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Richard White, aka Gaston's Voice Actor

kycoo — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:58:48 GMT

In March earlier this year, I met Richard White at Sac Comic-Con! He's an actor and opera singer whose main claim to fame is voicing Gaston in the animated Beauty and the Beast. BATB is one of my favorite Disney movies, and Gaston is one of my favorite Disney villains, so of course I dug out my blue dress Belle cosplay to meet him.

After the con, I looked up more information about him online and found out that he's actually quite renowned in the opera scene. And for good reason — what a voice! Unfortunately, there isn't much about him on the Internet; his Wikipedia and IMDb pages are both pretty sparse, and he doesn't have any social media (not entirely unexpected of his generation). It also doesn't help that there are probably thousands of Richard Whites in the world. So I figured I'd throw together an LJ post to gather some of the information I've found online.

Please note that this is not comprehensive, just info that I find interesting. I've also tried to include a decent number of videos where you can actually see him singing.

Early childhood, theater work, and personal life

Richard White was born in on August 4, 1953 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and was raised primarily in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a "very musical" family that "always sang," and he was involved in community theater and high-school musicals. He graduated from Bethel Park High School in 1971, did his undergraduate studies at Oberlin Conservatory, and attended the Indiana School of Music for graduate school.

White has done theater work both on and off Broadway, as well as with regional playhouses. He played the lead role of Pierre Birabeau (aka the Red Shadow) in both the 1984 Paper Mill Playhouse's presentation of The Desert Song and the 1987 New York City Opera's production. He starred as Gaylord Ravenal in the 1989 Paper Mill Playhouse's production of Show Boat, which was recorded for the Great Performances performing arts TV series.

In 1991, White was the leading man in the premiere of Phantom (the musical by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit, not to be confused with Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera). Yeston and Kopit's version of the Phantom story, originally by Gaston Leroux (is this who BATB Gaston is named after? LOL), dives more deeply into the backstory of Erik (aka the Phantom), even introducing a father-son relationship absent from the source novel.

White sang the role of Erik on the cast album as well. In 2000, he reprised his role as Erik for the American Musical Theatre of San Jose's 2000 production of Phantom. (He was in my hometown! Too bad I was still in my elementary school days and too young to appreciate a 2+-hour-long opera. However, here is a video embed of a recording of the performance, which I have watched, albeit on 1.5x speed lol.)

If you'd like to see White's face while singing (my preference lol), here he is performing "Where in the World" from Phantom while unmasked. This is maybe my favorite song from the soundtrack. However, I think if we're comparing Phantom adaptations, Andrew Lloyd Webber's really can't be beat with "All I Ask of You" (one of my favorite love songs), "The Music of the Night," and the classic title track.

Also, random video of White singing "One Kiss" from The New Moon, a duet with Leigh Munro, just because I like his voice (and his face, lbr — he has the cutest dimples).

White was previously married to opera choreographer Sharon Halley, whom he met when both of them worked at the St. Louis Municipal Opera in the 1980s. The two have a daughter named Amanda, who was born in 1985. White and Halley divorced in 2003. In May 2013, White married Susan Powell, a singer-actress and former Miss America. The two had met in the 1980s when doing theater.

Beauty and the Beast

In 1989, White participated in a blind audition for the role of Gaston in Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast. He and Paige O'Hara, who landed the leading role of Belle, had previously worked together in the 1982-3 revival of the opera Show Boat.

Though it was not the norm for animated voiceovers at the time, O'Hara requested that she record with her costars, Robby Benson and White. The voice recordings took 2.5 years to finish. The Disney animators then used those recordings (along with videotapes) to do their drawings.

Howard Ashman, who wrote the lyrics for the songs, was also involved with directing the voice actors and helping them develop their characters as they recorded. White praised Ashman, who passed away before BATB was released, for his clear vision for the characters: "He...communicated it so clearly that I always had [a] good idea of what we were going for. Gaston's humor, we found in the doing perhaps more than on the page."

White doesn't think Gaston looks like him but admits there is a resemblance. "I've seen expressions there that I've only seen in a mirror," he said in an interview with the Seattle Times. He also shared that Gaston's personality changed after he recorded his parts: "Gaston was originally very loutish, brutish, more fat and snarly. In the process of refining the character, he became more devilishly handsome, and they played on the irony of his attractiveness. But he's still full of himself and how wonderful he is."

White is "quite proud" of his work on Beauty and the Beast because "you knew you were part of a magnificent tradition." At conventions, he often shares the story of when he visited the Disney animation studios: "When I finally went into the trailer where Gaston's animators were working and they heard my voice, they all poked their heads out to see the person attached to the voice they had been animating for a couple of years."

Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (nominated three times), and Best Sound at the 64th Academy Awards, held in 1992. White and O'Hara performed "Belle" at the award ceremony, while Jerry Orbach performed "Be Our Guest."

