Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

I remembered how I wrote a post where I compared two K-Drama princesses namely Suzy Bae (this decade) and Song Hye Kyo (last decade) . I just want to think about how my views on K-Drama may or may have not changed -- plus how long it took me to actually get a liking to it. I started watching East Asian drama last decade on the early 2000s. I started with Meteor Garden which was from Taiwan -- though it was based on a Japanese Manga and Anime. I took a bit of a break from Japanese entertainment (but not really) to focus on Chinese entertainment. Then there was something REALLY NEW, yes new -- it was Korean Drama. I wasn't too much of a fan of it at first, I really just didn't like sad endings and the very first K-Drama I watched was Autumn in My Heart. Autumn in My Heart was really what I'd call a waste of tissue of paper. It's just crazy how I watched that TV series just for eye candy than the plot that unfolded. What I did start to enjoy it for was the lack of un...

It's been some time since I've written a Kamen Rider Build update. I just thought that trying to write a couple of episode reviews for both Super Sentai AND Kamen Rider (or any of the TV series I'm watching here) isn't as easy as I thought. Anyway, I'd like to give a bit of my comment on the latest updates on Evolt after asking the question on who is Evolt ? The latest revelation of Evolt was that he was actually an entity from some unknown planet and that he caused the destruction of Mars. Vernage the Queen of Mars was ready to die to avenge her people. The fight resulted to Evolt's body getting destroyed yet he managed to store his essence inside the Pandora's Box. Somehow, my previous guesses (and maybe others made a similar guess) was that Evolt was part of the Pandora's Box all along! Yes, he did possess Soichi Isorugi's body to unleash the Pandora's Box. Right now, we've got the Pandora's Tower which Vernage reveals has destr...

It's time for a bit of throwback to how I began a short break from Tokusatsu for other stuff of what was once new school last decade. Time flies so fast as one show is now 15 years old and the other is 12 years old. I think about two actresses who have a rather huge age gap, a different batch yet they were both serving among Chinese drama legendary actresses. I just want to talk about my experience with both shows -- where I can also be rather shallow here. The first time I got into Wuxia series (or not) was with the 2003 version (or remake) of the Chinese Ghost Story. I don't really want to get familiarized with the version done with the Leslie Cheung due to the generation gap. I was reminded of my paternal grandmother watching Wuxia series. I started watching it though I got somewhat hooked with Dolphin Bay's dysfunctional family drama more. Yet Chinese Ghost Story's action scenery was just too good to pass. The first Wuxia seriest hat I was somewhat hooked on f...

It was just last 2003 or something around last decade when I started watching Chinese movies. I admit, I wasn't so much into it. I remembered my paternal grandmother would borrow several betamax tapes and she would return it weekly -- some of them were Wuxia series and some of them were Chiung Yao series. Then it happened -- I saw Meteor Garden. At first, I thought the F4 were Japanese until I saw the Fantasy 4Ever music video called "Can't Lose You" and it was in freaking Mandarin! Yes, it was in freaking Mandarin! I remembered watching a few episodes of Meteor Garden and I didn't expect to get hooked. I wasn't exactly a fan of Chinese series and I wanted to watch more Japanese. But this was something new and something I originally didn't want to watch -- then it had me hooked. How I regret not taking Mandarin lessons seriously all because I was sort of trying to pursue the American superiority mentality or because Filipino TV dramas (or teleseryes...

Well, it's no secret that Kamen Rider Build is well building up on me -- pun intended. So there's much to Soichi Isorugi. First, he turns out to be Stark, he double-crossed Gentoku in more than one occasion and when he's Stark -- he speaks in a different voice. It turns out to be that the actions of who we think is Soichi is not Soichi -- rather it's the mysterious Evolt that's making Soichi do all the bad stuff. The puzzle is somewhat solved in part -- the Soichi that saved the real Soichi Isorugi/Sento Kiryu years ago was really Soichi. The one who touched the Pandora's Box was not Soichi but the still invisible Evolt. What Evolt's role will be may be what I've speculated is coming true -- there could be that greater evil from the Pandora's Box or Mars. It looks like Evolt and not Chairman Nanba or Nanba Enterprises will be the ultimate enemy of the series. I just start to feel bad for Soichi once again -- it turns out that he's still str...