Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

I guess I'm now a sucker for cop drama, right? After the love story genre, I felt that legal drama can be more interesting. Though, there will be some bad eggs like how I dropped Somebody because of how boring it can get. Yeah, I dropped Squid Game but because of the annoying "main hero". I decided to watch Bad and Crazy which is crazy but definitely not bad. In fact, it's more than not bad. It's kind of good especially with the choreography, action, and the gray morality of some people.  I was reminded of the time I watched the Taiwanese cop series, Black and White . Black and White did have Vic Zhou with a vague morality of a police officer. Here, actor Lee Dong Wook, who's as old as Vic, while this place took place in 2021. Dong Wook's character is named Ryu Soo Yeol whose birth name was In Jae Hui. Soo Yeol is pretty much an ambitious cop who has corrupt tendencies. Black and White also had Vic's character of Chen Zaitian as a cop of vague morality...

Today is the ninth day of the Chinese lunar calendar. The birthday of the Jade Emperor would fall on that day. It would be time to analyze the role of the Jade Emperor in the novel Journey to the West . The story would have the journey from China to India to gain the Buddhist sutras. An earlier portion of the novel took place 500 years before the legendary journey. Yes, 500 years which is the amount of time needed to win ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments from the Mortal Kombat game. In Mortal Kombat, the Jade Emperor would be the highest-ranking Elder God, the one who'd call the shots, and have the Mandate of Heaven.  However, Journey to the West presents a curious case of the Jade Emperor's defeat. The defeat was so bad that they needed the help of the Amitabha Buddha to defeat Sun Wukong . How could Sun Wukong defeat the Elder Gods? Was it because Sun Wukong ate the peaches of the Queen Mother of Heaven, the wife of the Jade Emperor? Lao Tzu tried to burn Sun Wukon b...

  It's the Korean New Year also too, right? I did write an article where Mandarin-language shows should be made more accessible to non-Mandarin speakers . After all, Mandarin is already the second largest language spoken in the world. Meanwhile, Korean is only in the Top 20 but not in the Top Ten. Korean has 77 million speakers. Mandarin has 1,107 million speakers which are actually 1.107 billion speakers. Granted, there are more ethnic Chinese than Korean in the world. Hopefully, there will be enough South Koreans born for the next generation.  Chinovelas became the thing not with Amazing Twins but with Meteor Garden . The judgment tablets of Judge Bao were soon replaced by the red tags of Judge Daoming Si. Meteor Garden (2001) became the new show for the Chinese Sunday Theater on ABiaS-CBN. GMA-7 had its own Chinese Sunday Theater when they also aired Lavender and My MVP Valentine . However, we know how South Korea became more aggressive with Japan in the world market. ...

I was looking at the surge of popularity of K-Drama has defeated J-Drama. The blame can't go to K-Drama but to Japanese companies who are trying to become more exclusive to Japan (such as I feel Toei Ltd. is DOING THAT). However, I decided to Google the 20 most spoken languages in the world and you'll find Korean at the bottom part. The second most spoken language today in the world is MANDARIN and not Korean. That's what probably caused the Pinyin system to get popularized as it's easily more accessible than the traditional BOPOMOFO. Instead of learning new characters, people start to learn BOPOMOFO as bpmf with an entirely new table. True, misreading happens AT FIRST (such as how Ken Zhu and Vic Zhou's names were often misread) but one can understand pinyin with practice. Filipino speakers may even notice the use of tones kind of similar to the Tagalog language subject. As the Chinese New Year approaches this January 22 (and it's the year of the rabbit, Cream...

I remembered watching the crime movie Night in Paradise . This one has Kim Seol Hyun who I first saw in the sci-fi crime drama Awaken . Now, it's time to see her in a realistic crime movie. It would be hard to discuss without doing some spoilers. I'll try to keep the spoilers as low as possible. This movie is pretty much a thriller. One man named  Kim Byeong So (Sol Kyung Gu) is a retired serial killer with Alzheimer's. Taking care of him is his daughter Kim Eun Hee played by Seol Hyun. This is one film where some mysteries unfold in a nearly two-hours run. Kim Nam Gil plays the seemingly innocent but murderous Tae Joo. Beong So is pretty much a serial killer and vigilante rolled into one. Nam Gil murdered his abusive father as a teenager. As time passed, Beong Soo is pretty much more concerned about punishing others who he believe should pay the price. Beong Soo's vigilante justice does come with a price. Along the way, Beong So's degenerative disease continues to ...

I remembered watching Monkey Magic which lasted for only 13 episodes. It could've been good if a second season came after that. Which Buddha is which? Some may assume that it was Gautama Buddha who subdued Sun Wukong. Yet, the divine power of this Buddha has been rather immense. This Buddha made Wukong a bet. Wukong could rule the Heavens IF he could escape the Buddha's hand. Sun Wukong infamously peed on the hand of Buddha without knowing it. The five pillars were Buddha's fingers. After losing the bet, Wukong was locked up for 500 years. Later, Sun Wukong was released by the monk Xuanzang. Sun Wukong was to take part in the Journey to the West. Wishbone (RIP to the dog) later had this Buddha of Western Paradise. This would be the Amitabha Buddha. In Indian legends, we also have Vishnu as the one who oversees the Vaikuntha. Vishu is said to have ten legendary avatars. Vishnu took many forms to defend humanity. Later, Vishnu was said to have become Sakyamuni who was also Si...

J-Drama or K-Drama? There was a time I actually preferred Japanese entertainment over Korean entertainment. However, 2013 started to change my tide when Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger was just plain obnoxious IMHO. Sure, there's been newer Super Sentai series that have been good and I'm enjoying Avatar Sentai Donbrothers . I've been watching a couple of Korean crime dramas. Most of the police K-Dramas I preferred were realistic fiction. Though, some of them were obviously sci-fi like Awaken and Tunnel . I did watch some Tokusatsu cop-themed shows such as Winspector , Solbrain , Exceedraft , Janperson , and Kamen Rider Drive . I felt watching some realistic crime drama from Japan might do a bit of a change.  I decided to pick up Crisis: Social Security Squad . Yes, we've got Shun Oguri who played Arsene Lupin III from the Lupin III movie. He was also the main protagonist of Border where he gained the ability of a necromancer. In this one, nothing supernatural. Here, we have a s...