Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Previously, I wrote about Plot vs. Pretty . There are no questions asked that I tend to watch a show "just for the girl," such as The Female General and currently Everyone Loves Me (ongoing). I can't deny that I watched Blossoming Love because Sun Zhenni (who I first saw as a secondary character in Till the End of the Moon as a gumiho) was just super pretty. I thought about watching legal dramas, whether they're from China, Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea. South Korean legal dramas tend to be one of my favorite things to watch, even if eye candy is NON-EXISTENT FOR ME . Sure, I can get drawn by the eye candy, but a good plot automatically covers every appearance. Recalling the early phase in my college days I remember the premiere of Chinovelas (mostly from Taiwan), and it started with Meteor Garden . I didn't find the late Barbie Xu all that pretty (but I used to like a girl who resembled her) compared to Mao Inoue. However, I found Meteor Garden (2001) better t...

Chinoys are usually Hokkien speakers, descended from Fujian, China. As always, may Filipinos remember that the Chinese people aren't their enemy but the Chinese Communist Empire (a mockery I made for the Chinese Communist Party). Back then, I remember there was a NICHE MARKET where Betamax rentals in the 1990s had a few Chinese shows WITHOUT translation. There was the Chinese Sunday Theater . If I'm not wrong, ABS-CBN called it the Chinese Variety Show, which once aired Fu Peimei's cooking show (undubbed), and it was later dubbed. Meteor Garden became the revival of the Chinese Sunday Theater. It was Chinese Sunday Theater with the DUB. GMA-7 competed with My MVP Valentine . Both shows introduced me to F4 and 5566. However, the regular Chinese-language drama (hence my tags here are Chinese Drama, whether they came from China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan) began diversifying. It wasn't enough for  Meteor Garden's subtitles to unintentionally trick my mind, "That's w...

There are times when Wuxia/Xianxia are often put under the Hokkien word Ko Cha or 古早 (Gǔzǎo) in Mandarin. This time, I checked out Veil of Shadows,  which becomes a complex battle against fate. I have had the bad habit of actually checking out shows by the lovely Ju Jingyu, such as Madam White Snake . This time, Veil of Shadows focuses on the complex battle against fate. Thankfully, it's only 29 episodes, but it's got a LONG PLOT within the show's context. The show can get confusing because it's a complex battle against fate. The story involves Jingyi's character as a Gumiho named Lu Wuyi. Her co-protagonist is Wu Shiguang (played by Joseph Zeng / Zeng Shunxi) as a mysterious demon hunter. There's a deep, dark secret with Shiguang that the series slowly reveals. Wu Wangyan (played by Chen Duling) is Wuyi's older sister. Li Jie (played by Yan An) is the commander of the Shilin Sect. The antagonists tend to be more in the background. It gets difficult to talk ...