busy busy...but never missing my korean variety

Been doing some interviews for some temp job and its taking up so much effort! Hopefully will get to land on something soon, else its annoying to think of the time wasted.

Barely have enough time.
Havent caught the last ep for Liar Game, havent start on Code Blue S2. Arrrrhhhh.

Been holed up at home watching Korean variety shows.
My two favs are "let's go Dream Team Season 2" and "2days 1 nite"

In "Let's go S2", I simply love watching Minho from Shinee...yes I have said this before but saying it again, he is just so damn adorable! I just love him giving it all and his very innocent childlike expression...hard to imagine him as being part of a boyband pop idol...he just come across like any atheletic..he is the fittest of them all and the most determined! There is a site that has all the eps but not all are eng sub... its a pity coz I would love to flag this to anyone who cares to listen...its good! [link]

In "2 days 1 nite", it's sooooo hilarious that it never fail to crack me up in each episode. Not only that, each episode shows different beautiful scenery sites in various parts of Korea. Some scenes are amazing!

The guys's banter, tricks on each other, and even simple flat liners with a poker face just tickles my funny bone! Each guy has his own personality and put together in a pot, the chemistry is explosively good!

I couldnt wait to see what pranks they play on each other and what they will do not to get the penalties...

They are men but they remind u of boys.... its just so fun to watch 6 guys on the road having a good time yet never failing to entertain their viewers...I love the side captions that always make fun of the guys. Poor seunggi, i think he is the sweetest but I always get the sense he is being "bullied" by the rest. Jiwon and MC Mong are the "wild mischieous duo" who are always up to mischief when paired together... Su Guen is another one that cracks me up everytime esp when he fail teh challenges such as forgetting his multiplication table with that "Really?!" expression....ahhh...so much to say but difficult to describe jokes...I dunno if there are anywhere that has the full running epsiodes but here's one sub video i found (link) to bait u:P

J-Music: Let it Go 「Yuna Ito」

I have grow rather fond of Yuna Ito after owning her last "HEART" album featuring "Endless", a theme song from Nana Movie. (Actually I heard the album before watching the movie) *Awww she is sooooo sexy & pretty!!!*

So comes her recent album "Let it Go", and I thought of checking it out. There are 4 tracks, 2 songs and 2 instrumental. While Let it Go is fast becoming my favorite, I still have doubts about Happy days which hasnt quite charmed me yet.

Well, Jpop lovers, here is "Let it Go" to share. [dwnld]

誰を信じて歩けばいいの？
都会の中 さ迷ってた Everyday
いつになれば心が晴れるの?
曇り空に 問いかけてた Always

運命が引き寄せた
君に出逢わなければ
今も心閉ざして
不器用な私のまま
過ごしていただろう

君がいれば生きていける
君がいれば怖くないから いつでも
その笑顔 抱きしめたい
気持ちが強くさせるの
一人きりじゃ生きられない
一人きりじゃ何も生まれない
二人なら いくらでも乗り越えていけるよ

甘える事なんてできなくて
誰といても 意地張ってた Everyday
弱い所なんて見せられない
どうすればいいのか
悩んでいた Always

手を掴んだら離さない
君に出逢ってからは
世界が変わったように
街の景色も全て 違って見えるよ

君がいれば大丈夫と
本当にそう思えるから いつでも
そばにいて 抱きしめたい
気持ちが強くさせるの
例え 離れてしまっても
例え 失いそうになっても
二人は きっと何処かで繋がってるよ

愛の言葉の意味は
まだわからないけれど
ただ一つ言えるのは
溢れそうなくらい 愛しさ感じてる

Let it go, Let it go,
I know you have to go,
Let it go, Let it go,
You’re always on my mind いつでも
そばにいて 抱きしめたい
気持ちが強くさせるの
例え 離れてしまっても
例え 失いそうになっても
二人の 愛は消えないから
奇跡は続いてくから
永遠を信じているから

K-Music: I hope (FT Island)

Those who read my earlier sharepost will know that "I Hope" is my current fav track from FT Island's recent "Double Date" album release. It's hip, its catchy, funky and happy!

