Summer Nude

2013 11-episode Fuji TV drama that starred Yamashita Tomohisa as Mikuriya Asahi, a latent photographer living in a seaside town (Chiba) who arrives to photograph a wedding when at the last second, the groom bails.

Asahi runs into the bride, Karina as Chiyohara Natsuki, a popular and talented chef. Through trial and error, Asahi manages to talk Natsuki into visiting his sleepy little hamlet without officially explaining that he'd like her to take over a beach restaurant that caters to bathers and drinkers.

Natsuki has a no-nonsense personality and it would seem as if she sticks her nose in everyone's business, but that inability to keep quiet and let things be ends up having a huge impact on the town's residents - and Asahi.

In between her meddling is a lot of personal trial/error and self-sacrifice among the locals to include love triangles, love at first sight, latent affection, and lost love.

It's a romance drama as far as Asian romance goes.

Asahi is carrying a 3-year old torch for a girl who walked away.
A girl he grew up with has carried a torch for Asahi for 10 years.
A boy who likes to read and is very standoffish is secretly in love with that girl.
Asahi's close friend is in love with every woman he meets.

I can't, really go into any amount of detail with this one because no matter what I say, it will be giving away too much.

I can tell you, though, that I could only find this at GoodDrama.net, which sucked huge time. And then the subs were astronomically, abusively, insanely awful.

I started to get a headache, they were that bad.

But then a miracle happened

8th Sin showed up to save the day, bless his or her heart.

He/she still made a few errors, 

I can't read Japanese at all, and the gray subs at the top weren't much help, but at least I could read a majority of what the actors were saying - even knowing as I do - that a lot of times that isn't quite true. What I'm reading and what they're saying are far from identical.

Still, it was a thousand times better than the first two episodes, so I was happy.

For the first, few episodes we are taken mostly on Asahi's journey even though Natsuki got dumped on her wedding day at the very beginning.
It wasn't so much about that as it was about she and he coming together to transform the seaside residents.

This was another of the creative Japanese writer dramas that managed to take me on a wonderful trip to someplace other than Tokyo and introduce me to people I'd like to hang out with on that beach and in that town.

I was content, though, to sit in the wings and just watch as they struggled through their dilemmas one by one until everything came together near the end.

It was the type of story where you know, deep down in your heart, that people like this just don't exist in real life and never will. There was just too much camaraderie and soul-searching, wisdom beyond their years, and accurate second-guessing about what everyone else was feeling to make this a realistic, believable scenario.

They are the kinds of people you wish you had at your side when you need them most - the true friend - who steers you in the right direction whether your realize it or want them to or not.

If stuff like this actually happens in your life, then that's awesome and I envy you to infinity.

Love is great, but it can wait.
That might be how you feel now, but something better is waiting in the wings.
You deserve much more than this.
You say you love me, but I can tell by the look in your eyes ...

Yeah, right, whatever.

Hindsight can never be foresight, and yet these dramas sometimes make me think it could actually happen - mind reading, predicting the future, and knowing even more about what someone needs, is thinking, or wants than even they do.

Um ~ no.

I think I've said this before, but, we could all use a script writer in our heads to guide us through life.

Too bad that will never happen.

I like these types of dramas, though, and for that very reason. Sometimes it's okay to escape reality and look at things from a fantastic perspective. Especially when you get to have the added advantage of dreamy, hot lead actors as a foundation for those fantasies.

I often wonder, too, about the leading ladies and how they feel when their manager calls them up to say they have been offered a part and will star alongside someone as classy, now, and handsome as Tomo.

Then she gets the script and finds out there's a kissing scene somewhere along the line.

(heaven) - Or awkward, maybe?

I'm sure they'll tell us how professional they are, and that it isn't like kissing a real guy or their lover.

Yeah, right. Mmm hmm.

There was humor in this drama, too, and a sideline story that confused the heck out of me with its inconclusive reason for even existing, but I didn't mind that it was there to ... distract us?

Which brings me back to what I was saying earlier about the lack of sex, touching, romance in these so-called romantic dramas/movies from Asia.

It's a-okay to flip the bird in a 13+ rating film, but don't you dare stand this close to the opposite sex, touch too soon, and God forbid you show your real emotions by grabbing the girl and planting your tongue about three feet down her throat, either.

I've decided its about time I got real serious here and started watching their porn.

