Monday, June 14, 2010

J-Drama: Zettai Reido

Counting down to my second last week at work! Yiiiipppppeeee!

Lacking better romantic drama to watch, and still waiting for the latest episode of Coffee House, I started on J-drama :Zettai Reido, which is a Japanese version of CSI & Cold Case combined as one.

There is no major anchor star but having finished the first two episodes, I have to say this investigative drama is much better than Moon Lover. Crime suspense thriller isnt everyone's cup of tea and quite frankly, this isnt the best detective Japanese drama I have seen. However, at least it is not trying to fob its audience using big stars to cover the loust script as Moon Lovers did.

In Zettai Reido, Sakuragi Izumi (Ueto Aya) is a new police sergeant with the Special Investigations Office. The new investigation team uses DNA analysis and the latest in forensics science to investigate cold cases as well as cases suspected to involve missing persons.

Being newbie, Sakura still lacks the necessary experience in profiling and questioning, and appear to at times be clouded by her passions and feelings. However, that doesnt mean she is a clueless cop. So far the epi tries to balance her character with some level of intellect as required for a cop.

The only flaw I would find is that in the whole department of experience cops, how is it that she is the only one who ever thought of retracing/ rewalking the steps of the victims, and as such find clues to solve the cases. It's a little far stretch since you would expect some seniors with vast experience to have thought of that...

However all in all, still an entertaining seriers to kill time and a little less annoying than Moon Lovers, which incidentally is seemingly seeing a premature "death" this coming week.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Personal taste, not quite personal but good enough

Finally finished Personal Taste last night.

It's not great, but its not too bad. If only they bothered to improve the lead actress character a little bit more believeable and less naive. Are there really that many naive trusting ladies in this developed society?

The drama borders on irritation whenever she came on screen but I couldnt bear to skip the scenes with Minho. I have to admit, I like Lee Minho here way way more than when he was in Hana Dori (F4) . In here, he felt accessible and real, and gosh he does look good here. Must be the hairstyle. He isnt exactly dashing but his boyish smile can be rather captivating.... the scene where he was looking "lustfully" at the nape of her neck while she was blow drying her hair, and he kissed her...OMG....kill me. I can hardly breathe.

The execution of the drama shooting isnt quick pace enough and the ending felt abit lame. I didnt think the sleeping together scene was necessary and I actually fast forward the whole kissing scene. Perhaps my faint heart couldnt bear to see him getting all erotic, leaving my imagination at work! Nooooooo...haaaa

And did i fast forward too much because I didnt understand how did his mum come round suddenly to liking the gf again? I thought she was dead against it and suddenly she accepted the situation as if it wasnt a big deal after the fuss that she rather die etc etc than see her son with a woman who had anything to deal with the traitors? Plus, Minho promised his mum he would get the house back...errr...what happened to that? I doubt he can pull if off now since he has reach some sort of common undestanding with the ex-rival...

All in all, a good relaxing drama to watch when nothing else in the current drama realm has anythign else good to offer. The most interesting character for me was actually the Gay Art director. His straight face makes me laugh and his actions made him very endearing.

While it isnt an A-star celestial sort of drama, yet it made me more appreciative of Lee Minho as an potential actor. That he isnt just a pretty face. It must be his eyes that I am besotted with...

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Weekend rambling

Finally, the first weekend that I get to chill out!! Hence the chance to start blogging again!!!

I threw in my letter of resignation recently, counting down to the end of June. The feelin of anticipation and joy is indescripable. There are many reasons why I couldnt bear to continue anymore. Namely a newly onboard twat director pissed me off big time. If I havent been to Canada, or have a few Canadian friends, he would have seriously given canadians a bad name with his arrogrance and asians beneath westerners attitude. No offence to anyone but he comes across more like a high and mighty New yorker with that "All talk no action" behaviour than the usual friendly more-chilled Canadian outlook.

I just finished new ep 4 of Moon Lovers. Dont ask me why I am still watching it. I dont dislike it but I cannot say I like it either. Maybe I just want to see Kimura getting all hot and romantic with a Taiwanese model turn actress on screen character, or maybe I am still trying to fathom how he can still look so young and sauve? Or maybe, I am such bored.It's sad that seeing him getting all kissy actually did nothing for me, stirred no emotion at all. I wish I could say I was all excited, warm and fuzzy but I wasnt....

The storyline, no idea where its heading. It looks like a love story to me now without much hidden plot. So its a somewhat an alternative option to boring cable TV programmes that is driving me nuts with Glee esp and repeats.

Sorry to Glee fans, I hate Glee. I couldnt stand it at all. The whole story is just so stupid and I found nothing fascinating about it.... It is continous airing of brainless dramas like these that drives me nuts, AND send me wondering how can better drama series like "Life", "Shark" with more substance (that requires some intellect perhaps to follow) get canned by the station... What is more annoying is that most of the time, all these drama are stopped without a proper ending to the season and leaves me hanging. I hate it. I really hate all these "let's produce crappy sitcoms based on viewership rating" and leave the miniority viewers out in the cold. Such a sad world we have become that TV productions have come to such a shameful state...

K-Drama: Cinderella Sister Review

Finished the 20 eps of Cinderella Sister and all I can say its a super disappointing ending. It's pretty lame and it didnt event tie in with the MV at all. Some of the scenes in the MV wasnt even in the episodes. How on earth did that happen?

Anycase, the drama started strong with a good plot and halfway by ep 11, it started to lose its plot, meander off course and fell into the trap of prolonging teary moments and a doom to fail effort in trying to win desperately audience's attention for the love triangle which nothing novel nor interesting. There is nothing wrong with the acting, to be honest i think the cast's acting was pretty good and delivered their emotions aptly. It was the scriptwriter that had let them down with a mediocre storyline that went in circles and circles with no real anchor point except hoping to succed riding on the actor/actresses skills.

I couldnt even decide if the title was aptly named. The premise was about the stepsister wanting to get revenge but no where in the storyline did it ever present itself that way. There were petty behaviour for sure but nothing that strikes me as all vengeful and evil. In fact, the story wasnt even just about stepsister. It was more about the guy and 2 sisters. I think the title might be better off as "Cinderella: Happily ever after"

I managed to get through it only because I didnt like to get started at something and review it, without finishing it off. I wanted to be fair and my review to "stand its ground".

While there are some nice moments, it just got worse and wose by ep 18. Ep 19 and 20 faired abit better but on the whole, u can give this a miss unless you just want something to occupy your time without being too mindless.