In 1995, Richard White sang a mash-up of "Belle" and "Gaston" as part of the Disney World Christmas Parade. Below is a side-by-side video comparing the animated movie and the live recording, though you can easily find the whole Christmas parade on YouTube.

In 2015, White's work as Gaston led the creators of the video game King's Quest to seek him out to voice Whisper, a character very similar to Gaston. In 2022, White had a cameo appearance as the baker in the Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration TV special, which also featured O'Hara in a cameo as the bookseller. White still provides the voice for Gaston in video games and TV specials.

White is just so darned cute as the baker — I had to include this.

Fan convention appearances

White's first convention appearance I can find evidence of is SacAnime Winter 2017 (which siiiigh, wish I'd gone to that!). There's a photo of him, as well as a podcast episode discussing the BATB reunion panel. RosterCon has a list of his fan convention appearances, though it's missing his GalaxyCon Richmond 2019 appearance.

White's convention panels are mostly retrospectives on Beauty and the Beast (and often feature Paige O'Hara as well), but his panel at Sac-Comic Con 2024 specifically focused on villains in Disney media (alongside Jonathan Freeman, Santino Fontana, and Ken Page).

Below are links to recordings of panels that he has attended, all of which are with Paige O'Hara.

SacAnime Winter 2017 (only 7 minutes of the full panel, but it starts with Richard talking)
GalaxyCon Richmond 2019
GalaxyCon Minneapolis 2019 (also features Robby Benson)
GalaxyCon Louisville 2019 (there are audio problems with the official recording, so good thing there's this fan-recorded version)
GalaxyCon Live 2021 (this one's virtual, but in addition to O'Hara, it also features Robby Benson and Bradley Pierce, who plays Chip)
GalaxyCon Richmond 2023
Animate! Raleigh 2024
C2E2 2024 — this is happening next week, hopefully we'll get a recording!

Fun facts

Unlike Gaston, White does not consume five dozen eggs per day, rather two egg whites on dry toast.
His favorite Disney movie (other than BATB) is Snow White.
White often cheekily pretends that Gaston is not a villain and is simply misunderstood.
He also likes to claim that since no body is shown at the end of the movie, there is no proof that Gaston is actually dead.
His favorite line from BATB from another character is "Gaston, you're positively primeval!"
His favorite scenes from BATB are the opening sequence, the ballroom scene, and the storm at the end.

Podcasts and interviews

White hasn't done that many interviews and podcasts, or at least not that many that can be found online, so I've compiled a list of some I found interesting or that I drew from for this piece.

All About the Mouse Podcast: Episode 183 — Richard White (Gaston)
Disney Parks Podcast: Show #167 — An Interview with Belle & Gaston
God is a Geek: From Beauty and the Beast to King's Quest: An Interview with Voice Actor, Richard White
The Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Episode 93 — Paige O'Hara & Richard White
Reddit AMA: Paige O'Hara and Richard White
San Diego Drama King: An Interview with Richard White of the Jekyll & Hyde National Tour
Seattle Times: Voice Behind The "Beast" Hunk Is From Broadway

Juanes — "Vida Cotidiana" Concert at Hard Rock Live in Wheatland, CA

kycoo — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 03:55:40 GMT

I guess my LJ has morphed from a drama blog to a concert blog haha. But anyhow, this past Presidents Day weekend, I went to my very first Juanes concert! No, I am not Latina nor do I speak Spanish fluently, but I took Spanish for six years in middle/high school and was fortunate to have a teacher who loved Juanes and thus passed that love onto me.

So when I found out he was touring in North America for his new album, I asked my cousin (who similarly had a Spanish teacher who was obsessed with Juanes) if she wanted to go to the Sacramento show. Turns out the venue was actually in Wheatland, a little town north of Sacramento that doesn't really have anything to its name apart from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where the concert took place.

We ended up with fourth row seats because when the ticket presale opened, the only section that was available for purchase was the one in front. I sort of panicked because people were starting to buy up tickets, so I just grabbed two seats that were of a reasonable price (about $200 after fees) for a reasonable distance away from the stage. Considering I paid more for nosebleed seats for JJ Lin last year, I'm calling this one a good deal.

Back of the tour T-shirt, plus the lyrics booklet that I created and printed out for studying purposes

Prior to this concert, I only knew a handful of Juanes songs by heart — namely, Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor, Sueños, Para Tu Amor, and Me Enamora. I was familiar with a few others, like La Camisa Negra (one of his most well-known songs), A Dios Le Pido, and Fotografía, but there were also many that I had never heard before.

So, being the stereotypical Asian, I took the Spotify playlist my cousin had made from the tour setlist, compiled a booklet with all the lyrics, and set out to learn all 25 songs... or at least familiarize myself with them all. I also looked up all the words I didn't know so that I could get a better idea of what each song was about. (Shout out to the Songlations website for their incredible translations. And to Learn Spanish with Andrew for their translation of Yerbatero, which is so complicated I still can't sing it without looking at the lyrics.)

