Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Credits to actor Kohei Murakami for this photo I was running out of ideas until I realized that it'd be Halloween tomorrow. Yes, it's time for a good scare and I decided to revisit Toshiki Inoue's previous works. Inoue was an important secondary writer during the Hirohisa Soda era of Super Sentai . Later, Inoue was tasked as the head writer of Chojin Sentai Jetman - the series that saved Super Sentai  from cancellation. Oh yeah, I could remember the statement he was called the Frank Miller of Tokusatsu - for the good he did he also got so bad. Though, I confess I'm enjoying Avatar Sentai Donbrothers and was wondering why didn't Toei Ltd. assign him as a secondary writer for Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters after he wrote one episode for Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger . Before Kamen Rider was revived - there was the cult hit Changerion . Yes, that same show where Takeshi Hagino played a hero before the role the Kamen Rider Ryuki villain, Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja, populariz...

  Certain shows with the same title and not the same as the Glitch Australian TV series - also available on Netflix . The two shows don't share the same plot so the comparison isn't going to work. Instead, maybe one should instead compare it to Close Encounters or the famed X-Files TV series from the West. We know how East meets West and West meets East happens, right? The show has both action girls, Jeon Yeo Bin (Hong Ji Hyo) and Jin A Nana (Heo Bo Ra) in one show. Though, Nana doesn't show up until the second episode and she's RIGHTFULLY a secondary character. I never had much admiration for Nana as a main character (such as in Oh My Ladylord ) but she does well as a secondary character. I've seen some shows with clear references to Western media. A good example is how Partners for Justice is clearly inspired by the documentary series Forensic Files . It seems part of the concept takes with X-Files except the latter had 200+ seasons. I'd really not bother to w...

  My Name is obviously a series NOT for children. If you have Netflix - you may notice the warning that it's definitely going to contain questionable scenes. The warning contains scenes of sex and violence are already placed for the viewer's discretion. If you're not comfortable reading this post - avert! It's amazing how Han So Hee went from her soft side in Nevertheless to becoming a violent fighter in My Name . Her character as Yoon Ji Woo (who changes her name) seeks to find her father's killer. Yeah, her father died on her 17th birthday. Not a very good day, right? So Hee shows off her moves that I felt would make you think twice before molesting her. Towards the finale, there's that controversial bed scene. For a bit of warning - So Hee goes TOPLESS in this scene though her full breasts can't be seen. What would be interesting is that it's said So Hee was allegedly forced into the nude scene. An explanation later may end up clarifying that.  KPop P...

As Christmas is around the corner, I still remembered one time I didn't want to grow up or still browsed for Bandai merchandise. Yeah, you know normies vs. "mutants", right? I remembered one time I went to a toy store. It was the time when that rather bad adaptation called Saban's Masked Rider (preferably called Mashed Rider to differentiate it from the real term) was there. There were some toys of Mashed Rider sold alongside the Kamen Rider BLACK RX vinyl toys (which was the source material). The salesperson said one was Kamen Rider and the other was Masked Rider. That time, people never knew they were both synonyms to each other. There were also some Kamen Rider SD toys. It was also that time when IBC-13 aired Kamen Rider BLACK as MASKED Rider BLACK . Though, it could be erroneously captioned as MASK RIDER instead of the correct translation as Masked Rider. These terms tend to get confused. I even wonder why Toei Ltd. even allowed Saban Entertainment to use the term...

Kamen Rider Geats is pretty much like a Squid Game except it's got Kamen Rider Ryuki mixed into it. People by now know that I've had issues with Ryuki such as the bummer ending (which was clearly EXECUTIVE MEDDLING as neither Yasuko Kobayashi nor Toshiki Inoue would want it). Still, I felt Ryuki was that brave experiment but it spiraled out of control. Ryuki also introduced us to the movie-only what-if Kamen Rider named Miho Kirishima (acted by Natsuki Kato who also appeared in Hana Yori Dango ). The trend of female secondary Kamen Riders has been a good innovation. Except, I feel that a lead female Kamen Rider may not be so soon unless they want to create a spin-off for women. In this case, we have Neon Kumara who's a daughter of a rich family. I didn't want to write episode reviews until this one struck my cord. It had me thinking of Gougou Sentai Boukenger with one character - SAKURA NISHIHORI. Sakura revealed she was the only daughter of a rich family. Yeah, pretty ...

I remembered dropping Squid Game because I found the "hero" to be rather annoying. This one is an interesting mini-series that lasted for only six episodes. I'm reminded of how My Name only lasted for eight episodes. This one has some true-to-life inspirations such as how the late Jo Bong Haeng (a Korean drug lord who hid in Suriname) inspired the series' more evil villain, Jeon Yeo Hwan (Hwang Jung Min). The setting is Suriname, a country located in South America. Also, the series does have some controversy because of how negatively Suriname was portrayed. Yet, the setting as dictated by the cellphones and equipment seems to be in the late 2000s. Yeah, I remembered some of those fancier cellphones I wish I had but glad I never had them.  The story involves a frame-up. Is it me or am I becoming in love with such stories? One such story was Innocent Defendant when a man tries to clear his name of murdering his own family. Like Innocent Defendant , a man is wrongly fra...

Yup this might be the new thing several years later after this movie didn't do so well! It's the -ber months and for Filipinos - the countdown to Christmas begins, right? I was compelled to write this article when I felt that Kamen Rider may have become Bandai's "Turbo Man". For those who don't know "Turbo Man" - well it's a fictional action figure (which was later given limited releases by Funko and later had a Funko Pop doll) from the Jingle All the Way movie. It's when two fathers, Howard and Myron, both became entangled to find that Turbo Man doll which was the hottest Christmas toy. It just reminds me of how Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers once became that monster hit in 1993 (and before that, Haim Saban acquired the rights to produce X-Men: The Animated Series  in 1992).  In my years of blogging - I become critical towards Super Sentai after Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters . Okay, Power Rangers Megaforce SUCKS that that didn't mean that...