I can't bring myself to do it, though. But, jeez am I curious to know how they procreate over there after having sat through years and years and YEARS of these silly, nonsensical, sappy, melodramatic, angst-ridden, cold-fish, unaffectionate so-called LOVE stories!

I also walked away with the feeling that Karina is seriously shy or extremely unsure of herself on and off screen. I've seen her in other dramas, and she exudes the same apprehensive qualities every time. It's not all character acting as far as I'm concerned.

She was dead-set on giving up her chef career to settle down and raise a family, which would indicate some amount of compassion, caring, and warmth on the part of this 'character', and yet it just wasn't there, and it never is. She's always tough, mouthy, and inapproachable. But she did a great job as Natsuki.

I gave this 5 pika's because of Tomo-kun, the story line, the setting, the co-stars, and the general theme. I liked this one a whole lot.

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Dokushin Kizoku

A Swinging Single

2013 Fuji TV 11-episode drama that I found just yesterday and watched straight through with only a few bathroom/food breaks in between it was THAT good.

Stars two all-time greats:  Kusanagi Tsuyoshi as Hoshino Mamoru, the President of a production company and Hideaki Ito as Hoshino Susumu, Mamoru's younger brother, a playboy producer.

The English title for this one is a misnomer in that while Susumu is in the process of a divorce at the start, he has to move in with his aniki but entertains a new woman every night. Mamoru, (the lead) on the other hand is a solitary man with refined tastes and zero interest in relationships, commitment, love, or even women as a whole. He's not gay, just reclusive and stubborn, and he has convinced himself that the life he leads is far better and far more meaningful, without the stress, agony, heartache, headache, and mundane of having to deal with the opposite sex.

The reason I gave this one such high marks ~ believe it or not ~ has nothing at all to do with the handsome men involved. 

Shōjikina.

Even if Ito was a lead, and I think that Tsuyoshi has the greatest facial features of just about ANY man I'll ever see in my lifetime. AND even the fact that while it was too little too late, Yamashita Tomohisa made a few appearances as well.

These are all asides when it comes to something this novel, this refreshing, and this enticing a drama.

Sorry KDo fans, but, when it comes to real love stories with semi-realistic pretense and dialogue ~ but most appreciative and best infused emotion ~ JDo's can't be beat.

Also, it is extremely rare to get that "...this is gonna be good" feeling prior to watching, and my sixth sense didn't let me down again.

I just knew I was going to like this one, and I did. A whole lot.

This is the story of a guy who doesn't believe in commitment, and a girl who hangs on to the  thinning thread of a dream in the form of wanting to write scripts for movies.

She's a lot like our Mamoru in that they are both relatively shy, introverted, and emotionally attached to their ideals. They share the same notions about life in general, the same work ethic, and even enjoyed the same hobbies and movies, which gave them something to talk about even when Mamoru wasn't the type who made himself available to anyone for things as useless as chit-chat.

Every day Kitagawa Keiko as Haruno Yuki checks (google) to see if anyone has accepted her script. Don't ask me why, that's just the way it went, and after watching this drama, I kind of had to wonder if (google) didn't have a hand in that one. Why would anyone check a search engine to find out if they got accepted or rejected? Wouldn't it make more sense to check the publishing house's or the production company's website instead?

Whatever.

Yuki is down for the count and ends up having to help her friend do house cleaning work to help out with the bills.

They clean Mamoru's apartment a few times a week, and they think he is a 'swinger' or

the girl with the (deliberately?) bad accent

This one claims 'he' has 8 women a day, which would likely put a huge dent in any guys wallet/lifestyle/work/ etc. eh?

Anyhow, it isn't the homeowner who lives this way but his little brother, Susumu - the guy in the process of a divorce living off the homeowner.

Yuki eventually figures out that the yamato no orochi is the owner of a production company and sets her script on his coffee table with a sticky note asking him to please read it and get back to her.

The brothers are actually in a bind, though, because the 'famous' author (who hasn't written anything in ten years) has bailed on them.

Yuki ends up getting a job at the company, and no one likes her at first because she's new and doesn't know anything about the business. But, Mamoru continues to help with her script, and though she thinks that he is mean and heartless with his criticisms and doubts about her talent, she soon realizes what a terrific help his no nonsense and blunt critique of her work actually ended up being for her.

