Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Rewatching some of Meteor Garden II, I just thought that it felt like Qiong Yao drama after I have tried to see the 1986 version of Romance in the Rain and some glimpses of classic Qin Han/Liu Xue Hua videos.  So how did I feel like Meteor Garden II had the Qiong Yao drama feel? Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu unexpectedly felt like Qin Han and Liu Xue Hua which made me think, they could have had become a Qiong Yao item.  The plot involves Dao Mingsi's past and present. which Dao Mingsi is forced to choose between the present him (in love with Yesha) or with Shancai, who is the woman he loves.  Doesn't that sound a bit like Ting Yuan Shen Shen?  And the mood of Meteor Garden II is considerably WAAAAY more serious than Meteor Garden I... and I really felt pity for Vic Chou's character in this one... which I thought did Vic Chou and Barbie Xu get paired because of the chemistry they had in here? Shantsai's tough girl image is thrown aside in favor of a Qiong Yao type of ...

It's been some time since I realized how much of gold nuggets I had... I'll be rewatching IRIS for now... Another series I could review next is "Delicious Relationships"... and then I'll also include Bambino as well... but I will just have a slow pace as of right now or not...

The Empress and the Warriors as a fiction might have been inspired by great women of history such as Chinese female military genius Wang Cong'er or maybe Queen Elizabeth who herself was at first, doubtful if she could revive England.  In ancient Korea, there was Queen Seondok.  In this one, the fiction tries to keep itself realistic and Empress Yan Fei'er (acted by Kelly Chen) seems to be a character of fiction blended from real life characters.  And it's set in a time when chauvinism was a norm.  Fortunately Yan Fei'er is no Amazonian either.  She tries to strive for gender fairness in a land ruled by male sexists and she must battle her cousin, who can't accept the fact that the throne is ruled by a woman for the first time! So here it is- Yan Huba is a sexist and schemer.  Sexist, because he can't accept his female cousin will succeed the throne.  By right and lineage, Fei'er is the rightful heir of the throne which makes Huba an imposter. ...

Magic Kitchen... this was the first movie Jerry Yan appeared in with major stars like Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Nicholas Cheung and Maggie Quigley as the center characters while it had Stephen Fung as a minor character.  The story revolves Sammi Cheng who is Yau the main character who is said that her family suffers from a curse, causing their family to be left by men.  Yau's problems began when she dated Cheun Yao (acted by Andy Lau) who was her ex-boyfriend.   So I thought this was the first time I saw Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng act as a couple, the next was in the movie Internal Affairs where Sammi Cheng was Andy Lau's wife.  After the relationship between Yau and Chuen Yao never worked, he left without a word rather than break up with her formally.  Later we see Chuen Yao dating May who is better looking and younger than his ex-girlfriend Yau.  To be honest, I do feel sorry for Yau's family troubles and how things can go from bad to worse. Here co...

For some time, I was thinking this blog has been empty, I ran out of ideas and ended up stealing ideas  from others in the process (Sorry, sorry...).  I just didn't figure out I still had some gold nuggets left unused in my closet, figuratively speaking.  So I just thought I might do some reviews on these. For movies, I would probably need to rewatch the following since I haven't done any reviews yet on these films but I'll just do them one by one, no guarantee I can write them all, I might just do one review a week or two considering my mind is already jumbled up and needs to sort things out: The Banquet Little Big Soldier The Legend The Storm Warriors The Sniper Chinese Ghost Story (remake starring Liu Yi Fei) Black Ransom Twins Mission The Promise Initial D Scripture With No Words The Unusual Youth Magic Kitchen Sky of Love Death Note  Death Note: The Last Name The Empress and Her Warriors Kung Fu Fighter Rob B' Hood  Series: Lo...

