Drama or Live Action Recommendation


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I just finished the J-Drama Slow Dance last week, in the span of 3 days. It really struck a chord with me for a few reasons. First of all, I liked all 4 primary actors, which is pretty uncommon for me: Tsumabuki Satoshi (Dororo, Tenchijin, Lunch Queen); Fukatsu Eri (Saiyuuki, Koi no Chikara); Hirosue Ryoko (Beach Boys, Shotgun Marriage); and Fujiko Naohito (Gal Circle, Hokaru no Hikari, Antique, etc.). Secondly, the opening sequence is pretty cool (if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean). I wonder how long it took to set that up. And I already loved, loved, LOVED the lovely waltz of a theme song, "Tokyo" by Fukuyama Masaharu (star of Galileo, btw); and since I'm already predisposed to melting whenever I hear that song, hearing it used so prominently in a romantic drama I'm also otherwise enjoying is pure bliss. I realize I haven't said anything about the plot, and that's because it's pretty standard romance-drama fare. It's really the casting and music that "made" this drama for me (speaking of music, the bgm also gives me a Long Vacation vibe, so that worked in its favor too).

Besides that, I've also started on 2 Katori Shingo dramas-- Hito ni Yasashiku (Be Nice to People) and Saiyuuki. This is primarily because I've been watching a lot (and I mean A LOT) of SMAPxSMAP (some subbed, but mostly raw), which is sort of my latest pet obsession. I blame it on JCD-- because if he never recommended Long Vacation, I may never have fallen under the spell of KimuTaku and consequently launched myself headfirst into the maw of the SMAP juggernaut. Thanks, JCD!
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(no, seriously, thank you). Anyway, watching SxS made me realize how dang funny (and attractive) Katori is, so I had to see some of his dramas. So far, Hito ni... is pretty amusing. I went in expecting some kind of 3 Men and a Baby set-up but it's not like that at all. And Saiyuuki-- well, it's definitely different from any other drama I've seen, what with all the special effects and such. It's more like a live-action anime. As long as I keep that in mind, I think I'll find it enjoyable enough.

Last but definitely not least, I'm also very much looking forward to the new Kimura Takuya drama, Mr. Brain, which starts airing May 23rd. The plot sounds sort of Galileo-ish (crime-solving, socially-awkward genius-- hmm...) but since I loved that series, and I love KimuTaku, it's frankly not a very hard sell for me. Throw in co-stars Ayase Haruka (Hotaru no Hikari, Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi) and Mizushima Hiro (Mei-chan no Shitsuji, Zettai Kareshi, Hana-Kimi) and I'm there with bells on.
 
Heyyyy!

So, I joined this cause I found it while looking for jdrama/any dorama recs. I've just recently discovered/fallen madly in love with this stuff!!! So far I'm a diehard MatsuJun lover (I luvs the pretty boys). I've watched HanaKimi, the jdrama and a few eps of the taiwanese version. I've also watched about half of Gokusen (1), and a few eps of MBMH.

I'm really into romances! I was left totally romantically frustrated at the end of HanaKimi, cause I SO WANTED THEM TO GET TOGETHER. ARGH. Anyway.

I get a little bored of the constant comedy from stuff like MBMH, but I do love action and the yakuza themes.

I'm trying to watch Hana Yori Dango, and I can't find it online.. I'm on my mom's computer so I was trying to use Veoh or crunchyroll to avoid downloading it. Anyone know where I can find it? Same problem with Saiyuki.
 
just saw this weird but cool commercial movie for a car. yeah commercial movie!!! only koreans can pull this of. lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2c54ka9PSk

there are 4 parts. just follow the link.

i happen to stumble upon this video cause i was looking for vids of lee yeon hee. she is now my current fav actress. she was soooo cute in east of eden (though i really really hate the ending of that kdrama even if the story was soooo good).

she is really cute and a good actress. the actor in the commercial movie is the same guy in cain and abel, so ji sub. that guy likes to shower and scream at people in every drama. lol.

right now im watching hello school girl kmovie. she and the guy from star's lover kdrama are in it.

edit:

also can anybody recommend me a good kmovie. the only good kmovie ive seen was my sassy girl. i prefer romantic comedy types. ive already seen 100 days w/ mr. arrogant and my tutor friend. thanks.
 
Look for Castaway on the Moon. Recent K movie. I think it's still showing though. Made a thread about it, it's about a hikikkomori girl and a man trapped on an island.
 
OMG I just watched that car commercial and I think I'm gonna cry *sniff*WHY? WHI DID SHE HAVE TO BE DEAD?*cries*
 
QUOTE (anbu-black-ops @ Jun 03 2009, 05:01 PM) also can anybody recommend me a good kmovie. the only good kmovie ive seen was my sassy girl. i prefer romantic comedy types. ive already seen 100 days w/ mr. arrogant and my tutor friend. thanks.
You might like these K-movies: He was Cool and My Little Bride. I've watched them a few times. lol. It's funny and cute.
 