The MV is quite cute, the boys are all quite cute but for me, esp Hongki is quite cute with his charm- the bashfulness, the smile, the wink and the adorable boyishness. Not to forget the pink striped vest that somehow reminds me of the cottoncandy man in carnivals..... I like the little boys (and girls) too, mimicking their "idols", esp the little one with the hairbrush pretending to be a singer like Hongki... :)

J-Music: ふたつの唇「EXILE」

Sorry to those who had wanted recaps for Tokyo Dogs but I had to disappoint u guys after 2 summaries. I didnt have time then and any spare was too caught up with YAB...
after than it was simply to hard to write so many accumulated episodes. The subs are out anyway....:)

To compensate, I am sharing the ending theme song instead.
Futatsu no kuchibiru「ふたつの唇」by EXILE (dwnld)

Anjell performing at SBS awards

I am such a sucker...when Nimy posted this "good stuff" for us all in the chatbox, I was resisting...resisting to get all suck in all over again with YAB. However, resistance is futile!!!

When I saw the "ANJELL" performance, my stupid lopsided grin was plastered all over my face AGAIN thruout the whole video! Will this addiction never stop?!!! When my Hyung-nim pops out, I was like "Ahhh Ahhhh Ahhhh"!!! When I saw the auntie spectator crowd using her bino for closeup view, I was thinking "I want that tooooo!" I am going crazy...yet despite knowing that, I still want to play the clip repeatedly for tonight! Hoooo Hoooo

Everyone looks sooo gooood there! Park looked sooooo pretty, Hongki looked and sound pretty cool there and Shinwoo, well shinwoo looks goregous pie (though a little awkward and only one not singing....).

The strange thing is apart from actual singing, I dont think they are actually playing the instruments either, save for Hong Ki who seemed to be the only one having the serious expression when playing the drumset. Everyone else seem to be play acting, esp shinwoo...haaaaa. So I assume the setup is just to match the YAB scene.

JGS is looking more and more polish and confident with each increasing performance and appearance. Canx wait to see his next performance, hopefully not in a period drama though because I dont quite get drawn in for those...

Incidentally, is it true that everyone in ANJELL except JGS won an award for YAB?

PS: Thanks Nimy for the treasure find!!!

E-Music: It's Only Christmas (Ronan Keating)

Xmas is over, yeah I know... but still wanna share this song "It's Only Christmas" by Ronan Keating.

It's a melancholic ballad from his latest album "Winter Songs" released last Dec. The poignant melody and lyrics struck a chord with me.

So here it is.
Dedicated to that special person, with fond memories...

Download

K-Music: FT island - Double Date

Just uploaded 3 of my current favourite tracks to share from FT Island's latest Double Date Album. Not sure if I like them as much as I did for "Missing you" from the last Jump album but the new tracks are still ok.

While many people may like the new track "Lie" (dwnld), I actually kinda prefer "Love letter" (dwnld). I found the latter to be more catchy and upbeat, which personally I found is more in line with the image of FTI. "Lie" is a tad melodramatic that brings to mind the sort of sad & cursed love drama.

Track 14 남의 속도 모르고 (dwnld) has quite a good electric guitar play in between and overall the track is pretty appealing in its own way too.

But my current favorite might be this "바래 I Hope" (Dwnld)

No matter, hope u guys enjoy the tracks as I do.

Credit: Music source from ihoneyjoo

Currently watching...

I finally found time to catch up on the first few ep of Liar Game season 2. It's up to ep #7 now so I have some marathon to do... Based on the first few epi I have seen, as usual, the "games" are still as intriguing and ingenius as ever, and Nao is less annoying as she was in season one.

Looks like my coming week isnt going to be as boring as I feared if this season lived up to my expectation as season one had... If u are a person who enjoys "Mind games", this is one drama for u (if u dont mind bearing with some annoying eccentric characters along with it)



Havent quite figured out why they even bother with Code Blue season 2, airing on 11th Jan 2010...I didnt even think season one was that great, but I suppose it is good news for yamapi fans...

Movie review: 500 days of summer..oh how I hated it

CAught 500 days movie on the plane back to Oz.