While it seems as if Yuki and Mamoru are starting to hit it off, the brothers aunt (a woman of botoxxx extreme) steps in to mess things up for Mamoru. She keeps threatening to sell the production company if he doesn't get married, and then she quickly sets him up on a blind date. She's homely but extremely wealthy, which is all the aunt really cares about since Mamoru 'seems' to be ruining the company with his high quality standards.

She is annoying as hell, too, with her helium voice grating on my last nerve and proving that Mamoru's theory about women in general is true.

Women with marriage on the brain are boring, chatter unceasingly about mundane things, and care less about anyone other than themselves and their ultimate goal of snagging a man to drag down the aisle.

His father taught him a rude but kind of funny trick when in the presence of such women, and Mamoru employs this trick every time he is forced to have to meet with his 'intended'.

He is falling for Yuki, but so is Susumu, and when Mamoru finds out, he backs off immediately.

Instantly. Like, the very next day. How he found out was heartbreaking to have to watch, and it made me root for him 100% up to the very end.

There were a lot of nail biting moments that nearly gave me a heart attack, too, but that was part of the reason why I enjoyed the story so much and gave it 5 hearts.

Who will end up with whom, will I see more of Tomo? and PLEASE don't let it end this soon kept running through my mind. I didn't want this one to end as quickly as it did. Sometimes 11 episodes just aren't enough for me the same way that sometimes 16 KDo episodes are far too many.

Speaking of the 'adults' ... I am in a quandary once more as to the age of some of these characters.

Honestly, the boys father when they were 'little' looked like he was in his late 60's, and the blind date chick's father? Holy crap! Dude had to have a foot and a half in the grave already. HAD to be in his mid to late 80's for sure.

Great grandparents with children in their late 20's and early 30's.

Really?

I need to do some research. Shouldn't their parents be in their mid to late 50's?

Do people in their mid to late 50's look like they are in their mid to late 80's?

Is it a big, fat lie that Asian people don't age as gracelessly as us Westerners do?

Total confusion.

The chemistry between the two leads was awesome. Right away, too. It was as if they were made for one another off-screen as much as on.

Comments at the website where I watched this ranged from the ridiculous to the curious.

A few mentioned that it was refreshing to see Kitagawa Keiko star in a realistic and non caricature role for a welcome change. I wouldn't know the absolute value in that remark, only that she did a great job as Yuki, the struggling script writer who loses her way on the road to love.

I wasn't as surprised about the comments made regarding the soundtrack, though. I'm sure a lot of kids aren't familiar with or have ever listened to anything older than they are, which is a shame, but I don't care. My music taste is narrow yet broad in that I love everything from classical to jazz, 90s new wave to R&B and ambient. However, I am just as familiar with the Big Band era, Frank Sinatra, and the like because like our two leads, I grew up on black and white movies from the 30's, 40's, and 50's, too. I still watch them when the mood strikes. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir has a fantastic soundtrack.

The Moon River version played throughout this drama, though, was pitiful.

In the drama, they referenced Sleepless in Seattle but not the movie that movie was bounced off of that starred Debra Kerr and Cary Grant, An Affair to Remember.

Neither of these references, though, had much to do with the drama, so don't get all worried like I did. The comments were just dopey (again).

The movie I kept harking back to throughout this drama was actually Sabrina (the Humphrey Bogart/Audrey Hepburn version), but I could be wrong as well. Not entirely, but it had the same elements - more so than sleepless or an affair at any rate.

Throughout this drama, they kept showing the hood ornament on Mamoru's Rolls Royce being lowered in park and raised in drive. Toward the end of the eleven episodes I started to hope that they would show one, last scene where the hood ornament is raised and that Empire State Building with the heart would rise up.

LOL

You have to watch the show in order to get the meaning behind that remark, though.

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Full House Take 2

풀하우스TAKE2

2012 SBS Plus 16 episodes in 32 parts KDo that starred Hwang Jung eum as Jang Man ok / Michelle Jang (the Cinderella girl), No Min woo as Lee Tae ik, the caustic rich chap and lead lip syncer in Take 2, and Park Ki woong as Won Kang hwi, the lovable sidekick with dyed blond hair and a cute smile.

Compared to the original Full House, I liked this version better - but not by a whole lot.

Different house, different characters, same premise.

