Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Yes... be ready to cry buckets of tears! I've watched "Loving Never Forgetting" now it's time to give my thoughts on the matter.  The drama feels like a modernized Qiong Yao drama... Jerry Yan being a more modern version of senior actor Qin Han.  So what are my thoughts?  At first, it seems to be just an Autumn Concerto remake but this time, I always have the feeling I want to tear my heart out.  Autumn Concerto felt like a Qiong Yao drama but this one wanted to make me tear my heart out.  It almost feels typical to Qiong Yao's dramas... family conflict, love polygons and buckets of tears. So let's get it straight... like Autumn Concerto you have a rich man who impregnates an ordinary girl.  Autumn Concerto already had me crying buckets of tears for most of its run but it had a happy ending.  This drama has buckets of tears but reminds me of conflict within family.  I even feel like elements of Romance in the Rain were into it.  Two diff...

Kamen Rider Kiva may be a mess (for some) but I still have a soft spot for it.  Maybe I've had enough of too much dark and edgy.  Also, it's for me more rewatchable than the super depressing season that is Kamen Rider Faiz.  Moving on... why do I think Kamen Rider Kiva is a Danny Phantom-ish season? While it has horror elements but it's hardly horror but a parody of past successes.  Nothing in the show really scares anyone maybe except when Fangires leap into action.  But other than that, the way humans die from Fangire attacks here is very, VERY cartoony.  They turn into glass and break.  The whole premise of the show feels more like a Nicktoon for teenagers than the horror Kamen Rider has.  Hey I'm not complaining, I kinda like having cartoony seasons too! For a start, I always felt like Wataru was more like Danny Phantom than a Kamen Rider.  While Danny Phantom became half-ghost due to some freak accident, Wataru is half-Fangire a...

After seeing Jerry Yan's post-Meteor Garden projects and Esther Liu's more serious roles, I think it might be nice to pair Jerry Yan and Esther Liu for at least one remake of Qin Han's old drama projects.  Liu Yifei might be more of a contemporary Brigitte Lin, Esther Liu feels more like Liu Xuehua after Barbie Xu is no longer available. So what makes Esther Liu more of a contemporary Liu Xuehua is because she's more involved with dramas over movies.  Liu Yifei feels more like Brigitte Lin, Esther Liu feels more like she could be Liu Xuehua.  Having watching "Green Forest, My Home", I think Esther Liu would do well in playing Liu Xuehua's classic roles in Barbie Xu's place.  She's impressed me at the same level of Barbie Xu IMO.  She and Jerry Yan may have that kind of chemistry. Trying to compare Qin Han in back in his younger days to Jerry Yan made me think... there's got to be other girls who can mix well with Jerry Yan.  Esther Liu m...

Here's the English translation of the opening theme of Last Night of Madam Chin: Step the endless annoying dance steps, drink endless intoxicated mellow wines. Who will keep his good night for me, whisper at my ear gently? Countless handsome guys and beautiful girls, endless ups and downs in life. Who will tell me his pasts? Worryingly I stare at a lantern. *I had ever infatuated with the affection between two lovers, liked a colorful flying butterfly. **I was ever heartbroken at sad farewell, broke down and wept at the dew wet stairs. Red light will be turned off soon, drunken men are awake, at this moment I shall say goodbye to it. The play comes to the end and the audiences disperse, I turn around and glance. Hmm...... my last night. My reaction? The song really portrays the sad life of a cabaret girl like Jin Zhaoli. She had become a paramour to a rich man and later, she gets a devoted lover in Sheng Yueru. She faces the life of a cabaret girl and an imp...

I wonder if it's really debatable that Masato Kusaka is a villain or not but I can see him more as a villain.  So what's the real point?   A villain in any series can either be opposed to both the recurring villains and heroes or part of the recurring villain team.  In his case, while he was not part of Smart Brain but he was definitely a menace to Takumi.  I really, REALLY hated this guy and I would say he is definitely another villain with noble goals. Why do I consider him to be a villain?  He's a manipulative backstabber who always makes your day miserable so he can further his own agenda.  So he is the current user of Kaixa but he has also used the Delta and Faiz belts.  His entire plan is focused on his own agendas.  He's a tragic character once being bullied.  He develops a crush on Mari who doesn't reciprocate it... which he feels like Takumi is that obstacle.  So really, while I feel sorry for his past but I cannot feel sorry...

Last Night of Madam Chin felt like a traditional Chinese drama watched by my late grandmother. Okay, I didn't really mind too much about what my late paternal grandmother borrowed on betamax back then. I only later found out they were the oldies like Liu Xuehua and Qin Han. Before Last Night of Madam Chin, I saw the Qiong Yao series called "Romance in the Rain" (2001 version) and later saw pieces of the 1986 version and read a synopsis. Last Night of Madame Chin had a very powerful effect with its melodramatic plotline. Although I didn't like the sad setting, it was easy to appeal to my emotions. As a sucker for melodramatic plotlines, tears and romance stories, this drama gave me the impression Qiong Yao wrote it . Even if the novel was written by Pai Hsuen Yung, it felt like a Qiong Yao drama with how it was written. I could talk about a bit how my emotions were with the love story that pissed off my mother. It was written that a rich banker's son Yueru falls...

Karma hits hard doesn't it?  Lu Zhenhua married and divorced eight women, he married a woman young enough to be his daughter namely Wang Xueqin.  How did this karma work?  Although it wasn't the main focus but I thought this was a plot driver in the whole series.  Both the 1986 and 2001 version kept the affair, although both had slight variations. In both the 2001 and the 1986 version, Yiping discovered the whole dirty affair.  This was going to be a secret weapon considering that she's hated Xueqin so much.  At the same time, Zhenhua was getting what he deserved but not that I condone to Xueqin's two timing.  I thought this was an affair that really got everything to fix with the theme, "What goes around, comes around." 1986 Yiping (the Yiping that made me wish 2001 Yiping were acted by Barbie Xu instead of Vicki Zhao) went out with Erjie for ulterior motives.  Both versions wanted to uncover the whole dirty affair between Xueqin and her lo...