Sean Akizuki's East Asian Drama and Movie Blog

Is it me or am I addicted to Korean crime drama these days? Japanese crime drama can be good. However, I feel that the Korean way of filming and narrating crime dramas is better. I couldn't exactly explain it. South Korea is known to have strict gun control. This is a great debate for gun control. There are people in this story who say free guns. The others are against free guns. I, for one, believe in strict gun control, that NOT ANYONE should be allowed to own a gun.  The story isn't so black and white either. What makes a drama compelling isn't always some who's Pure Evil. No, instead, the antagonist Moon Baek (Kim Young-Kwang) isn't all in black and white. The guy's motive isn't power. The main character Lee Do (Kim Nam-Gil) is a police officer who's seen so many losses due to unrestrained usage of guns. Does a bad childhood justify a terrible present? Lee Do had a bad childhood but was given proper therapy. Moon Baek never had the proper support -- ...

I DON'T GIVE UPDATES. Instead, I choose to REACT TO UPDATES. Blogging should just be viewed as a sideline hustle and nothing more. I had updates on Kamen Rider Zeztz some time ago. I didn't know how to process my mind, especially I'm not that big into Tokusatsu (in general) these days. IMHO Kamen Rider Gavv isn't exactly entertaining me as much -- it's almost the same as how Kamen Rider Wizard is also pretty much another low-tier show. Yeah, JUNKO KOMURA, and right now, I feel like Lupinranger vs. Patranger had a lot of lost potential. I might write a terrible review on Gavv's missed potential or I'll probably need to rewatch it. Right now, I feel like I've hit the  Kamen Rider taste fatigue zone for the nth time. The last time it happened was when I took a slowdown from Kamen Rider Zi-O . I was looking at the updates from The Tokusatsu Network . This is also the plot according to UkiyaSeed , one of the many sites where I get updates from. As always, tak...

Today Online I wrote about how I wanted Jolin Tsai to play the late actress Anita Mui . Was it because Jolin didn't speak fluent Cantonese that she couldn't be used? I only got more familiar with Anita's music after she died. Now, I recall I heard Anita's name when she already had cervical cancer. It was in 2000 when Anita's sister Ann died. Jolin also has a sister, referred to as Jo Tsai (Tsai Minmen), who almost looks like Ann herself -- although I doubt that's her real name. A sad reality is that the circumstances of the Mui sisters and the Tsai sisters were too different. The Anita film had one emotional scene. Ann was seen talking about her diagnosis with cervical cancer. Even worse, Anita lost contact with her nephews -- Pan Wenhao and Pan Jinhao. Both were seven and five when their mother Ann died. However, Ann's husband Pan Lide (Lap Tak Poon in Cantonese) took the children to Canada. Sadly, Anita died without being able to see her nephews. I feel li...

Drama Beans I decided to watch the Korean drama Karma . Crime drama has its own way of being appealing yet frightening. I decided to put some spoilers because some things were just OH SO SATISFYING. The whole K-Drama has some villains who pay for their crimes -- in the most gruesome ways. It's got some questions like, "If I my revenge then what?" It's the question that nags the mind of Dr. Lee Ju Yeon (played by Park Min-A). It's because Lee Ju Yeon was victimized by gang rape as a teenager. Ju Yeon wants revenge. Would she pursue the revenge or not? The criminal elements here are downright gritty. You've got an evil landlord (and he's apparently a Karma Houdini, so maybe we'll need a second season to kill him off) and his organ harvesting. The true main antagonist is Kim Beon Jun -- a man who stole the identity of another crook known as Park Jae Young. It's nice to actually have Park Sae Hoo play a villain -- after his role as a delinquent in Squi...

Korea Herald I could say it's easy to be obsessed with crime drama . I watched Innocent Defendant during the Legacy Virus pandemic. I'd say that watching Give Up Tomorrow -- a documentary on the Chiong Sisters' MISHANDLED case gave me an interest in legal dramas. What will you do if you're actually an innocent defendant? This crime drama made me think about what Paco Larranaga and Hubert Webb went through -- being charged over a crime they COULD'VE NOT COMMITTED. The main character, Goh Jeong-woo (Byun Yo-han), was mistakenly charged with murdering two of his classmates. Several years of his life wasted over a crime HE DIDN'T COMMIT. A public that still believes in the trial by publicity. If it wasn't Jeong-woo, then who murdered two of his classmates? It gets difficult to talk about the situation WITHOUT the Walking Spoilers involved. It's because a good crime drama knows how to hide things and slowly unravel them. It's difficult to talk about who ...

Countless times, I tend to watch something NOT for the plot but for the attractive actress. It should be strange that I dropped Power Rangers Megaforce despite its attractive females. I watched Doctor Prisoner partly because of Kwon Nara. However, a good plot always overrides a pretty face. I was feeling down and thought watching Resident Playbook would give me some mindless fun. However, like any good show with a pretty lady, the pretty lady is but a BONUS TO THE SHOW. I'm not too fond of medical dramas. I watched The Hospital starring Jerry Yan. I don't feel too compelled to rewatch it. However, I rewatched Black and White starring Vic Zhou because of the PLOT. I ended up liking Doctor Prisoner because of is thriller setting. However, watching the melodrama of Resident Playbook got me to think about the difficulty of the OB/GYN residents. Such is the case of resident doctor Oh Yi Young -- as played bo Yoon Jung!  There are a lot of details to pay attention to. Yoon Jung'...

What I found weird was that F4 led me to listen to the music of the late Teresa Teng. F4 was also the reason why I became a fan of Jolin Tsai -- once dubbed the Britney of Taiwan though I prefer to call her Madonna of Taiwan. Take note that I have nothing against Louise Wong and she still did the part well. However, I felt that someone else could've played the late actress. That actress is Taiwanese actress Jolin Tsai.  It was because of Jolin Tsai that I learned to appreciate Anita Mui's music. I only listened to Anita's songs after she died on December 30, 2023. It was my time to appreciate more of the Cantonese language and its songs.  Before that, I saw Jolin Tsai perform the song "Love Love Love" on MYX -- which is a cover of "Stop Stop Stop" by Nu Virgo. It was easy to see why Jolin was compared to Britney. However, the more I saw her, the more I thought about Madonna instead. There were several other songs, but her song "Love Love Love" ...