Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

I do admit that I'd watch Korean adaptations of Japanese shows (or better said, localizations because they go from one country to another rather than from one medium to another) - I do still feel the need to talk about this "abomination". If you did like it then chill. But for me - I still feel Boys Over Flowers is perhaps one of the biggest blots ever in K-Drama. The problem doesn't have to do with anything that it's an adaptation. The problem has to do with how the cast is weak in several levels of stupid for me. I always had an issue with how the show runs its own version of the Hana Yori Dango characters. Maybe, I'm just too used to how well Jerry Yan acts out as Tsukasa Doumyoji. Lee Min Ho is fine but I think the show just has bad writing. Kyu Hye Sun really makes a very bad Tsukushi Makino. Maybe, I'm just too used to Mao Inoue's cuteness OR Barbie Xu-Wang made an incredibly convincing Tsukushi! Need I mention how Jun Pyo's mother is so b...

Personally, I tend to hate it when as how goes with having the first season, then having a second season, or whatever. Can you remember how some American primetime shows go by season each with a different theme per season? Vagabond sure had a very hanging ending that felt like Toshiki Inoue and Yasuko Kobayashi were hired to write it down. The possibility of having a Season 2 is being talked upon but somehow not confirmed. What's my take? Would I want another season or a movie to wrap things up? Personally, I think I'd want a Vagabond movie instead to get it done and over with. Why would I go for a movie than another season? I think a movie can still wrap up the stuff. Make the movie a two-hour feature film that will try to conclude the series. Have Hae Ri discover that Dal Gun is alive. Have Jessica as a vengeful bitch who'll do anything to bring Edward down even if she has to die with him. Have both Hae Ri and Dal Gun finally meet each other. Maybe have Hae Ri and Dal...

I really had my fingers crossed for the possibility that Hae Ri would be Samael all along because of the beginning. Does she turn out to be an evil woman beneath her Anime-ish kawaii face? Quite a plot would seem as random as what if Hiroyo Hakase (acted by Maaya Uchida) were the true villain of Akibaranger if you ask me. Though, it may also come out as trying to copy Scream 4's villain Jill Roberts (acted by Emma Roberts) if you ask me. From the website   Bitches Over Dramas   - you can see quite a good speculation which I think could've effectively set her up as a Jill Roberts type of character. The short note doesn't dismiss the possibility that her ditzy behavior may just be a cover for a devious mind. I wanted to put that into consideration. If so, it would have been great for Suzy's career if she can pull off a devious minded woman. I'd imagine Suzy Bae as either an Asian Catwoman or Asian Poison Ivy. In her case, she seems to be more Catwoman if you ask m...

I don't know if the suspense was worth it. Again, you still need to see Vagabond and judge for yourself since my opinions are well JUST THAT. I'm just sharing what I think and some agree and some don't. The final episode hit yesterday and I'll share my thoughts on how the show went and ended in just 16 episodes. I think one problem with TV drama over Tokusatsu is this - episode spacing. Sometimes, you need to run in more episodes to get something done. Vagabond had its promise though it almost ended up the way Toshiki Inoue or Yasuko Kobayashi would wrap up a series. It almost suffers from the same problems with Kamen Rider Amazons where the ending is really meh at best. I even wonder what really happened to why the ending ended that way. But before that - let's talk about some of the good aspects that got REALLY rushed. The exploding warehouse scene was pretty well done. Both criminal groups John & Mark as well as Dynamic Systems are catching people in t...

As Vagabond ends tonight, I do have the need to write a separate rant to why I feel the Samael revelation is probably a weakness for an otherwise interesting show. If you saw last night's episode, you can clearly see that Edward Park is Samael. I stated that it's just, anti-climatic! That really made me jump off my seat not because it felt surprising BUT it has to do with how weak it feels for me. If you think it's a good twist then fine but I always felt Prime Minister Hong and not Edward should've been Samael. The Prime Minister could still speak of Samael without revealing himself as the person running behind the scenes. I think Edward feels he should've just been a lackey. Jessica herself was later revealed to be just a lackey so why not Edward too? Edward as the Bigger Bad doesn't seem to be very fitting for me. Okay, this is a BIG WALKING SPOILER so I hope you have seen last night's episode before reading this one. One could consider that the game c...

Predictable or not? Honestly, I guess you always call suspense as suspense because you don't immediately know what happens next 90% of the time. Sometimes, you've got more than one bad guy weaved into the story. Vagabond is exactly that and the spoilers here is this - if you haven't watched the show PLEASE DO NOT READ MY POST. But if you're a spoiler addict like me then GO AHEAD BE MY GUEST! I have to admit that I was already prepared for the possibility of a Scream 4 remake in this script. I admit, I kinda wanted Suzy Bae to act as Michael's girlfriend OR have her act as the bitchy sniper Lily. Suzy has a blackbelt so I'd really NOT mind her playing a vicious villain - just give her a good script, make her dangerous, give her a strong protagonist to fight against, give her a good villain for a higher-up (or make her Jill Roberts-like), and we're good!  This episode does shed a generous amount of blood. Sang Mi has been brutally murdered and I real...

