Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

If there's hype then wouldn't I be curious? Just think about how some long-time franchises have been launched by hype and still continue by a hype. Others die when the hype goes down eventually. I think about whether or not I'd watch the now-finished Korean TV drama known as Crash Landing on You . The story has South Korean heiress Yoon Se Ri who is the bastard daughter of a rich man (but is a successful businesswoman) and a North Korean soldier named Rin Jeong Hyuk. Both the characters are acted by celebrities in their late 30s. No eye candy? Well, that's no problem IF you can give me a good plot there! Right now, I do feel the need to enjoy other stuff aside from do real life work. I just finished Princess Weiyang and I feel like in need of a rest from TV dramas. I tend to treat good TV dramas the same way I treat a good novel (well, that's why I prefer subtitles). I wasn't able to put any good series down. I wonder will I end up treating Crash Landing on Yo...

I remembered times in high school and college when there were some literature assignments required. One thing I could remember was the need for book reports. I could remember this one - if the story is so good I can't put the book down! If the book was so good - I wrote a very wholehearted summary and got a high grade. If the book was so bad - I would write a haphazard report and my performance suffered a lot. There was no Internet yet to help me get recommended readings so I had to take the risk! Princess Weiyoung itself (or should I call it WeiYANG because Yang is the Mandarin version of the Chinese surname Young or Yu) turned out to that kind of show. If I was reading an English version of the novel called The Poisonous Daughter (which it's based from) then I would certainly not be able to put it down!  Watching it - I've decided to marathon it like I would read more than three chapters a day if the novel is pretty good. So, there are some weird plots like poison...

If there's anything expect from Wuxia - you can always expect stupid rulers, right? I'm almost done with  Princess Weiyoung  and one thing I noticed is that the emperor is incorrigibly stupid. It seems stupid monarchs tend to be a trend. I wonder did the Chinese royalty get into that much inbreeding like other royals from other countries? Seems like it considering that Emperor Taiwu is that stupid. Now, I'd like to do historical research on the real Tuoba clan vs. the fictional version as presented by this fictional novel. How stupid is the emperor? Well, he tends to punish the whole clan for the fault of one member. The beginning's story is a result of Emperor Taiwu's stupidity that resulted in the Liang Kingdom's collapse. Also, like how many times does he fall for Weiyoung or Xiner getting framed and her being innocent? He would rather keep his own reputation than his character. He could've made himself better by cutting ties with the Chiyun and apolo...

Just seeing the preview of the "wedding" of Arisa Komiya and Ryuji Iwasaki (who's a HumaGear matchmaker named Matchi) made me think of the possibility of a HumaGear x human pairing. Okay, I'm getting a rather weird feeling here considering that I'm imagining that either Shun Daimoji (from Kamen Rider Fourze ) or even Troy Burrows (from Power Rangers Megaforce ) as Izu's potential admirer. Back on track - I do still feel that the continuation of episodes 21-22 with Chiharu is something. She's still looking for a potential partner though there's also a weird church "wedding" between human and android going on. Where's Immortus from Marvel Comics when you need him? He was the one who performed the marriage of Vision and the Scarlet Witch - a marriage between a robot with human emotions and a mutant human. For me, the first half wasn't much to talk about. I was actually enjoying a lot of episodes for this series but the first half do...

Personally, I'm not a fan of Chinese Wuxia series if they take a long time to finish. Though, I can take comfort in the fact that they have a 40+ minute run each. So, it's really something when I consider that Ashes of Love wasn't so interesting. Meanwhile, I never thought I'd be captivated by Princess Weiyoung after having my kimchi overdose. Maybe, it's just time to rewatch Chinese series whether they're from Taiwan (Republic of China) or the People's Republic of China. This is in a setting where women tend to be treated rather lightly. Women were usually married off to pay debts or become concubines because most of them had no choice. Sometimes, you had to make sure you're the first wife or empress of the household. This was a time when double standards played so high as to men having more than one woman but a woman can't have more than one man. Man, that's screwed up if you ask me! Princess Weiyoung has a princess named Feng Xiner assumes...

Well, before I decided to get Netflix for digital subscriptions - I really had no access to more Chinese drama. Looks like I may decide to check some older drama first before I decide to watch some ongoing newer ones. For me, it's never been an issue of newer or older but will the plot interest me? Then again, there's also the "Does the show have a pretty actress?" as icing though some of my favorite dramas. Princess Weiyoung has a princess assume the identity of a lower class daughter of a prime minister to avenge her family's death. So the series was very last 2016 and it's already 2020. So? I really think about watching this series because I hear it's a good series. I had little to no access to such shows from 2016 up to 2018. I think that trying to "catch up" with what was new school last decade can be something. I watched the rather lighthearted Lingjian Mountain though I think I could use some serious TV series right now. Hmmm... the...

It's the third part of the series of tasks. I can't be certain what I feel about Zero-One right now. I was getting excited about the past few episodes but I feel like the five contests are getting draggy. Personally, I wish that the show decided to simply run five episodes focused on one task of the contest. I think ten episodes can be draggy if you ask me. However, there are some interesting developments that have gone on. What's nice to see is that we're having more fanservice from Super Sentai - notably from two shows that I like namely Go-Busters (Arisa Komiya as Chiharu Ebi) and Kyuranger (J-Drama regular Keisuke Minami as Atty. Bingo). ZAIA does have some loose screws, especially how Gai can be so callous as to put a person's life in danger. This time, we've got a marriage scam going on and Chiharu is the victim of it. Marriage scams do happen a lot, right? The case goes to court and somehow the alleged scammer Yuto Sasaki. Chiharu has ZAIA Specs lawye...

Whether I would like to admit it or not - I do have my vibes for Japanese stuff fading. I'm eating more Korean food than Japanese food. I'm watching more K-Drama than J-Drama. I haven't watched new J-Drama series even for shallow and pitiful reasons. Yet, I don't want to deny that the shows I'm moving forward to are all thanks to Japanese entertainment. Consider it as a fact that after Modern Japan was born - it brought a lot of inventions that revolutionized Asia with several inventions. In the 90s we've had the VHS before the VCD and eventually, the DVD technology came. Before that, there was the Japanese comics known as Manga. The concept of Manga was later adapted by Chinese, Taiwanese, and South Koreans to make what we'd call Manhwa. Basically, both Manga and Manhwa are somewhat similar. Manhwa is clearly Japanese-inspired as the art style is indeed very Anime-ish. I remembered the time I started watching Taiwanese TV drama and my first was Meteor Gar...