Sigh ...

[scottishlass]

Lee Jun-ki .. you MORON!!! I know, I know you want to protect your home country from the bad red rabbit across the border in the North, but puhleeeze ... you still have a few years before you are drafted. Why do you have to enlist VOLUNTARILY??
So please Korean producers, come up with something totally irresistable for Jun-ki otherwise he will vanish into the hills like Gong Yoo with a really bad hair cut for two years next year. SIGH!

In other news...
Watched CHANGE and OMG!! This will be so good. Ratings for first ep was 22.3% not bad though Japanese media already compared it to Gokusen3 which gained 26%. Well those Johnny-Junior doramas always gain a lot of momentum and then just sizzle out while Kimuras doramas always gain high ratings throughout the series. Will write more about it once I have seen more eps but so far all I can tell, I love the concept!!

Ryokiteki na Kanojo is delicious as I thought it was and Tsu is just love! It is so much fun watching Tsu stretching his comical legs. His facial expressions are hilarious and yet, he is both hot and cuddly as marine biologist Masaki Saburo.

But strange the two doramas of this season that surprised me by being both delightful, funny and irresistable are Around 40 and Osen.

I love Osen for its worshipping of food. OMG! You get hungry watching it and I have now at least so much grasp of the Japanese language to know that the adjectives they use in the subtitles to describe the food and its tastes is just a hair width of words the original Japanese script says. I guess English is a limited language after all :) Additionally, Uchi Hiroki as Ezaki Yoshio looks like a dark-haired Tackey (T&T sing the ending song) it's a bit weird :) Aoi Yu is so cute ... like a little china doll and yet she plays okami-san with a quirkiness that is refreshing. She is a fragile flower with a backbone of steel :)

Around 40 is fun. Watching Amami Yuki as Satoko and Fujiki Naohito as Okamura is a pleasure. Satoko is a nearly 40 professional psychologist who is happy as a working woman. From time to time she mises the romance in her life but her work really fills her with happiness. But family and friends pressure her to marry at last. Her new work colleague, 35 year old Okamura, is a very conscientious man who gets on everyone's nerves including Satoko with his ecologial sense. Those two very different persons start out at odds but slowly disvcover that even though they come from different backgrounds, are of different ages, they have indeed a lot of similarities.
I have high hopes for this dorama, and with ep5 out right now, and the beginning of romance I think my hopes have been answered. And OMG! (I do repeat myself, ne?) Fujiki Naohito looks so fucking young in this dorama. Did they send him to some sort of spa of youthfulness? In Hotaru no Hikari he looked over 40 in his stern suits and with that earnest mien but here? He looks 30 at most.

ETA: Anyone know where I can download this week's SxS??? I'm on turkey here ...

Comments

[calixa.livejournal.com]

I love Osen! And I really want to check out Around 40, its getting good reviews from my trusty flist :)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Dramas about food always get me :)

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Around 40 is really good, it surprised me as I thought it would be whiny. Sakoto is portrayed wonderfully, and while she wonders what it would be like to be married and have children, she doesn't try to change herself to attract a man at all costs.
When a friend of her sets her up with a blind date (in Western style not an omiai) and after a certain time the guy tells her that women's happiness only lies in providing for hubby and kids, Satoko disagrees sternly but not furiously. She calmly asks hin why should a woman's profession be only temporary till she gets married while men go out and about and find satisfaction in their work. I cheered her on!!! Around 40 definitely has a different take of (un)married women in the work force than you ussually get in jdramas.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Am a bit indifferent to the LJK news since I like him and all, but I haven't been crazy about any of his work so far (perhaps only The King and the Clown).

Re: Change. I WANT TO WATCH as well! I can't wait for it to finish completely though, because I am not the type to watch episode per episode. The waiting kills me :D

I've heard many good things about Around 40 and Osen from allbloomedout. Must watch them as well ;) I am such a sucker for stories centralising on food and "older" (30 and 40+) ladies/men!

Btw. Una, I've signed up with smapxmedia but cannot see much activities in the community. rika66 told me that it's because most of the entries are f-locked. Would it be possible for me to become a member of the comm, so that I can see those locked entries too? ;) Thanks beforehand!

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I think the probelm you have is that you are watching the comms but have not joined. You need to join the community so it will appear in your friends list. That way you can see all entries. Let me know if it still doesn't work after you joining up.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Joined! Thanks for the pointers Una :)

[bakabanri.livejournal.com]

CHANGE!! is it good is it good? *____* the rating will go up i hope! screw gokusen xDDD

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

It is fantastic. Acting wise it surely can hold the candle to Karei and Kimura ... OMG! He is Keita. His expression, his gestures, even his bearing is totally different to what we have come to know about Kimura. Gaining weight for that role definitely is a plus as he moves differently. He made me forget that I lust after Kimura and made me fall in innocent love with Keita instead, if you know what you mean? Keita is like a shy, somewhat dorky guy you want to be friends with and eventually fall in love with. While Kimura is more of the *let's get down and dirty, babey* category :D Emotions that I had even when he played Jiro ... all the dorama roles before (up till Engine) were of the last category but with Karei and now with CHANGE, Kimura makes me fall for him all over again due to his talent and skills as an actor, and not just because he is a hot looking guy.

[bakabanri.livejournal.com]

god, that sounds so freaking awesome xD i think i'll respect his acting skills even more, this guy *___*

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

I am very curious about Change. I guess I don't have to worry about you not spoiling me with it in June, do I? ;)

OMG! What did I miss??? Why is MADONNA singing the ending song for Changes???????? :o

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Because she has been on SxS quite a lot (3 or 4 times) and she had promised a song for a dorama of any of them ... she was very impressed with Kimura and Katori.

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

she was very impressed with Kimura and Katori

Two things I have to say to this:
1. And who can blame her?
2. Oi! Stay away from Shingo, you muscly old hag! >:/

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

LOL

Yeah well she was only impressed by their talents ... they are too old for her already :D

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOL True.

[u-ladelz.livejournal.com]

Hi... just in case if you still haven't download this week's SXS, you can found the clip here:

http://community.livejournal.com/ru_smap/34432.html

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Thank you - found it already :)