Although I'm no longer a big fan of Taiwanese drama (it seems a kimchi overdose got into me) - I still can't forget two major boybands that hit me. There were F4 and 5566. There were the competing time slots of Meteor Garden and My MVP Valentine . I wanted to check both out but one can consider that they had the same time slot. I had to choose one so I initially chose Meteor Garden having a bit of a crush on Barbie Xu though I also did have a crush on Angela Chang back then. Neither girl was attractive but both girls had their charm. I could think about the different types of audiences back then. Males tend to prefer My MVP Valentine though I think it was too love story heavy. Females tend to prefer Meteor Garden due to its more love story-oriented writing. Both shows always had their competition. Then I thought about the music from both F4 and 5566. I was a big fan of their songs. I could think of "Can't Lose You" and "I'm Sad" happen to be among m...

Well, sorry for the delay and I did it on purpose. Sometimes, I feel like combining certain episodes into one review to avoid hurrying things. Last week and this week tries to explore the potential of HumaGears becoming actors. Wait, didn't we get a HumaGear dubber way back in episode six ? This is really something when I think about the dangers of robotics. Some technology might as well forever remain fiction even in the digital or space age. Otherwise, we can get disastrous results like this! What's interesting to know is that Shinya Owada consented a fictional version of himself acted by himself. For those who don't know Owada - he's actually a longtime dubber, J-Drama regular, and narrator. It must be very impressive when you've got a legendary old school figure teaching the newbies a thing or two. A good example is him showing off his moves as a samurai (due to his long experience in Taiga drama) in this series or as an actor and director. I feel like he...

Image Source I was thinking about two shows with some similarities namely Westside Story and The Outsiders . I think of Ady An who is eight years older than Esther Liu. Esther was still a teenager by then so I wonder how did she even finish school? Also, wouldn't she be JAIL BAIT that time? I remembered the joke of calling Mana as jailbait in Kamen Rider Agito considering I was still in high school when it first aired. Think about it - Westside Story aired in 2003, The Outsiders aired in 2004, and both actresses starred in Chinese Paladin in 2005! Then, I heard that Esther got a more demoted role due to her age (which I think was appropriate) since Ady had more acting experience. Ady was more professional by then to play such a tough character. I watched both shows dubbed in Tagalog. What amazed me were the roles played by both girls. Ady is pretty much a Dawson casting (she was 24 at that time) because she was an adult but her role was that of a 17-year-old. Esther, on the ...

Westside Story has some possible pairings going on. I'd like to think of a not-so-intense love triangle between Xing Wang, Ya Yu, and Yu Li. There's also a possible love triangle between Shin Ho, Yu Li, and Xing Wang. In the Tagalog dub done by ABS-CBN, you may remember them as Warren, Adrian, Jayme, and Joanne - names I'd like to ditch after watching more of the original Chinese audio. I thought of the love triangle scene. I think of the scene where Xing Wang becomes different types of people and stalks Yu Li. There's the subplot that made everyone think that Ya Yu had accidental incest with Yu Li (suggesting that they were paternal half-siblings) but it was later disproven. Xing Wang knows the real truth but lies to Yu Li about Ya Yu's father. Jealousy much? Xing Wang isn't too happy with Shin He because she's prostituting herself to feed her siblings. This moral grayness in the story is similar to The Outsiders which came a year later. Funny how Esther...

I remembered watching Westside Story on ABS-CBN back in my college days. I always felt the Anime feel was there. Meteor Garden  wasn't the only cast that had the Anime hairstyle. It's very easy to think people copied F4 when F4 was actually copying the Anime hairstyle from JAPAN. If you take a look at it at surface level - it looks like a J-Drama based on a Manga but it isn't. Instead, what really inspired the show itself? Manga is a Japanese invention but guess what? Soon we had Manhua (or Manhwa in Korean) as a result of the Japanese Manga. Taiwanese and South Korean got inspired to make their own versions. The very source of Westside Story is from a Taiwanese comic book that clearly drew ideas from Japanese sources. That would explain why the characters look very Anime-like. The looks are very Anime-ish and the situation could've easily been transported from Taipei to Tokyo. I thought it was based on a Japanese Manga or Anime, I googled looking for the source. Unli...

Granted, Westside Story was a show that took place 16 years ago so my memory is vague. As I just started to rewatch it, I think about watching it because I missed some episodes due to having to study for exams. Now, the rewatch with the ORIGINAL Mandarin audio makes me cringe thinking about how horribly ABS-CBN does its dubs (and GMA-7 is no less guilty either). I remembered the F4 vs. 5566 fan wars when  the Chinese theater popped into both ABS-CBN and GMA-7 . I wanted to enjoy both though  My MVP Valentine  wasn't exactly my sort of thing yet.  Westside Story  came and the show as promoted on  Dolphin Bay  which aired at GMA-7 at that time. ABS-CBN would later air  Westside Story . Both networks were at frequent competition over the shows they aired. I just watched  Westside Story  for the heck of it because it was a well-talked show. Peers of mine, Tsinoy or not, were watching it as if it were an Anime-based show. Though one thing...

