Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Although I'm not such a big fan of Korean dramas but I cannot deny Brilliant Legacy was one series that got me haunted.  I remembered viewing this series under the title "Shining Inheritance" which for me, was a real charming series.  It presents a very three dimensional view of characters especially for Hwan (who goes from the character you hate to a character you'll love midway) to the villains who aren't exactly villains either.  So what made Brilliant Legacy fun to watch?  I simply focused too much on Hwan who goes from "Heck you deserve not to get your inheritance." to "Man, he deserves it." in a steady pace you can easily accept he's changing for better. What I liked about Brilliant Legacy was how Go Eunsung and Sun Woowhuan were acted by really great actors.  For one, Sun Woohwan or simply "Hwan" is acted by Lee Seunggi (he looks like the Japanese actor Hidenori Iura who played as Prince/Shuichi in Bioman) who really ca...

Kamen Rider Agito tempts me get Shakespearian with the question, "To evolve or not to evolve?" So what's the whole point? Agito is really a show with evolution written all over it. The tapestry apparently explains human evolution with two forces involved. The Overlord of Light and the Overlord of Darkness were responsible for overseeing human evolution. The tapestry has this supreme god ruling over mankind and out from them came the Lords and the humans. The Lords were once humanity's protectors. In the non-canon Kamen Rider Decade, the Lords were once enemies of the Grongi and created Kuuga as its champion. In the canon of Agito, the Lords were made to maintain humanity's balance so after they reached a certain stage of evolution, the Overlord of Darkness thought that it would be enough. But the Overlord of Light had other plans which caused the major conflict in Agito's story. Agito starts off with the story of murders of specific people. We don't k...

Just a bit of art here... Kamen Rider in the Heisei era started tackling human evolution, a topic not so touched upon in Kamen Rider Black. I did notice that while Kuuga had some hits on human evolution, the idea was taken into a huge leap in Kamen Rider Agito. Agito was a Kamen Rider series that focused on the concept of human evolution, except it dealt with it in a theistic manner. The beginning of Agito felt like a mixture of several Middle Eastern mythos like the Lords look like the gods of Egypt, the concept of dual forces (Light and Darkness represent both day and night) and the concept of man's evolution. The whole question in Agito between the two Overlords is... to evolve or not to evolve, that is the question. The Overlord of Light wished to bestow the power of Agito upon some people while the Overlord of Darkness viewed that human evolution had reached its peak. Kamen Rider Faiz was yet another series to tackle on the concept of evolution. Unlike Agito, Faiz foc...

Kamen Rider Agito has a very unique execution to an otherwise weird plot. Ryuki may have had potential but thanks a lot to executive meddling, the story couldn't go on to be better. So what do we think about Kamen Rider Agito's story? It's not a very typical Kamen Rider story of good vs. evil, rather we see a lot of complex characters along the way. Trying to understand the characters is no easy task in Agito. I mean, Shouichi the main protagonist has nothing known about his very past until later in the series. All that is presented (at first) is just your amnesiac hero who could transform into Agito. You do have the question of just who in the world is this guy and how did he get involved? Then you have Ryou who became Kamen Rider Gills, who again is another mysterious character who is involved in a very complicated case. While most Kamen Riders had some of their origins revealed at one to two episodes, we really don't know anything about the protagonist at first, ...

I was hesitant to watch Kamen Rider Drive because of Gen Urobuchi's masterpiece for Tokusatsu, Kamen Rider Gaim. Meanwhile, I'll admit that Riku Sanjo for me had miserably failed with Kyoryuger (which is a Sentai season I dislike) but Kamen Rider Drive itself presents a light-hearted police drama. While Kamen Rider W's main hero Shotaro was a protagonist, the hero Shinnosuke in this show is a police officer. I feel a bit of shades of Jiban except unlike Jiban, he is not a police officer revived as a cyborg. The whole start is Shinnosuke seems incompetent but he does have intuitive abilities while he is accompanied by his possible love interest Kiriko. The Drive belt was once formerly human called Krein Steinbelt but through some quack Toku science, the mind of the Drive belt is inside a machine. The Special Investigation Unit does not know of Shinnosuke's secret identity (shades of Jiban) nor Kiriko's involvement, or that of Rinna Sawagani being more than just yo...

Looking at "The Unforgettable Character", I thought the following would have been a badass cast for the remake... Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu as the leading cast. Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu have the charm of Qin Han and Liu Xuehua respectively. Barbie Xu doing her piano scene in Meteor Garden, I guess they could let her do the scene again (just dub over the song) and let her sing the songs. Jerry and Barbie could have made a great Lu Youwen and Tu Hsiaoshuang. Qin Han and Liu Xuehua could act as both of Jerry Yan's parents. It would be nice to have a leading couple of the original cast return to acting as parents of the leading guy. Qin Han is pretty much old enough to play Jerry Yan's father. Liu Xuehua paired up with Qin Han again in a way different scenario would still work out. It was really a great casting error to cast Tang Qi as Qin Han's grandmother (aging makeup was used on her), she could have been better cast as Jerry Yan's grandmother, Qin Han's MOT...

I remembered the time I watched Lavender which starred Tammy Chen.  While Tammy Chen (who's getting married this year to a plastic surgeon named Xue Boren), I did think about Jerry Yan and Tammy Chen were rumored to get paired.  So I'd like to share my thoughts if this could have worked out. My impression on Tammy Chen is that she's pretty and adorable but she's not that good with her acting.  In Lavender, she is easily overshadowed by Penny Lin who can freaking act.  I mean, Penny Lin looks mean but she can freaking act.  No matter what role she is in whether it was Dolphin Bay or my favorite role of hers as Fei Yang in 100% Senorita, I couldn't help but clap to her performance.  Tammy Chen is pretty bland for some of her episodes. So Jerry Yan can act but the effect will just be like in "Loving Never Forgetting" that is Jerry Yan will overshadow his leading lady.  While Jerry Yan and Barbie Xu had a chemistry because both of them can act like Qi...