It was quite an enlightening experience and is definitely the most studying I've ever done for a concert. (I slacked off with JJ Lin once I learned he puts the song lyrics on the screens.) However, despite the work, I will admit it was rather fun and helped me dig deeper into the meaning behind Juanes' words. I also learned a lot of new vocabulary, such as...

mentira = lie/falsehood (this shows up a LOT in his songs)
atardecer = sunset/dusk (and the sunset is always "rojo" in his lyrics)
quemar = to burn (and you gotta do the rrrrrr sound at the end that Juanes does in Mala Gente)

After studying on and off for about 2-3 months, I felt a little more confident going into the concert and had even fallen in love with Ojalá, one of the songs from his new album, Vida Cotidiana. The weather was awful the day of the concert, but luckily we were staying at the Hard Rock Hotel, so we didn't even have to leave the building to get to the concert.

I was looking forward to seeing what merch was available, but there ended up being just one option: a tour T-shirt. I usually end up buying a T-shirt at concerts, but it was weird to not have anything else available. I guess the limited selection made it super easy for the guy working the register, but I was a little disappointed because I didn't really love the design.

However, that was the only disappointment of the night. Once Juanes and his band stepped onto the stage a little before 8:30, it was a good almost 2 hours of awesome rock music with the occasional ballad thrown in. The band did a great job seamlessly transitioning from one song to the next, and I have to give a particular shout-out to Juanes's guitarist Juan Daza, who is freaking amazing.

Since I pretty much had the setlist memorized from my study sessions (though Juanes did deviate a little), I knew which songs were coming up next and was able to get parts of my favorite songs on video so that I can rewatch them for the good memories. The only favorite I didn't get on video was Para Tu Amor because Juanes stepped into the audience to do an acoustic rendition, and I was too short to see where he was haha.

Here's an embed of the Instagram post I put on my cosplay account (since my personal account is private).

https://instagram.com/p/C3iWMSjxX7S

Anyhow, I wasn't able to memorize as many songs as I would have liked, plus Juanes covered a few songs from other artists, which left me completely clueless, but despite the language barrier, it was an amazing show. I would definitely attend another one in the future!

Also, shout out to the lady sitting in front of me and my cousin, who noticed us after the concert and asked "Do you two speak Spanish?" and then gave us high fives. LOL.

JJ Lin 林俊傑 — "Road to JJ20" Concert at SAP Center in San Jose

kycoo — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 04:35:51 GMT

A few weeks ago, my friend and I attended JJ Lin's "Road to JJ20" concert (it's been 20 years since his debut). She and I had gone to his L.A. concert seven years ago, and we were looking forward to attending a concert after many years of deprivation of live entertainment. Plus, we figured we'd save on airfare money since JJ was coming to our city.

What we didn't expect was that his concert tickets would explode to 3x as much as last time and that what seemed like the entire young adult Chinese population in San Jose would be fighting for tickets the second they went on sale. Last time, we bought the cheapest tickets ($68) long after they had gone on sale; there were tons of tickets left, and we were surrounded by empty seats at the concert. This time, the cheapest tickets were $188, and the entire concert was sold out on Ticketmaster in five minutes. By chance, I happened to score some $268 tickets, which ended up being around $300 after all the Ticketmaster fees. Definitely the most expensive concert tickets I've ever bought. But was it worth it?

HECK YES.

End of JJ20 concert in San Jose, CA — "You complete me..."

Some awesome parts of the concert:

The concert started even more punctually than last time, probably around 20 minutes after the official start time. (I was very pleased with this because the concert was held on a random Tuesday, which means I had to get through the rest of the work week.) The concert itself was almost 3 hours long, with no intermission. So despite the astronomical ticket cost, well worth the money.
Like last time, there were song subtitles. In simplified Chinese, yes (not sure why because JJ is from Singapore and obviously writes in traditional), but it definitely helped with keeping up with the songs. I wish subtitles were a thing at all concerts.
I talked about this last time, but I love how JJ fluently moves between English and Chinese when speaking. My Chinese literacy is nowhere near my English capabilities (I could read about 90% of the subtitles), but my listening skills are fine and hearing Chinese just gives me a homey feeling that listening to other languages doesn't.
Finally got to hear JJ sing "Still Miss Her" (我還想她), one of my favorite songs and one he did not sing last time in L.A. I am pretty certain I will never get to hear him sing "Lord Vader" (黑武士) live, which is my other favorite song, but I'll still keep hoping.

Before singing "If Only" (可惜沒如果), JJ played just the opening chord, leading to a huge roar from the audience because we all knew which song it was. He then joked that it might be a different song and pretended to be giving us a tease of a WIP piece. See video embed below. (There's another video from a better angle here, but it doesn't have the playful banter beforehand.)