I could do better without Super Hero Time due to the relay race but this Vagabond delay is really getting me into suspense mode. Yup, I kinda think about the whole REAL fact that there  won't be Vagabond this week. Here's what Soompi has to say about the reason: SBS’s “Vagabond” will also not be airing this week due to coverage of the 2019 WBSC Premier12. Episodes 15 and 16 of “Vagabond” were previously scheduled to air on November 15 and 16. Episode 15 will now air on November 22 at 10 p.m. KST. I was really prepping myself to see the possible suspense factor. There's a twist that I'm told could happen any time! There's talk that Go Hae Ri might become South Korea's version of Scream 's Jill Roberts. Oh weird! I was secretly comparing Suzy Bae to Emma Roberts even if the two have very different approaches! So, this is really where things go from here. Episode 15 will be aired on November 22 because of the BASEBALL coverage. Though this ...

Jessica is arrested but it doesn't seem over. It's probably too good to be true that she's the real antagonist for this reason - she can't get away with what she did for some time if it wasn't for political backing! A lot of new stuff is about to emerge and some old faces. Then there's the mysterious Samael - a nickname for a hidden person. I'm even wondering how will this end? Will the cast decide to break the fourth wall eventually because of that intro scene way back in the first episode?  Right now, a lot of people died in the operations in Morocco. It can't blamed to what really happened. I have to admit, Suzy Bae's crying here is rather not cartoony. I was expecting her to go, "WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" or just make that rather forced crying Maaya Uchida had in Akibaranger's final episode. I'd like to pretend that the memorial here had the pictures of the Akibarangers after they collided into the sun. Nope, it's all fo...

Image taken from Drama Panda Well, it turns out that Dao Ming Si from 2001 is landing over with Shan Chai from 2017 but I'd tell you -- it's just sort of plain wrong! I do even think something's kinda weird about Red Mask's actor Kazunori Inaba marrying a woman 21 years his junior. I mean, Inaba is old enough to be my dad! He's a father figure to many 90s children! Then I think about Jerry Yan and Shen Yue landing a role as a couple and the two are 20 years apart. Come on, Jerry could've been either her uncle or even her dad depending on the time period we're living! So what's really up with the huge age gap of cast differences? Who can remember the movie Future Cop starring Andy Lau and Barbie Xu-Wang? They had a 15 year age gap so it's not that disturbing. But I consider the fact that the Taiwanese TV series Flower Falls, Flower Bloom had Chin Han (who also resembles Jerry Yan in some way) paired up with the much younger Yue Ling whom the...

Celltrion Company says that there will be an upcoming plot twist. I was thinking about the scene at the beginning where Hae Ri is the target of Dal Gun. Why would a stuntman be assigned to shoot Hae Ri? Then we get a flashback years ago. What is the possible twist? I'm reading from Soompi and there's a bit of a discussion there! Personally, I was thinking about Hae Ri being possibly a double agent. She's probably been doing an inside job to get even with her father's killers. Though, I'd probably still think Michael's girlfriend could be Mikey. Why I consider it to be Mikey is because why in the world would Director Kang tell them not to inform her of the said project? Some even think Hae Ri may be a double agent or a previous link. Though I think that if Hae Ri ever killed Michael then it was because of a revenge plot. What if Michael killed Hae Ri's father for all we know? Then again I think Mikey was really Michael's killer. What if Michael also ...

There's only one Vagabond episode this week since South Korea is having the baseball coverage. I can't be too certain about next week but one thing is certain - we only have three more episodes to go. Things are getting intense as John & Mark is already getting its just desserts. But good villains don't go down easily now, do they? This week's episode features some interesting developments.  The trial is finally here and John & Mark may get roasted soon. Greedy Sang Mi who was promised tons of money by  John & Mark gets her statement countered by her estranged husband Woo Gi. Well, I do have to admit that Woo Gi ends up spilling the beans which slowly incriminates John & Mark. I really love how this scene starts to roast the villains slowly but surely. There's much evidence of the wrongdoings of John & Mark. However, the villains do have a backup plan where they simply want to blame it on the late Michael. Michael was shot to silence him....

I could remember watching Westside Story dubbed in Tagalog in ABS-CBN. It would look like a J-Drama on the surface BUT it's actually Taiwanese. Granted, I saw My MVP Valentine dubbed in Tagalog first on GMA-7 so I automatically knew it was Taiwanese and not Japanese. Those were the days when I still was indifferent to the robotic Tagalog dubs done by both networks. 5566 really had some good music which I enjoyed alongside F4 and other Taiwanese singers - way back before there were translations online. I just hummed along with the song without understanding a single word. I even wonder how Filipino fans of the show reacted to it. College exams were one thing that got in the way so I watched it on a very irregular basis. There wasn't any Netflix or similar services back in the 2000s. The digital subscriber line or DSL was very expensive back then. It was a limit I had to face. I had to really study for my exams or flunk right? I remembered having a crush on the female characte...