100% Senorita was another series I would believe has a complex love map aside from its rather well-written story.  Despite initial disappointments (Wallace was at his struggling stage) BUT I cannot deny its love polygon is very interesting.  We have the following relationships that came forward: Fei Yang was once engaged to Peter... but Peter betrayed her.  Peter was trying to get rid of her so he can take over, though he DID NOT mastermind the death of Fei Yang's father.  So Peter here is initially your average scheming villain.  He wanted the fortune of Felicity. Being an incorporator, he can grab control from the corporation itself.  I just thought Peter was a scheming villain yet it was interesting to see a more human side of him. Wei Xiang gets entangled in a love triangle between twin sisters, who didn't know of each other's existence.  First he falls for Fei Yang when she still looked like Xiao Feng.  He gets into a relationship with X...

A nice way to end your life indeed... Forbidden Love's central story is between a Gumiho (acted by Kim Tae Hee) who falls for a human being and vice versa.  So here are the romances in Forbidden Love to be analyzed.  The central love triangle is focused on the leading lady Shi Yeon, her Gumiho lover Moo Young and her human lover Min Woo.  What I love about this 16 episode Korean drama is the central love story.  So while I do prefer love polygons over central love triangles, but the romances are pretty interesting especially with how Min Woo learns that some humans are worse than the Gumiho they are fighting. For Moo Young, he has been long in love with Shi Yeon.  For Shi Yeon, she has fallen for the human being Min Woo who is trying to find the source of the killings done.  He first suspects that the murders were done by a human organ trafficking trade but later figures out that it's done by the Gumiho.  The Gumiho unlike the vampires can walk in...

While I was kind of disappointed at how Kaga Mariko or Lee Hye Hyong, I think Zhen Xiu Zhen delivered one awesome performance in Meteor Garden as Dao Ming Feng otherwise known as Kaede Doumyoji to the Japanese audience.  Now what makes her special?  I would admit that while I'm not that well-acquainted with her younger years but hearing that she's played protagonist roles in the past, I guess that gave her the edge considering she usually played the good girl roles before she became the mean mom in Meteor Garden. So what did I think about the performance of the actress?  When the character first enters the story, the actress brings the mean villain to life.  The actress could speak the loud, demanding voice of the villain, better than the Anime voice actress Mika Ito.  She made the Anime version look like a sissy!  And if Zhen Xiu Zhen were acting as a villain in kung fu movies, she would be similar to Atsuko Takahata in playing villainous roles in Tokus...

In Return of the Condor Heroes, the romance happens between Yang Guo a rebellious child (probably nine or ten) who meets a beautiful teenage woman, probably four or five years older than he is namely Xiao Longnu (which makes Huang Xiao Ming's casting quite inappropriate considering he is ten years older than Liu Yifei while Andy Lau's makes a little more sense, which I am yet to see).  The relationship started off pretty much as a master/student relationship but it was later blossoming into attraction, which was taboo at that time because of the Confucian principles. For some time, Yang Guo learned martial artist under the person he called "aunt" for some reason, even if she was just a few years older than he was.  The teacher/student relationship was one where Yang Guo learned martial arts in the Ancient Tomb until he became an adult.  This was because Yang Guo run away from the Quanzhen Sect of Taoists.  After Grandma Sun dies from an attack by the Quanzhen Sect...

One of the reasons why Brilliant Legacy amazed me is because how the hero of the story, is not what you expect.  So it's not exactly explained to why he became like that until later in the series, when we learn there was that unresolved trauma.  All we know is that he has had some hiding insecurities causing him to bully people like that, which led his paternal grandmother, Jang Sak Ja wanting to give the inheritance or what she calls her legacy, her life principles to Eun Sung whose kindness exceeds most of the people in South Korea. I would admit that yes, Hwan is a spoiled brat because of his mom.  This is one of the rarer cases where the grandparent doesn't spoil the grandchild but it's the mother's fault.  I mean the earlier episodes makes you want to ring Hwan's neck.  He doesn't want to go to work, he is ungrateful for his grandmother's beef soup business that got him all the money he throws, he doesn't know the value of money because he is spo...