Some not-so-great parts:

JJ's L.A. concert in 2016 seemed more chill and relaxed, whereas this one was very much a production. Not saying I didn't like the cool visual effects and such, but when I go to a JJ Lin concert, it's to hear him sing and play piano. I'm not there to see the dancers or the weird anime transition videos he had. I get that using videos makes it easier for JJ, but... these videos were weeeird. You can see a glimpse of one in this video from the opening of the concert (which, by the way, A+ for opening with "Remember" (記得), except that means he sang a truncated version of it).

About halfway through the concert, JJ thanked all of us for coming and sticking with him for so many years. Pretty standard fare for a live concert, especially one to commemorate 20 years in showbiz, but then he went on to talk about how there will always be people who try to bring you down and how he'd gone through a pretty dark time. It got so depressing that my friend and I were wondering if we should be concerned for his mental health. Luckily the mood lightened up later, but it was still bizarre. The next day, I Googled "jj lin scandal" and found that he'd been accused of being linked with the Kris Wu scandal, which I guess would suck for anybody.

Apart from those two points, our concert experience was overwhelmingly positive, and it was nice not having to fly out to Socal, even if we didn't really end up paying less money since the tickets were so much more expensive. Will we go to another JJ Lin concert? If the tickets don't go up another threefold and if JJ comes to San Jose again, maybe. Which he should, if the sold out arena is any indication.

Also, hello to anyone on my friends list who may be reading this. I know I haven't updated in close to 5 years, and I haven't done any drama updates in...maybe 8 years? Which pretty much coincides with when I started grad school part-time, while also working full-time. To protect my sanity at the time, I decided to give up dramas for the duration of my grad school program, from August 2016 to December 2018. So I completely fell out of the habit of keeping up with currently airing dramas. Nowadays I watch more anime and Disney+ shows, and while I have caught up on some dramas I missed during my grad school stint, I can't be bothered to blog about them. Oh well, such is life. I still keep up with my f-list here, though!

Why the CRAZY RICH ASIANS Mahjong Scene Slays Me (and not just for the reason you think)

kycoo — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 04:32:27 GMT

Michelle Yeoh as Eleanor Young in CRAZY RICH ASIANS

Over the weekend, I was fortunate enough to catch a showing of CRAZY RICH ASIANS, and like many other viewers afterward, I went running to the Internet to read reviews, look up the cast, and – most importantly – find out what the heck was going on in that mahjong scene!?!?

There are a number of in-depth articles explaining the symbolism behind the scene (I recommend Jeff Yang’s at Vox, which was adapted from his original post at Angry Asian Man). And while the underlying symbolism is ingenious, I want to discuss another aspect of the scene that resonated with me even more.

(Spoilers below!)

Before I dive into exactly why the mahjong scene impacted me so much, I want to say that I went into the movie theater expecting to definitely cry at the typical dramatic rom-com moments and to maybe cry at seeing people like me on the silver screen.

I was not expecting to cry when Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) reveals to Rachel (Constance Wu) that because she knew she was not favored by her mother-in-law, she arranged for her son Nick (Henry Golding) to be mostly raised by his paternal grandmother, thus ensuring that he became the favorite grandchild and the heir apparent.

And yet, cry I did. At first this was because I could relate to it personally – I was my late grandmother’s unofficial favorite, and even though my family is nowhere near crazy rich, the privilege that comes with being the favorite grandchild is one that cannot be bought with any amount of money.

I cried again later when I realized that this revelation from Eleanor ties in with the end of the movie. During the mahjong scene, Eleanor realizes the depth of the love that Rachel has for Nick. Rachel is willing to give up Nick as a husband so that he can have a better future. In a similar way, Eleanor gave up Nick as a son so that he could have a better future.

This is why Eleanor ultimately gives her approval: because she sees herself and her own sacrificial love in Rachel.

5 Reasons Pokémon GO is My Favorite Pokémon Game Ever

kycoo — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 03:03:47 GMT

Remember in the classic Sailor Moon anime, when Jedite would come up with crazy convoluted plans in order to collect energy for the Negaverse?

I'm pretty sure if we lived in the Sailor Moon universe, the newly released Pokémon GO would be the latest Negaverse plot.

Pokémon GO is essentially a dream come true for diehard Pokémon fans. To be honest, I don't even consider myself that big of a fan, considering I haven't watched all of the anime seasons, nor have I played through all the games. But Pokémon GO is by far the best game app I have ever downloaded on my phone. Here's why:

1. It's free.
The other Pokémon games by Nintendo will generally run you $30-$40, and they don't really get discounted by much after their initial release. You also have to take into consideration the fact that you have to keep up with Nintendo's handheld consoles in order to play the newest games, and those aren't cheap, either. (As of now, a Nintendo 2DS, which is an older model and was released in 2013, costs about $80 new.)

In contrast, Pokémon GO is free to download, and while it does feature in-app purchases, you don't actually have to purchase anything to progress in the game, because you can pick up all the items you need. It's true that you will need a compatible smartphone in order to play, and ideally a robust enough data plan, but considering I have both of those already, it doesn't seem like an extra cost.