Bratty rich kid loses his parents and their house and is forced (forced, mind you) to become a mega pop star in order to try and win said house back.

We're led to believe that Tae ik never wanted to become a pop idol and that is why he remains so acerbic throughout the show. Just like our Young jae in the first version. There are other reasons, too, though, for Tae ik's antagonistic behavior. In the original version, Young jae blamed his father for the death of his younger sister. In the second version, Tae ik blames his sidekick for a lost love.

I honestly wasn't, ever sure why Park Ki woong's Won Kang hwi behaved so goofy, inept, and lackadaisical about his career other than he was purposeful just to get a rise out of his uptight buddy, Tae ik.

I love both guys, though.

Min woo shocked the hell out of me coming from 9-Tail Fox to this. Night and day if you ask me. It was like he shed about 50 pounds of lean muscle for this part, and I continue to ask myself why?

I liked the chemistry between everyone, from the two leads, the two feuding buds, and even the animosity in the office. It all worked so well and lent itself to a ton of credibility I so appreciate any time I watch a Korean drama. I'm always anticipating the usual, and when that doesn't occur on a regular basis, I'm happy.

I really, REALLY, hontou ni hate gossip, but there is this thing about Min woo having had plastic surgery on his nose. Personally, I liked his big kid nose and I think he simply insists on air brushing and photoshop techniques while maintaining his own sense of dignity. I don't see a huge (no pun intended) difference between his kawaii baby boy images and what he exudes on screen.

Like all gossip, and why I can't stand it, it simply shows a lack of character on the part of the spewer and a sense of jealousy or dislike for whatever reason. Find something more meaningful to do with your time, eh?

In Full House 2, a cute girl who was once a princess loses her parents and ends up with her Taekwondo grandfather. He is invited to the open house of Tae ik's parents, and that is when the two leads first meet (as kids).

She grows up adoring fashion while also helping out at the dojo, and then her grandpa has to leave for awhile, and she gets mixed up with her good friend in this online fashion thing. Man ok and her goofy pal, Kim Do yun as Han Ga ryun are unlikely friends in that Man ok is cautious, sweet, and steady while Ga ryun is haphazard, flighty, and single-minded.

Still, the two fight through their friendship and stick to their own ideals while managing to put together this fashion website and start selling the things that Man ok has designed from scraps and not having any formal training.

I appreciated her sense of style, and I'm sorry, but I loved her curly hairstyle regardless of what the rest of the world (esp Korea) thinks about it.

She went from having a sense of style and uniqueness to being a mushroom head, and if her hair were at her shoulders then, yes, I'd say go with the straight style ON OCCASION, but do keep the beautiful, curly locks!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with curly hair. Straight is becoming boring, so it's always refreshing to see something out of the ordinary on occasion. The curls suited her face and accented her smile.

Ga ryun is super-duper big-time in love with Kang hwi and stalks him both on and offline, messing up Man ok's plans to sell a lot of her designs because Ga ryun is in charge of the online business, but she is too preoccupied with searching everything Kang hwi online instead of doing her job.

She attends fan meetings, holds up signs, and screams like an idiot outside the studio where Kang hwi and Tae ik work.

I got, too, both times I watched this drama, when it first aired and recently for this blog, that Ga ryun was over-doing the fan girly thing (or not) - and I was a bit startled and somewhat disturbed by the fact that these twits are actually labeled. Respectable fans, fanatics, and life and death - the worst, scariest kind of fan.

There's zero wrong with adoring someone bigger and better than you are, cutting out and pasting his/her images on your bedroom wall, day and night dreaming about romantic encounters, etc. Human nature kind of stuff we all deal and live with until we're too old to care anymore. But, when we take it to the next level and start acting out those fantasies, believing that we are somehow in control of their destiny, and have a say in how they live their lives, then it gets stupid.

Yeesh.

Aside from the original Young jae and the second version's Tae ik having the same attitude and inability to express themselves properly, the rest of Take 2 is pretty original. Tae ik and Kang hwi are the leads in a 'boy band' of sorts who just dance and lip sync to the same song throughout all 16 episodes. It made me wonder if either lead has any musical talent, and if Min woo can actually play the piano or if Ki woong can actually play the guitar.

I was awestruck by Min woo's drumming in one episode, and I believe he played them for another boy band (Trax) or something like that. It was pretty intense and cool.