QUOTE (anbu-black-ops @ Jun 03 2009, 04:01 PM)also can anybody recommend me a good kmovie.  the only good kmovie ive seen was my sassy girl.  i prefer romantic comedy types.  ive already seen 100 days w/ mr. arrogant and my tutor friend.  thanks.Did you like My Tutor Friend? (I personally loved it) If you did, check out Almost Love which has the same actor & actress, and is even better. Kwon Sang Woo & Kim Ha Neul have great chemistry, imo.

Other than that, I'd recommend:
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK: Kind of a love story... I guess? But either way, there's never a dull moment. Love Rain's yodeling scene!;
Antique: Though perhaps it's not the kind of romance you are looking for?
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Still a total trip, though, and a very well put-together adaptation of the manga. I'd recommended it even if you're not into the (somewhat) BL angle but would just like to see some really interesting visuals;
Flying Boys: On the outside it looks like a dance movie-- teenage boys "forced" to take ballet lessons with the girl one of them has a crush on-- but it's really more like a coming-of-age story with some dance/comedy/romantic elements;
and 3-Iron (a.k.a. Bin-Jip): Okay, it's not a comedy at all, but it is an extremely romantic, strange, and fascinating movie and I like it so much I just had to throw it out there.

P.S. There are a few other romantic comedies I've seen that I'd give honorable mentions to, like Love So Divine, The Perfect Couple, Too Beautiful to Lie, and Viva! Love, all which I liked well enough but just didn't "grab" me like the abovementioned films did.
 
Boku no Kanojo wa Cyborg or Cyborg girl (My girlfriend is a cyborg)

It is a movie with english subtitles. It is a "do not miss".

It starts off like an anime with a surprise girlfriend. But, the plot quickly becomes really unique and there are many twists in the plot.

The star was in many tear jerker dramas when she was younger.

D-addicts has a lot of subtitles that you have to manually load yourself. However, it is not difficult and I learned a lot about Japanese culture watching the live action. For, instance in Soratore, I noticed that left handed Japanese use their chopsticks differently. (Hint: Soratore is a good one to watch too because it deals with a touchy problem in that ultra polite japanese way)
 
So I finished Saiyuuki... or rather, I kinda forced myself to finish it. I love Katori Shingo, but it got quite tiring hearing him yell his way through every line (although I guess it fits his character, Son Goku). Oh well, it's done now; on to better things...

I watched the first ep of Mr. Brain and really enjoyed it. It has some rather unrealistic elements (like the unnecessarily flashy, high-tech labs they work in, for example) but I can suspend disbelief to get my Kimura fix for the week. Speaking of which, I love his sorta wacky, awkward-yet-insightful title character. As for Ayase's assistant character-- I hope they have her do more than just act as a proxy for the audience (like me) and moon over how handsome/cool KimuTaku is the whole time. I mean, it is pretty funny to watch, but please just let her also contribute something intelligent to the plot, y'know? And as for Mizushima Hiro-- whoa, anyone watching this to see him reprise his usual "cool, handsome guy" role is gonna be disappointed, as he seems to be playing the "bumbling, mostly-useless police detective" role in this drama. Plus, his hair looks like he didn't have enough water pressure to get all the soap out or something (i.e. it looks odd to me), though that's a superficial quibble on my part. Looking forward to guest stars Koyuki and Gackt (!) in ep02.

I've watched the first 2 eps of Meitantei no Okite and find it really original and witty. It stars Matsuda Shota (Hana Yori Dango, Love Shuffle, Regatta) and Kashii Yu (My Boss My Hero, Water Boys, the Death Note movies) as self-aware characters in a detective story, and it's pretty fun so far as it sends up mystery genre conventions. I love how Kashii's "female rookie police detective" refuses to swoon over detective Tenkaichi (as would normally be expected from her character) and instead futilely tries to bring in modern, routine (a.k.a. non-dramatic) police procedure to the cases.

I've been about halfway through Love Shuffle for a few weeks now-- I stopped watching so I could start it anew with a friend-- and I really enjoy this show more than I though I would. At first I sorta turned my nose up at it-- it sounded like a generic love/dating drama wherein 4 couples decide to rotate partners to see if they're as well-suited for each other as they think-- but the ensemble cast drew me in enough to check it out and I'm glad I did. It's actually got a nice balance of humor and capital-D drama and now I very much want to see who ends up with who at the end.

I'm also watching a few other series I don't care to remark on at the moment-- and I just realized that, jeez, I actively watch at least 6 dramas for every 1-2 anime nowadays...
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Which Saiyuki did you finish? There's a bunch of them out there.
 
It was this one from 2006 with SMAP's Katori Shingo. Honestly, I started watching it for him, as well as being drawn in by the fabulous (and feathery) KimuTaku cameo in the very beginning of the first episode. While the rather simple story seemed like it might be enjoyable for elementary school kids, things like Roshi's lecherous breast-obsession and the heroes' numerous urination scenes (wtf!), both played for humor, sort of make it inappropriate for that age group (I thought) so I'm not sure who the target audience really was. Probably some cross section of SMAP fans, afficionados of lowbrow humor, and people wondering why they made Sanzo into a woman.
 
oh. i am not the only one who is into shingo dramas. i love hito ni yasashiku and the saiyuuki movie (the tv show is too much for me XD). i also like bara no nai hanaya a lot (it was the first drama i`ve ever watched).