2. It doesn't force you to battle other Pokémon or trainers.
In order to advance in the other Pokémon games, you have to train your Pokémon and engage in battles. But in Pokémon GO, that stuff's all optional. There are Gyms here and there, but you don't have to engage them if you don't want to. Moreover, to catch new Pokémon, you just lob Pokéballs at them and hope for the best, rather than whittling them down to the lowest HP possible and then capturing them.

3. It provides a lot more freedom in regards to interacting with Pokémon.
This is somewhat related to the second point, but in the other Pokémon games, the main point is to either defeat the Elite Four (or equivalent) or complete your Pokédex by catching all the Pokémon available. I have heard that in later generations, the objectives branch out a little, but the main point is still to Be The Very Best (by beating everyone else and catching all the Pokémon).

With Pokémon GO, though? There is no definite End Point of the game, which means you decide what your objective is. Want to catch all the cute Pokémon and call it a day? Be my guest. Want to hatch as many Eggs as you can? Go right ahead. Want to fill up all your 250 Pokémon slots with Zubat? That's totally fine.

To be honest, I have never really seen the appeal of training Pokémon and having to build a well balanced team with Pokémon I may not necessarily like. I want a team of all Water Pokémon, darnit! In the anime, they have other Pokémon-related professions, like breeders, watchers, professors, etc., and those have always seemed much more interesting to me than the generic trainer. And in Pokémon GO, you don't have to be a trainer.

4. It brings unlikely groups together.
The other Pokémon games are traditionally solitary games. Even though they do incorporate trading with friends (or strangers), it's an aspect of the game that can easily be ignored. You can finish the whole game sitting in your house.

Pokémon GO forces you to go outside, where there are other players most likely congregating around the area you want to go to. For a shy person like me, this is a little intimidating, but Pokémon can bring people together in ways you wouldn't imagine. I've already read a bunch of stories of people who have struck up unlikely friendships over Pokémon GO, and yeah, maybe these friendships will only last until the fad passes, but you never know what seeds may have been sown in that brief interaction.

5. It makes walking fun.
I hardly think Pokémon GO provides good cardio exercise (it's hard to walk fast when you're always stopping to catch Pokémon), but any amount of walking is better than sitting on one's butt. Plus I'm already in the habit of going on a walk during my lunch hour, so this is like an added perk -- provided the game servers are up, that is.

Are there some things about Pokémon GO that could be improved? Yes, of course -- stabilizing server uptime, guaranteeing player safety, and minimizing potential security risks. But on the whole, Pokémon GO is one of the most engaging mobile games ever released, and it really is like part of my childhood came true.

Now I just need a Yu-Gi-Oh! version. 8D

JJ Lin 林俊傑 - "By Your Side" Concert at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles

kycoo — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 06:56:41 GMT

This past weekend, two of my high school friends and I met up in San Diego to catch up, eat good food, and (most importantly) attend JJ Lin's "By Your Side" concert in Los Angeles on February 21st.

Some backstory: a few months ago, one of my friends made a totally offhand comment about how we should go to a JJ Lin concert if he ever came to the U.S. (The three of us are all casual JJ Lin fans, as in we like the majority of his music and would definitely pick some of his songs at karaoke, but none of us knows any of his songs by heart or owns a physical copy of his albums.) We all agreed in the joking "haha, of course it'll never happen" manner.

Fast-forward to early January, when I happen to pass by a Chinese bookstore and see a poster advertising JJ Lin's concert in Reno. Since it was scheduled for February 14th and I already had plans (anime convention, nothing romantically related at all LOL), I texted my friend something along the lines of "JJ Lin's performing in Reno on Valentine's Day. If you find yourself a boyfriend before then, you should go." Still, of course, maintaining the joking "haha, of course it'll never happen" tone.

Long story short: my friend found out about the LA concert taking place a week after, we hurriedly bought the cheapest tickets possible and booked plane tickets to SD (where our other friend was letting us crash), and the joke about going to a JJ Lin concert became true.

I'd read some negative reviews on Ticketmaster about JJ's previous concerts in the U.S., so I entered LA's Shrine Auditorium with a little trepidation, but JJ blew all of those worries completely out of the water. It was an amazing concert. As I wrote on my Weibo mini-review, "10/10, would go again."

I think the best part of the show, apart from the thrill of just hearing JJ Lin sing live, was seeing how easily JJ moved between Mandarin and English. As an American-born Chinese, I have always felt most comfortable with the "Chinglish" language, i.e. Chinese and English thrown together, sometimes in ways that don't entirely make sense. It was just so cool seeing JJ embrace both languages, especially since this was a Chinese concert taking place in the U.S.

Another awesome thing about the show was that JJ included lyrics on the two side screens! This is actually kind of funny because my friends and I were scrambling to learn at least the chorus to the first single from JJ's new album after realizing we didn't know a single song by heart. Turns out we didn't need to worry about it at all HAHAHA. This part also made me happy that I had minored in Chinese in college because the lyrics were all in simplified Chinese, which I would not been able to read had it not been for my Chinese minor. Yay, education.

