Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

I have to admit I have been VERY OUTDATED with new school Chinese entertainment. Maybe, it's because I tend to think these days that Korean and Japanese is superior to Chinese -- until I get an overdose of either which. I admit, I've been more caught into other new school stuff Super Sentai (after having a momentary taste fatigue), I tend to look forward to most new school Kamen Rider, some Korean TV series and now I think about rekindling the one thing I got obsessed with when I took a Toku break -- Chinese TV series and movies whether it's from China, Hong Kong or Taiwan (which I support over China). Right now, I want to start with watching Love O2O which was shown last decade. Here's the plot and it's worth 30 episodes with 45 minutes each: Bei Weiwei (Zheng Shuang) is the campus goddess, who also excels in her studies. She aspires to be an online game designer/engineer, and goes by the alias of Luwei Weiwei in the online role-playing game A Chinese Ghost Sto...

Well, I guess this caught me off-guard and it's been some months since I watched Kamen Rider Stronger (and didn't find it that enjoyable except for the opening song). What I didn't notice was that actor Akira Hamada (who's currently turning 77 years old this year) is freaking Mr. Titan's human form from Kamen Rider Stronger. He plays the role of Juzaburo Nanba of Nanba Heavy Industries but I had no idea he was also part of the struggling Showa era Kamen Riders! What does this mean to me? I don't feel much of a feeling for old school era Kamen Rider  so the cast doesn't mean much to me either (maybe except for Hiroshi Miyauchi because of his involvement in Winspector, Solbrain and Ohranger as a mentor) but it's nice to have some old school actors give their support for new generations. Kamen Rider Stronger was pretty much mid 70s show but it was nice for Hamada to appear in new school Kamen Rider. This also gives me a bit of of my crazy imagination ...

I remembered writing a post on Sawa Takigawa as Seito's spy  but it turns out to be she's sabotaging her supposed side of the fence after all. How is that happening? While she did the data of the Rabbit Form to the side of Seito but it turned out that she was trolling everyone -- whether it'd be the audience or her friends. Oh yeah, Sento himself was also trolling everyone with something that we never expected. She seemed to have betrayed everyone when she sent the data. But it turned out that Sento allowed it to happen. Sento built the Rabbit Form and the Tank Form to defeat Gentoku/Kamen Rider Rogue. At first, Kamen Rider Rogue detected the Rabbit Form's movements but was overridden by the Tank Form when it appeared.   The writers felt like trolling everyone with Sawa's role in the Nanba's Children group. After she was saved, it felt like was still there to work for Nanba. Yet it turns out that she and Sento deceived everyone (including the audience...

As I was watching Kamen Rider Build, I wanted to give a thought on who the spy from Seito. So is it surprising? Not really. Then here's me thinking WTF is Sento thinking of still hanging her around after she was convicted as a spy. Or two, is she some gold digging whore after older men? I can't say but there's some flashbacks that may explain her tendency to switch personalities. It's revealed that she's part of Nanba's Children so her indoctrination is still intact. I guess it's a side effect of being brainwashed that even if she wants to get out -- she still has the tendency to betray people in favor of Nanba. So is this brainwashing still effective for her? It probably is and I wonder why is Sento still keeping her around? Honestly, I even want to imagine her as someone with a split personality. Maybe, she was once a happy go lucky stupid girl. But the years in the Nanba's Children camp gave her another personality which may reveal why she ...

I was reading through Shougo B'Stard's blog and I am inspired to do this post. So I would tackle on the MAIN Kamen Riders -- and not those others that just come and go (and I don't know if I'll write on evil Riders such as Kamen Rider Ouja, Kamen Rider Gemn or Kamen Rider Chronos some other time) but I could talk about the general designs of the shows. Hmmm... what amazes me is that we're near 20 years of the Heisei era assuming a new era hasn't come in yet in Japan. So what's thoughts? It's no secret that I prefer new school Kamen Rider over the Showa era -- though I haven't really drawn a line between last decade and this decade. For instance, I think about how the current riders are trying to smooth things up (ex. Kamen Rider Gaim vs. Kamen Rider Ryuki). So what's my thoughts? Let's begin, shall we? Kamen Rider Kuuga This is no doubt an ambitious plan to revive Kamen Rider from its 11 year hiatus -- which has to be the long...

I just finished Hwayugi and I couldn't help but still bring up Gu Family Book (because of actor Lee Seung Gi) every now and then -- where same actor plays a supernatural being. In Gu Family Book, he's a Nagare Bouma. In this one, he's Sun Oh Gong as a human where he doesn't reveal any monster form. I think about the price for victory and everything. Sun Oh Gong has lost his memories and he tries to regain it. While Ma Wang was a hammy and silly villain for the first few episodes but he ends up redeeming himself all the more as an anti-hero. He actually wants to help Oh Gong and he tasks little children to help the same person. Ma Wang getting rid of Lucifer Entertainment was just a step to his redemption from darkness to light since he did some pretty questionable things himself. Karma is served. I thought this was so satisfying to see a corrupt businessman get what was coming for him. Kang Dae Sung who has had so many corrupt business practices gets betraye...

The latest episode of Kamen Rider Build is building (no pun intended) on the Pandora's Box and Misora's role. At first, she was just there to purify the Bottles but now, she reveals on what could be a very strong power. She mentioned the word "Evolt" so what is all that? I was thinking about the 25th episode as of recent. Misora doesn't understand what it's all about yet. Her father Soichi/Stark mentions that the bracelet came from Mars. Later, we're treated to a rather frightful scene. Shades of the Doom game anyone? This scene gives us a bit of CGI nightmare. We see Mars collapsing because of the Pandora's Box. If you do some literature review then we see a connection. Greek mythology states that when Pandora opened the box -- she released all the evils into the world. The Pandora's Box spelled the end of the Martian civilization -- and somehow, some mysterious entity is talking to Misora not wanting Earth to suffer the same fate. I...