Next Stop: Happiness was a complex series, sometimes I can't even get over why Addie's character Mu Cheng keeps hiding the truth from her illegitimate son who is years later, reunited with his father. On the other hand, the show itself has one long complex maze of relationships which can be seen in these situations. The main couple is lawyer Ren Guangxi and the bento girl Liang Mucheng.  But this attraction is not without its few complications.  In the beginning, we get to understand Liang Mucheng has attracted the attention of Guangxi the arrogant law student, Tuoye her childhood friend who likes her so much and not to mention her foster father/uncle by marriage who was a pedophile.  As you see, Mucheng was living with her stepmother/auntie (her mom's sister) who married her uncle by marriage after her biological father died.  It was a complex relationship to where her uncle by marriage had developed a nominal incestuous lust after her, resulting to her frequent ...

I'll admit the only Wuxia series I've seen are Chinese Paladin, Demigods and Semidevils (which is a VERY complex mess), Red Buddha Lady, Return of Condor Heroes, Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber and I am yet t see Love of Condor Heroes and I want to watch more of Chinese Ghost Story.  So what do I love about Wuxia series?  Here's what I love about them: Interesting love stories between the hero and the heroine.  For example, Yang Guo's story with Xiao Longnu is faced with the "forbidden love" where Yang Guo is the student and she used to be his teacher.  Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber faced the issues of a Manchurian princess falling for a commoner.  These love stories are faced with the woman getting stronger for the sake of love, the man throwing away sexist views and other irrational views that society holds for the sake of love. Impossible love stories between humans and the supernatural written in such a good way.  Okay I know it's usually not a hap...

The story of this 90s film (1998) revolves around two characters namely Wind and Cloud.  Wind is played by Aaron Kwok and Cloud is played by Ekin Cheng.  I hardly know much about Kristie Yang but she is pretty gorgeous in this film, which leads to the love triangle of Wind and Cloud.  The story itself was later succeeded by another film called Storm Warriors where both character reprise their roles but in a more in my generation setting.  Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng are two legends in one film facing against the Japan Action Club founder Sonny Chiba. For Lord Thunder, he hears the prophecy from the Mud Buddha that if he takes Wind and Cloud in, he will get good fortune.  However if the the two will unite, he is definitely bound to be defeated.  One can see that Lord Thunder is a pretty manipulative fellow.  The key word ahem key character to his manipulation of Wind and Cloud is his daughter Charity.  Charity is undecided which man she loves and ...

From the Heisei era of Kamen Rider, I started to miss the idea of having an evil Rider so glad that Kamen Rider Ryuki created THIS particular evil Rider.  If Agito's Gills was just feral, Another Agito was an anti-hero... this one is willingly evil compared to Sunshine Moon errrr.... Shadow Moon in Kamen Rider Black .  So what's the deal with this guy, Kamen Rider Ouja? Takeshi Asakura is that sadistic, cunning guy who you would be afraid to be with.  Come on, he was only 13 and YET he freakishly kills his whole family in a fire though his younger brother survived, he killed him too.  He's one evil, sadistic killer that had to be contained.  Like Radiguet in Jetman, he apparently has no remorse for any killings he's done and takes pleasure in them.  He had to be incarcerated because of his actions, though I prefer the law should really execute him for a string of crimes he's committed.  And I'm glad he's no victim of the "Toku injustice" that ha...

Toshiki Inoue is infamous for his lackluster finales and the only finale I saw so far that is passable is Kamen Rider Agito (except why would Hojo later develop a romantic interest with a person he's been antagonistic with is funny).  But one must think of Ryuki's ultra-super duper lackluster finale.  So I did see Spielban raw anyway, but at least I was able to talk with Fantasy Leader on what the finale was about.  On the other hand, Ryuki itself had some interesting development and then... POOF!  The reset button was HIT!  So what's the big deal?  Compared to Spielban's finale that kept character development, Kamen Rider Ryuki didn't! Ryuki itself as a TV show was interesting with the concept of the Kamen Rider War going on.  You had all your douchebag protagonists like Shinji, Renn and Satoru.  You had them develop and in fact, while Shinji and Renn were basically antagonistic towards each other because of different goals, they did get close...