Anyway, enough about my feelings. Here are some rambling thoughts about the concert! All of the fancams I've embedded are courtesy of YanisRei on YouTube, unless otherwise noted.

* The show started pretty punctually, if you take into consideration concert time and Asian time. It was scheduled to start around 8pm, and JJ appeared on stage a few minutes before half-past eight. Cue lots of screaming.

* The concert lasted a good two hours, and JJ was really good about connecting each song to the next with music or just talking, so it never seemed to drag. There was this cool bit where he pretended we were all sitting around a campfire at a local park. This worked perfectly for his acoustic set, which included his super cute song "Perfect Match" (豆漿油條). I love how he led into this song by talking about snacks because the song title literally translates to "Soy Milk and Chinese Donut" -- everyone, and I mean everyone, knew what song he was talking about before he even said the title.

* JJ didn't perform my two all-time favorite songs from him ("Still Miss Her" (我還想她) and "Lord Vader" (黑武士), both from his Sixology album), but he sang so many goodies that I can forgive that. The encore was particularly spectacular because I was only expecting him to sing two, maybe three, songs after we called him back to the stage. He ended up singing so many I lost count.

* Funniest parts from the concert:
(1) when JJ called out a male fan for flashing him, and then quickly clarified that he doesn't want fans to flash him -- even funnier is that the same male fan commented on the YouTube video I'm embedding below

(2) when JJ talked about eating at a well-known LA restaurant called Eggslut -- I had to do a double take the first time he said it because the word "slut" just didn't register

(3) when JJ sang the song "Smiling Eyes" (愛笑的眼睛) and went off-stage to interact with fans -- you can see him getting mobbed in the video below while security tries desperately to keep him safe. I have to admit, this was a strange choice for an audience-interaction song because it's about a breakup -- the lyrics literally say, "It's only after I left you that I discovered my smiling eyes."

(4) when JJ called his piano his wife -- it's not in the video below, which is of him covering Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud," but it happened right before, and I actually got it on video myself, which I uploaded to my Facebook but can't be bothered uploading to YouTube. Basically, JJ talks about how we feel more relaxed in front of people we know, e.g. our husband. Then he goes, "When I'm with my wife" -- and here he pets his piano lovingly -- "lots of things happen."

(Thanks to alli c for the video.)

It's bedtime for me, so I'm going to close this post with two more video embeds. There's probably a lot I wanted to say that I forgot to include. I guess I'll just have to go to another one of his concerts in the future! Hehe.

(1) "Remember" (記得) -- mostly sharing because you can hear his voice/piano so well on this song, even though the video quality isn't that great

(2) "River South" (江南) -- classic JJ Lin ballad from his second album. He closed the concert with this song.

Animation on Display 2016

kycoo — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 07:08:07 GMT

So this weekend is Animation on Display (AOD), a local anime convention that's much smaller than Fanime but still has a lot of cool stuff. AOD also has Fanime beat in terms of venue, because this year they held it at the Santa Clara Convention Center, which boasts free parking (and beats trying to park in downtown San Jose any day).

Unfortunately, I was not familiar with any of the guests this year, apart from Liz Climo, who is an artist for The Simpsons but whom I actually know because of the cute comics she posts on her Tumblr. It seems like people were pretty excited about the guests, though, even if I didn't know any of them. The biggest names were probably Hato Moa & Damurushi, the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, which I've definitely heard of but have never checked out.

Anyway, this is just a quick recap of Saturday, since I don't think I'll get the chance to go back tomorrow. No pictures, unfortunately.

I was originally going to go with my sister, but she got strep throat earlier in the week and was under a lot of stress from school interviews, so we figured she should just take it easy this weekend. I was a little hesitant about going by myself, since these things are inevitably more fun with friends, and I even considered not cosplaying, but I ultimately decided to just take the plunge. Good thing too, because it ended up being a great experience.

Registration/badge pick-up started at 8:30, but since there was nothing going on until 10:00, I didn't arrive until after then. I was actually scrambling a bit in the morning because I was debuting my cosplay as Carly Nagisa from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, but I couldn't figure out how to get all my hair under the wig cap. Luckily, Carly's hair color is similar enough to mine so I cheated and just braided it back and let it hang under the wig. Heh. I'll figure it out some other time.

