here's my two cents: Warning!  Spoilers ahead! Kamen Rider Agito- So far this is his BEST ENDING.  Okay I don't like Toujou (but then again, most of his actions are clearer to be more of not knowing much or being skeptical, or just following rules) and later he was tolerated.  For me, while the ending did have some WTF that is that very HIIIIIIIGH jump that Agito did to defeat the Lord of Darkness from killing off the human race, it was in fact a very passable finale.  So nobody's pointlessly killed (unlike Gai Yuki's death was really lame in Jetman).  In fact, the ending is pretty passable, meets better stan...