I also much prefer to see our cutie-pie Ki woong with black versus yellow hair, too.

And, I know I keep saying this, and it may get annoying, but I can't help it when some of these stars remind me of people I know. In this case, Ki woong totally reminds me of my friend from childhood, Terri. Yes, she was a she and he is a he, but whatever. It is uncanny how much he resembles her in every way, though her eyes were blue, but they were the same shape, she had the same, oval face, the same mouth, and even the same smile. He is nearly identical to my old friend - mianhae.

Tae ik has phobias to include being allergic to pet hair, synthetics, and chemicals (like me!) and when he wears a scarf on stage that isn't pure, he has anaphylactic symptoms that are remedied with a simple kiss.

The way that Ki woong's Kang hwi handles the situation was both thrilling and hilarious. The fact that he eyed the audience just prior was sublime.

Brave, bold move on the part of the censors at SBS, I must say!

Is that what the plus means, I wonder? lol

Okay, so, like, a few years back Tae ik was madly in love with this bitchy female star who didn't care for him or anyone else but herself (you know the type, c'mon). And she does something stupid bitch in order to further her career (yeah, right, whatever) and breaks Tae ik's heart while driving this wedge between him and Kang hwi. Tae ik saw what happened, and Kang hwi has no idea that's the case. Kang hwi is the glue in this troupe, but despite his best efforts, Tae ik grows more caustic and abusive until Kang hwi (I think) starts to act deliberate just to piss off Tae ik, but I don't know if that's for sure.

Then Kang hwi bumps into our mousy but still cute Man ok, who helps the defenseless Kang hwi escape a bunch of deranged fans.

I so don't want to believe that people like them exist, and that it is just the overly stimulated imaginations of ratings writers, nothing more.

Anyway, Kang hwi is a fan of Man ok's website, but he doesn't know that she is the owner, only that he likes her style both garment and behavior-wise.

They become fast friends, and he ends up helping her to get the stylist position at his agency, where she ends up having to dress both Kang hwi and Tae ik.

Tae ik treats Man ok the same way he does everyone else:  with disdain.

It's funny.

I think it was funny because I'm such a huge fan of Min woo and he can get away with acting naughty on account of his being so cool.

There is one drawback to his androgynous side, though.

He leans more toward the gay than the bi, which makes it nearly impossible for me to believe he could fall for ANY woman.

Kind a like the exact opposite of the way I view Jang Geun suk for the same reason: different kind of femme projection.

Which means Min woo's kae is a lot more believable than Geun suk's. When Geun suk goes after a woman in diamonds, fur, make-up, and sporting a better hair style than her, I still believe he's gonna get some action cause he's all man underneath the façade. 
Min woo, not so much.

Whatever. I'll bet most everyone's kaedar is on the blink anymore since that line is now so blurred it's barely, even recognizable. Who knows!

So, for 16 (32, but) episodes we are taken on a bizarre journey of vindication, sorrow, humiliation, and uphill battle. Will Tae ik get his house back? Will Kang hwi triumph over evil? Will Man ok remember that she wanted to be a designer and not the love interest of two pop stars? Will the bad guys get crap dumped on them at the right time?

I, for one, wanted to find out BOTH times that I watched this one, and as predictable and (dare I say it) corny as the script was written, I enjoyed this a lot more than I did the first round - but not by much.

The repetition, the same song (even at different tempos), the constant angst, and the forgotten things annoyed me too much to give this any more than it deserved.

Strong cast, though, I will admit. I loved these guys together, and that was what made this one better than the original.

I've also come to the realization that these things aren't written nor cast to placate the ajumma crowd anymore. Although I'm sure they are still the largest audience since they are able to watch on a daily basis, but with things like DVR anyone can watch anything at any time now. So, that means the crowd has not only grown but the demographics have shifted. Well, let me say that while the demographics are BLENDED now, the writers are catering to a new audience, and that isn't fair.

Just because the actors are getting younger every year doesn't mean - like fashion - that anyone over the age of 25 should be excluded from all the fun.

Here are the rest of my screen captures

speaking of photoshop ...

love his smile

his lips SO aren't prepared!

david bowie pose

cutie pie

yeppeun

awesome subs (as usual)

thanks to these guys (as usual)

two, adorable smiles

yeppeun

yeppeun

yeppeun

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