Panels I attended:

* "Art and Social Media" with Liz Climo - Nothing too interesting in this one; I just liked hearing her talk about her cute comics.
* "Fabric Choice for Cosplay" - I wasn't planning on attending this originally, but I had a gap in my schedule and it seemed like it wouldn't hurt to attend. There was a ton of information and I definitely didn't retain it all, but I did learn a wee bit about fibers versus finishes and how certain fabrics photograph compared to others.
* "Viz Media Industry Panel" - This one was... a little awkward. Mostly because the Viz employee who ran it also did the Viz Media panel at Fanime last year, and she was not very technologically competent then and doesn't seem to have improved. I actually recognized and remembered her, that's how awkward it was at Fanime last year. But that aside, the panel was fine, and it was cute seeing how excited she was to share all the latest Viz anime/manga news. Speaking of which, I was all set to buy the new Death Note Omega Edition that she mentioned... then I realized it was a Blu-Ray release. =_=
* "Fansubbing for Dummies" with Doremi Fansubs - I've actually dabbled in fansubbing before (for MVs and dramas), so I knew pretty much everything in the panel already. However, they did include a brief history of anime fansubbing, which was interesting because I've never subbed for anime (with good reason). The only thing I didn't like about this panel was there was this really annoying girl sitting near the back who kept talking to the people around her. Hello? Manners?
* "Crunchyroll Industry Panel" - This panel was packed. Which is cool because hey, Crunchyroll is providing a good service, and I'm glad people are supporting it. The panel started off with an awkward promotion for Crunchyroll Premium, but once we got past that and the panelists started showing clips from some of the shows they're simulcasting, it got better. Apparently, Erased is the big show to be watching this season.

Since AOD is so much smaller than Fanime, its Artist Alley, Dealers Hall, and Swap Meet are all on a smaller scale as well, and the only things I bought were a few prints. (Which is good for my February budget because my friends and I are doing a San Diego/LA trip next weekend to attend a JJ Lin concert. Heh.) I'm trying to find links to the prints I got, since AOD provides a helpful guide to all the AA artists, but for some reason, I can't figure it out right now. Maybe later.

Cosplay isn't huge at AOD -- people do it, of course, but there aren't any official gatherings, and its Cosplay.com subforum is pretty empty. So I didn't really get pictures of good cosplay, except for one of a Mandalorian Twi'lek from Star Wars. I did get some nice compliments on my cosplay, though, which was very encouraging, and one of my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! fan artists even took a picture of me. And I also bumped into another cosplayer who cosplays one of my favorite characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (though she was dressed as something else today), but I got too nervous and tongue-tied to tell her that she was one of the cosplayers who inspired me to make my Carly cosplay. *sigh* It's so hard to talk to people you admire from online stuff. =_=

All in all, a pretty good small con experience. Except for the random time these two college boys (whose names I already forgot... oops) struck up a conversation with me and tried to get me to walk around Artist Alley with them and add them on Facebook. Uhhhh you guys are strangers and I literally just met you, why would I add you on Facebook? Plus, they identified my cosplay wrong... which actually led to a funny conversation with them, but then it got awkward fast. Next time, definitely bringing the sister.

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

kycoo — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 07:21:24 GMT

I just came back from my fourth viewing of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, this time in IMAX 3D*. I think I'm finally ready to talk about it.

In case you couldn't tell from the fact that I've watched it four times in theaters now, I really liked The Force Awakens. It doesn't rank above The Empire Strikes Back or even A New Hope, but it's easily as rewatchable as Return of the Jedi, though it does leave me an emotional wreck at the end each time.

This is going to be a lot of babble and incoherence and fangirling. And spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

Let's get the 2D vs. 3D vs. IMAX 3D question out of the way first. Is the 3D worth it? Not really. I have yet to see a movie where the 3D is truly, truly necessary. But does it make The Force Awakens more enjoyable? Heck YES. There are three specific scenes that really wowed me with the 3D (when Rey is scavenging in the beginning, when the First Order ship is poking out at you, and when the lightsaber flies toward you at the end), plus any scenes involving X-Wings and TIE Fighters and occasionally the Millennium Falcon. If you love your Star Wars, I would encourage giving the 3D at least a try.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the big spoiler, i.e. Han Solo's death.

I'm not going to lie, I've cried every single time he dies. Han Solo ranks #2 on my list of all-time favorite Star Wars characters, so it's little wonder that I feel like my heart is being crushed whenever I watch his death scene.

The thing is, you know it's coming. Even from a mere storytelling aspect, you know that there is no way Han Solo will step out onto that catwalk and successfully convince Kylo Ren to turn away from the dark side, not in the first movie of the new trilogy. And yet every time, I fool myself into thinking Maybe he won't die this time.

I remember on opening night, thinking to myself, I wonder if they're going to kill off Han Solo in the new trilogy, because it's common knowledge that Harrison Ford wanted Han killed off in the Original Trilogy. So I was sort of expecting it to happen in Episode IX, or maybe Episode VIII. You know, after they'd gotten some more mileage out of him. But no, they went and offed him in Episode VII. I was in shock and denial for almost the rest of the movie.

Thanks, screenwriters, thanks a lot. This is why I was an emotional wreck at work the day after. (The main thought running through my head that day was "Can we please please please please go back to the EU canon." Also, "So that's how they got Harrison Ford to come back." lol.)