Frankly, I dont like it.
I dont like the script.
I dont like the actress.
I dont like the delivery.

It has a good concept but somehow the plot got lost and - the female character pissed me off. She is supposed to be some female version of cassanova who apparently seem to have no issues about sleeping around and breaking a guy's heart, just to fulfil her own selfish desire and motivation. When she gets sick of the guy, she just cast them aside with relative disdain. I found such attitude annoying, esp when the movie seem to have no reproach for such behaviour makes it appalling for me.

A movie is either to entertain or to educate. This story fulfils neither objective. It is not entertaining because the theme itself is too human drama or cutting too close to reality to be anything remotely funny. While there is a dose of reality that there are people - scumbags like that, what purpose is there to produce a movie delivering a known fact - that selfish people like that can theorise their behaviour with a callous attitude and disbelief in love and when it suits them, can easily turn around and say "Oh I am sooo converted". Bullshit. These people knows love exist but just are too cowardly to own up because they are afriad to face the possibility that there might not be that someone out there who shares the same chemistry with them. So rather than admitting they had failed in love, they rather pushed the blame to some quack whacky belief of not believing in love.

To the other point, there is absolutely nothing educational in this except that we know how used and abused this poor guy is. While it is true that most people will get sucked in to playing along with this "no label" friends with fringe benefit relationship, what is the story trying to tell us?That it is ok to be taken for a ride and treated like a fool if u ever find yourself in this situation, better to have love or never love at all right? Or for the weak hearted, avoid it like a plague because your future is written on the wall? The movie ending was weak, corny and pathetic. Autumn? A girl call autumn? Cheeeeeeesyyyyy!!!! Dont give me bull shit about "miracles" and everything is destiny..... there is no such thing and even if it is a hard sell about such fantasy, at least have the decency to package it nicely and deliver it with more conviction.....

This movie is nothing but an utter waste of time (and film) and as many other lame titles, should be flushed down the drain and be forgotten

Manga : Shiawase kissa sanchoume, Loving it...

Everytime I log in I feel a sense of guilt... like I should be doing some summary and not "chit chatting" away by myself... I mean who on earth wants to know what I am doing right? oh well, indulge me:)

The reason for my apparent "laziness" is due to my current obsession with the manga "shiawase kissa sanchoume"/ 幸福喫茶3丁目 (read here) while waiting patiently for skip beat to get more exciting. Skip Beat Chapt 151 is out but it's back to Love Me section plot again... so the interesting bit starts next chap out on 5th feb. I wish they would just focus on Ren and Shou.....otherwise I will get bored....

Back to SkS....must have mentioned somewhere last year how I love this manga "SKS" for its cute drawing. The story isnt the common "Leading girl" acts stupid/helpless and boy tries to rescue her sort of shoujo romantic. No No...I wont like such a wimpy plot. Rather in here, the storyboard is simple in Uru search for happiness. Not the sort of relationship love, but more of the all encompassing love from friends to family sort. Uru is kinda innocently simple, cute, helpful warm hearted with incredible strength.

Uru decided to give her mum and her new marriage privacy and hence she chose to shift out and exert her own independence by working in a dessert cafe Café Bohneur. The 2 leading guys (Shindou - the guy who made the lovely dessert and the other ichirou who needs to be fed constantly or will fall asleep) are both cute in their own subtle ways (looking out for Uru).

I love their simple quirky friendship and their character development. Shindou is an abandoned child at 6yr by his mother and had been plagued by nitemare over it. He was adopted by his current foster father who owns the cafe and indirectly influenced shindou to be the excellent dessert cake patisserie. Outwardly looking unfriendly and unsociable to people who doesnt know him (and his constant thundering over a snoozing Ichirou) , Uru was able to slowly draw out his inner gentle and warmth with her cheerfulness. The other employee Ichirou is a very smart guy but has a weird "illness" , where he needs to be fed constantly at a regular interval or he will just fall (literally) asleep. So much so that he even had to retain a year because he slept too much.... As the story develops, we found out why Icihrou developed this "illness" at childhood. We also witness his emerging feelings for Uru and how his uncanny intuitive sense will see him "popping" up unexpectedly, thus foiling Shindou's foster ongoing plan to get Shindou and Uru together / date privately. There is no animousity between the 2 guys and we see when Shindou really needs comfort, Ichirou had no qualms in "loaning" Uru to console Shindou.

