Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Sorry if I haven't been doing any episode reviews now. Real-life is getting tight especially with trying to recover after the storm. I decided to watch through whatever shows Netflix has rented. I found a couple of interesting crime dramas, I decided to watch this show while keeping in mind that Wallace Huo married Ruby Lin last 2016. This show has Ruby as the PRODUCER and the main lead. Wallace has been an important contributor though I love to mock how his face doesn't fit into ancient drama - he's too modern-looking!  Okay, the whole scene is HISTORICAL FICTION. However, there were the real Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period of 10th Century A.D. China. The story hast the rival kingdoms of Chu, Shu, and Northern Han. A love triangle is drawn while the story addresses how women were treated as "lower class" in China. A man could take as many concubines as he could while women were entitled to only one man. It was pretty much the culture of Imperial China. In ...

  SpikyTV I guess the series just kept us guessing, right? I finally got the chance to finish it after some busy nights. I was right that the killer was HANA (Esther Liu) BUT there's a twist - it was more of voluntary manslaughter than murder. Manslaughter is when one kills out of the heat of passion and that's what Hana did twice in the story. Hana had one against a client who used her and another against Sue after some unfortunate insanity attack. Hana ends up planning to hand herself over but her lover commits murder (towards a character named Chiang An) to protect her.  The whole psychological thriller for me just didn't match up to what I wanted. I guess I was too used to how Victim's Game rolled out. I was expecting some real murder scheme. Instead, it was the anti-climatic manslaughter where Hana decides to hand herself to the authorities after what she did. I really still think that the finale wasn't worth too much of the wait. I was expecting something gran...

I did watch both The Hospital and Doctor Prisoner . If I must confess, I once decided to skip watching The Hospital a decade ago because of a lack of eye candy. It's ironic really that I enjoyed Black and White even if there weren't any attractive women in them. Though, I also felt that the whole medical theme may not be that interesting. I decided to watch it and find out about the struggles of being a doctor. Some want to be a doctor for fame. Others want to save lives. There's the understanding of the struggles of the health worker - something I wanted to explore during the Legacy Virus pandemic last 2020. The struggle is very real as it's portrayed by various doctors. It tries to remain as realistic as possible unlike Doctor Prisoner which took place a few years ago. The cast didn't come cheap as Jerry Yan (as Dr. Su Yihua) gets alongside with Janine Chang (Guan Xin, his initial love interest), Leon Dai (Dr. Qiu Qingcheng), the late Richard Ng (Dr. Tang Guotai),...

  I remembered sorting through Netflix wondering what's the next Korean drama I'd be watching. Sure, I did watch Black and White and I'm trying to finish The Hospital for nostalgic reasons - all before F4 finally split like any other band. Instead, I decided to watch Doctor Prisoner which is a thriller medical drama. This one really was too interesting to watch that binge-watching it was definitely there! The story involves Dr. Na Ji Ye (Namnoong Kim) - a doctor who gets falsely accused of medical malpractice. This results in Dr. Na getting into the job of a prison doctor. The Taegang family gets so much power from the chemical firm to the hospital. This also involves the troublemaker Lee Jae Hwan (Park Eun Seok) who is but the son of a second marriage. I admit that Eun Seok really knows how to play the troublemaker well. The ongoing feud between Dr. Na and Jae Hwan really gets so well-portrayed. The beginning even has a severe car crash scene caused by Jae Hwan's rathe...

  While checking out Netflix - I decided to do some old school rewatching even if some newer drama such as Doctor Prisoner are still available. I do feel like I want to watch another Korean crime drama. However, I decided to rewatch Black and White which is my favorite F4 series of all time. I'm now currenlty watching The Hospital (White Tower) which starred Jerry Yan as a doctor along with Doctor Prisoner . Now, you may notice that certain cast members in The Hospital were given roles in Black and White . The one most noticeable is Janine Chang who played a medical role in both series. Vic Chou starred as the anti-hero Chen Zaitien. Now, I felt somebody should've played as Wu Yingxiong.  I thought Jerry Yan should've been Yingxiong instead of Mark Chao. Mark's able to do well as the hot-headed cop. Though, Meteor Garden tells you that both Jerry and Vic are good at playing clashing characters. Yingxiong pretty much feels like what if Daoming Si became a police officer ...

I guess I've become a sucker for Korean legal drama of many kinds, right? I remembered how watching Kill It was pretty much a start followed up by Justice . Both dramas were eye candy filled with Jin A Nana. Later, I watched Pride and Prejudice , Suspicious Partner ,  Witch in Court , Partners for Justice ,   and Voice . I did enjoy the time travel of Tunnel and the insane action of Lawless Lawyer . Now, Top Ten in Netflix Philippines has Juvenile Justice --a fictional story that may make you question why juvenile justice happens in the first place. There's so many spoilers so if you haven't watched it--go watch it first! Judge Shim Yeo Seok (Kim Hye Soo) is a Miriam Defensor-Santiago type of character with her job. As a judge, I admire how she really means business especially in nailing down juvenile delinquents. Along with her is her subordinate Judge Cha Tae Joo (Kim Mu Yeol) whose actor also portrayed a detective in City of Evil . The two have conflicts along the way si...

I must admit that I hate it that Toei Ltd. could be trying to become even more "Japanese exclusive" - a move that might be detrimental to the company's future. In fact, I do get critical (at times) because not all change brings progress even if it's needed for progress. I was also a fan of Kamen Rider Drive while it's no secret that I found Shuriken Sentai Ninninger BORING. Ryoma Takeuchi got into a couple of projects after Drive such as Overprotected Kahako . Though, I decided to watch Love You as the World Ends which is a mix of several sources. It nearly reminds me of the Resident Evil franchise as a zombie virus hits. I wanted to watch All of Us are Dead but I decided to watch some Japanese shows for a change. I still feel Japanese have a stronger edge than South Koreans with TV drama. Though, Japan really should stop trying to make stuff "only for Japan". Good thing Netflix is showing Japanese shows though I wonder why Toei Ltd. hasn't allowed t...