The dramas i am currently watching are Ghost Friends, Godhand Teru, Hyoryu Net Cafe (I am not sure if I can recommend. its kind of weird but i like it XD) and some others.

Ghost Friends
I haven't seen much of it because there are just the subs for the first two episodes. but it seems to be quite interesting.


Godhand Teru
Well. Usually I don't like these kind of shows. But after I watched Code Blue and unexpectedly liked it I thought i should give it a chance. Now I can't stop watching that one.

Two other dramas i recently got addicted to are Akai Ito and Mei-chan No Shitsuji. I highly recommend this two :)
 
thanks for the movie recommendation everybody.

ive been wanting to watch almost love after watching the kdrama On Air, same actress.

also that movie im a cyborg... cause one of the kdrama i was watching called that fool, they went to see a movie and this was the one they were watching.

also ill definitely gonna watch the rest of those recommendations. thanks again.

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im gonna watch city hall (actress who played kim samsoon) and shining inheritance next... hope its good.
 
2 that ive seen *** Highly recommended
#1 Soulmate (korean drama) my favorite - currently airing on iaTV
#2 My girl (korean drama) - Very funny love romance
 
QUOTE (anbu-black-ops @ Jun 12 2009, 11:10 PM)im gonna watch city hall (actress who played kim samsoon) and shining inheritance next... hope its good.I actually watched ep01 of City Hall a few weeks ago and felt sorta "ehhh" about it (initially). It seemed like too much of Kim Sun Ah's character playing cute/coy (and fake) to Cha Seung Won's deputy mayor character, and not enough spark/banter (which I like in a romantic comedy), so I thought I would probably just drop it. But I read some really positive comments in various LiveJournal drama groups so I decided to try another few episodes. And I'm happy to say by eps 03 & 04 I started to enjoy the main couple's antagonistic (for now, we all know how it'll end up
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) interactions. After ep04 I couldn't wait to jump into 05 & 06, and now I'm just waiting along with everyone else for future subs. (The only -minor- issue I still have with this series is the hero's hair-- Oh, how I want to reach into the screen and muss it up! I hope it gets less, uh, "severe"-looking as the series progresses, though I'm sorta used to it now. Oh, and he looks nothing like his DramaWiki profile pic in this-- I really would never have recognized him from that!).

I also started watching the K-drama Last Scandal. As with City Hall, I was underwhelmed by ep01 a few weeks ago but frankly, since all the J-dramas I'm really interested in are currently airing (i.e. I'm stuck waiting for subs), I had nothing else to watch so I gave this another chance and, again, I'm finding that I'm enjoying it a lot more than I initially thought I would. After a few episodes of set-up, the characters are finally into the push/pull, fight/reconcile pattern that I love so much in romantic comedies. (My main gripe with this one so far [though not that significant in the long run, as I've gotten past it already] is the "accidental-vaginal-reconstructive-surgery" played for comedy (!) in ep03/04 (don't remember which), which seemed kind of random-yet-forced for maximum heroine humiliation/frustration.  It sort of screamed "outrageous-yet-unnecessary-plot-point" to me.)


QUOTE (anbu-black-ops @ Jun 12 2009, 11:10 PM)ive been wanting to watch almost love after watching the kdrama On Air, same actress.Interesting, I'll be looking into On Air now. I also have her (Kim Ha Neul) teacher-student romance drama Romance lined up.
 
I just started watching Jikou Keisatsu (Statute of Limitations Police) and it's the best series I've seen in ages! It's a comedy detective series with gentle humour and a strong emphasis on solving mysteries.

Shuuichirou Kiriyama works in a police department called the Limitations Task Force. Their job is simply to dispose of the paperwork etc when a case reaches the 15 year limit allowed for prosecutions. These guys are smart and it shows: they've got themselves a cushy job where they sit around all day chatting and shredding the odd document, whilst the less savvy detectives are running around doing the real work (badly).

Anyhow, Kiriyama is an unattached bloke who has been told he needs a hobby, so he decides to start investigating the expired cases just for fun, with the somewhat reluctant help of a policewoman who fancies him and is always hoping their outings will turn into some kind of date. She asks him "do you really think you can solve these cases that no-one has managed to crack in 15 years?" and he replies "Ah, but I don't have to solve them, as it's just a hobby". But of course he does solve them, and that's where the main appeal of the story is (along with the likeable characters who have a great chemistry).

Like many great detectives Kiriyama has inspired hunches which come from paying attention to the little details of the everyday events going on around him. He rigourously demolishes the false leads that had led the original investigations astray and then lets his hunches lead him to the truth. For instance the case of the Olympic coach who apparently murdered his favourite swimmer and then killed himself... an affair of the heart? Or just a monstrous heap of unlikely coincidences? Step by step Kiriyama demolishes the received wisdom about the case until the unlikely truth is found on a dusty cassette tape that has lain forgotten in a locked storeroom for 15 years.

The series is nine 45 minute episodes and can currently be found soft-subbed on the newsgroup alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese
 
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