Other characters such as Ichirou's little 6yr old brother and sakura the little 6yr old sister of a "rival" Japanese confectionary store are also both adorable.


I find it hard to explain further what draws me. Maybe its the human dynamics that made it warm and fuzzy, maybe its all the funny expressions that had kept it going for me. I especially like the stickman drawings that are intermittenly inserted that makes me laugh...

I am now up to Vol 13 - chpt 70, with 2 more volume to completion but canx find them online yet even though the raw Jap manga is already completed. The story is at an exciting crux where another mysterious famous dessert franchise boss is "blackmailing" / "toying" with Uru simple trusting nature. Now that he discover's Shindou liking for Uru, what other mean tactics will he use to try to "destroy" Uru's happiness and the love and protection she is basking in? Also, I am keen to find out wht Shindou's mum abandon him, and who exactly is his foster father....

If you like the drawing of Skip Beat, I think u will love this as well.

I heard Tokyo Pop has finally recently licensed this series. I wonder if they will make an anime or a drama series out of this because I can see the potential in this. However, I doubt the drama will be as humourous as the manga itself because some expressions made by the stickman are just hard to duplicate with a real person....

Kbs award and happy 2010!!

Recovering from my Xmas trip and a very hapy new year to everyone.

It's really hard to believe a year has gone by so quickly and for some of u folks, having "stuck" around with me for a while now... It's an incredible feeling when realization hit me. Thank u so much for your friendship across the virtual space !!! Guess my new year resolution is to try to work harder on summaries or just plain dissecting all those good dramas to come!!! *rub hands in gleeful anticipation*

Xmas wasn't great because it was pissing down on my lovely hold. Rain clouds swept across the country, admittedly providing much needed rain to the farmland. So at least a fraction like the farmers are overjoyed I supposed. Hence I didn't get to hang out by the beach nor had my swim...couldn't go for my coastal jog either. Sigh. But the good thing about being stuck indoor had me finished my j butcher series. I decided to break my piggie and splurge on the new release hard cover first lord fury. Since it was last of the series
I figured it was worth shortening the one year agonizing wait for that extra 30 big Oz bucks...

The ending was good but not as exciting as I hope for. For the record, it is not disappointing. I just felt it could have more twist to the battles and more scheming, rather than having s ome characters ending so predictably happy ending. Perhaps I expect too much or the one year wait for princep fury paperback dampen the climax for me. As such my advice is if u don't want to buy the hard cover then it might be better for u to wait for the whole series to b out in paper back before u get started so that u don't lose the whole momentum like I did.

Back to present.
Been watching the kbs awards on tv. I got a bit bored with the drama award but the music concert is way cool!! 2pm won something with highest vote for their track- again and again.

That aside.
All the hottest Korean groups get to perform and 2hrs still going strong. Luckily I didn't miss the act by shinee but the cam man didn't zoom in long enuff on my Minho...sigh. Some of the group outfit are hilariously hideous. What is that ghastly gold bronze jacket don by 2pm? And what is with that ugly hairdo? So obviously the hair stylist is trying to model it after JGS aka HTK but failing miserably. no one can pull that hair style like JGS looking so suave. Not being bias but the pulled back pinned hair and tied up at the back is strictly reserved for a few only. The 2pm boys should stick to hairdo like the super junior guys.

It's astounding how many groups and solo artists there are in Korea. This concert can go on for hours and hours man, with everyone belting out their famous popular hits. Strangely I ve not seen any tracks by SS501 yet. Not sure if I
had them?

Ok I shouldn't spend so much time on my iPhone. Oh did I say I got a new iPhone for prezzie? Heeee... Yeah I have been on Santa good little girl list! Ha

happy 2010 people- may it be a more peaceful and more disaster free year ahead for us all...

XoXo