Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

  Is it me or do I have now an obsession with K-Drama under the law and order genre? I did enjoy Tunnel even with the obvious unrealistic twist. I'd say that Voice also had a fictitious concept which was placed as a disclaimer in the beginning. Now, it's time for me to check out Partners for Justice on Netflix which has two seasons. I watched both seasons of Voice and now I'd like to check this out. Yup, no eye candy here unlike While You Were Sleeping , Kill It , and Justice  but it's really an interesting story.  The story involves the collaboration and rivalry between a prosecutor and a forensic doctor. The main character Baek Bom (Jung Jae Yong) is a forensics doctor who's known as Grumpy Baek Bom due to his disposition. Baek Bom is someone who uses some unorthodox tactics and is pretty anti-social. Meanwhile, Eun Sol (Jeung Ju Mi) is a rookie prosecutor who's got family issues, highly intelligent, and she's one who really emphasizes the importance of pe...

Granted, I don't really see Korean dramas in their most recent all the time so I decided to backtrack and watch some older ones. Before Rugal - there was the OCN sci-fi K-Drama Tunnel which is a bizarre mix of time-travel and realistic crime drama. Rugal was bordered on sci-fi, Manga style, and Hollywood-style action. Tunnel has a time set between 1986 and 2016 while the series was broadcast in 2017 - that would be three years ago! The series was hoping to replicate the success of Voice which I've watched the first two seasons. However, the brutality of this series is far tamer than what Voice offered but not without its realistic dealings with serial killings. What was entertaining was that the hero Park Kwang Ho (and another person with the same name exists too) was sent to 2016. He's in a world that was shaped due to his absence when he disappeared trying to chase serial killer Mok Jin Hoo. I thought Jin Hoo's actor looked familiar - he was actually the same actor wh...

I admit that I was more into the realistic fiction in K-Drama. It's because I wanted to learn about the world of criminology without having to get a degree to know about it! I was having a struggle with what I wanted to watch. There's some interesting K-Drama on the top ten of Netflix. I even think I might watch some J-Drama such as Emergency Interrogation Room or Border . There's also some horror-fiction such as Alice in Borderland from Japan or Uncanny Encounter and Sweet Home from South Korea. So, I thought that my recent obsession with police drama while desiring something obviously fictional has kicked in. So, I did watch Rugal which actually could've been better. So, I decided to give Tunnel a shot after several choices on Netflix . Yup, I might also decide to do the same with Zenkaiger  because I may want to focus on other stuff.  Tunnel's storyline takes place in 1986 and 2016. The story has a detective named Park Kwang Ho (Choi Jin Hyuk) who gets transporte...

I wonder if I'm just being biased or not considering January 3, 2021, was the 10th birthday of  Dream High - a series that was shown on ABS-CBN (dubbed) and I later watched it on Netflix (subbed). I was thinking about the time I wasn't so much into Korean series (yet) until I felt Japanese entertainment was on the decline or that I just needed a break from it. I can't deny that Dream High is obviously J-Drama inspired. They even had episodes in Japan and their theme song even has a Japanese cover. The series is pack full of Japanese influence and K-Pop is obviously inspired by J-Pop. Though, I'd rather really use Dream High to bash one Nickelodeon show that I used to watch until it got so stale. That show is Victorious  and I feel like Stephen Hillenburg did the RIGHT THING to leave Nickelodeon.  How does Dream High actually end up making it shine better than Victorious ? One thing I really hate (now) about American humor is how often character development is ignored. I...

  There have been some South Korean crime drama I've enjoyed. Some of them were rather intense like Kill It, IRIS , Stranger , Voice ,   and Justice . Others were on the simpler side like Pride and Prejudice and You're All Surrounded . Live is a police-themed K-Drama that focuses on the daily lives of policemen. The whole series tries to show how young cops try to struggle to stay on the force, a police couple's midlife crisis that temporarily ends in a divorce, and some situations that call beyond the manual to determine something. How does Live get into the daily lives? You've got a love triangle and some love stories involved. You have main character Han Jung Oh (Jung Yu Mi) whose heart is torn between two colleagues. However, the love triangle is hardly focused on. There's also unfortunate butt monkey cop Yeom Sang Soo (Lee Kwang Soo) who has feelings for Jung Oh and would be willing to let her go if it makes her happy. Oh Yang Cheon (Bae Sung Woo) a police capt...

  I was thinking about the flak that Kamen Rider Saber has been receiving . Right now, I feel it's rightly so considering that a lot of stuff that is best "saved for last" is suddenly thrown at full decibel. How in the world are we suddenly getting this and that?  Until now, I do agree with what  Dryed Mangoez  has to say about Saber : I think Saber‘s biggest problem right now is its inability to juggle all these characters and all the different plot threads they’ve started, but have yet to expand upon. The villains are very underdeveloped. There’s no real endgame even being teased. And all we have so far is all these characters who are likeable, but are thrown into very convoluted situations that either don’t make sense or don’t illicit any strong feelings. I do agree the characters are likable. It's what actually gave a changed mind over Ressha Sentai ToQGer - something that didn't happen immediately probably due to taste fatigue. Right now, I think I may have K...

  This week's Start-Up final episodes really get what's the typical happy ending. Won In Jae finally gets her adoption dissolved before moving back to her biological family. I guess her stepfather wasn't so ideal after all, right? Also, I just find it weird that Pi Jyeung just keeps handing over Dal Mi to Do San on a silver platter. WTF is wrong with the other guy being too passive? It just gets rid of the thrill factor when you think about it. Love or just stupid? I can't decide on that! In Jae manages to move in back with her paternal grandmother after her reconciliation with her sister Dal Mi. The finale arc just gets into the typical side of winning the competition. There's not much of a challenge either in their dream of creating the self-driving car and the like. I feel the finale arc doesn't do much of a story in contrast to a lot of past series I've watched. For instance, While You Were Sleeping was busy building up tensions that eventually got Yo Bu...