Despite the pain, I have to admit that they handled Han beautifully in The Force Awakens. I wanted more Han/Leia scenes (especially now that I know we won't get any more), but they did an impressive job giving him just the right amount of screentime and some of his best lines yet. (The "Chewie, we're home" line? I must have watched that 100 times during the trailer. Still made me cheer when he said it in the actual movie.) They let him go out in the best way possible.

Now onto the slightly cheerier stuff... I love our new protagonists. Rey (Daisy Ridley) is everything I want in a female lead and more, Finn (John Boyega) is such a darling, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is incredibly charismatic and studly, and BB-8. OH MY GOD BB-8. I was skeptical about him when the first teaser hit, but I'm a full-on BB-8 fangirl now. I still love R2-D2 more, but BB-8, I'm on board.

I found most of the new antagonists refreshing, with the exception of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), but that's probably because we don't see enough of him to really form an opinion. My best friend and I have already fallen head over heels for Captain Phasma** (Gwendoline Christie), which makes sense if you consider that we are both diehard Boba Fett fans. I also have a major soft spot for General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), partly because his character is so unintentionally hilarious and partly because he's Bill Weasley with a haircut, as well as the Daniel Craig Stormtrooper, who is officially my new favorite Stormie.

Then there's Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Oh boy.

I really like his theme music, I'll give him that. It's not as epic as Darth Vader's Imperial March, but then again, whose is?

I found Kylo Ren super disappointing after the first viewing, but I've mellowed out about him after the three subsequent viewings. I was mostly disappointed because he just didn't seem as threatening as a Star Wars villain should be, especially after he kept taking off his mask, and his lightsaber skills don't seem as good as they should be. However, I do think he has a lot of potential for the next two episodes, and I like that the writers seem to be trying for a different sort of villain with him.

It helps that Adam Driver is a very solid actor who really nails his scenes. I may have found his looks very jarring initially, but once you get used to them, you have to admire how much of a better actor he is than Hayden Christensen.

It's a little hard for me to take Kylo Ren seriously, though, after his hissy fits and the creation of the Emo Kylo Ren Twitter, which is a sort of Star Wars AU in which Kylo is an emo teenager who lives with his parents, has a friendly rivalry with Rey and Hux, and is obsessed with Darth Vader and Hot Topic.

The soundtrack, as expected of John Williams, is phenomenal. I'm listening to it as I write this, actually. I already mentioned Kylo Ren's theme, but I also want to give a shout out to "Torn Apart" (three guesses what scene that's from), "Han and Leia" (of course), "The Jedi Steps and Finale" (gives me chills every time) and "Rey's Theme." I actually didn't know that that was Rey's theme until I looked it up, but it's very recognizable from the movie.

As for everyone's accusations that the plot of The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope's... I noticed the similarities too, but I saw them as more of a nice homage than anything else. It didn't really bother me until the Resistance started planning out how to take out Starkiller Base, and the plan was LITERALLY "Lower the shields, take down the thermal oscillator, blow the thing up." What kind of a plan is that? No wonder the Starkiller Base Trench Run felt so unimpressive compared to the Death Star Trench Run.

All in all, I really liked The Force Awakens, and I'm super pumped for Episodes VIII and IX so they can answer all the questions I have. Except maybe the biggest one: How come Rey can understand Chewie???????

---
* The Force Awakens has pretty much shattered all my previous movie-related records. Prior to this, the only movies I had seen twice in theaters were the seventh Harry Potter movie and WALL-E. The Force Awakens is the first time I have watched a movie more than twice in theaters, more than once in 3D, and at least once in each format (2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D). Worth it? Yes, especially since two of the showings I attended were free. lol. My cousin and I have already decided to watch it again when it lands at the local indie movie theater.
** I got a new laptop in late December to replace my seven-year-old tank. Yes, I named it Phasma.

2015 Drama Recap

kycoo — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 00:49:15 GMT

It feels like every year, I make some sort of excuse as to why I didn't watch as many dramas as I could have. So this year, I'm just going straight into the recap.

Total Number of Dramas: 8 (5 cdramas, 2 twdramas, 1 jdrama)
Breakdown: 6 finished, 1 still watching, 1 on hold

FAVORITE DRAMA
Someone Like You

Someone Like You was broadcast from January to May, and usually having an air date so early in the year means I have little to no recollection of it when I put together my yearly recap, but this one was different. The story of how Fang Zhancheng (Kingone Wang) loses his fiancee and eyesight in a car accident and later meets and falls in love with her twin sister Chen Yuxi (Kirsten Ren), Someone Like You never really broke any ground with its storytelling and characters, but I loved it anyway, and it is by far my favorite drama from 2015. It started the year off right.

As expected of all SETTV dramas, Someone Like You began very strong (the first two episodes were amazing) and slows down a bit afterward, but as a whole, the drama was still very cute and enjoyable to watch. There was one slightly annoying plot point, in which Zhancheng's dead fiancee had her heart donated to a girl named Xu Yati, who becomes Yuxi's friend and sparks some minor drama because Yuxi notices that when she and and Zhancheng together, Yati's heart from the dead fiancee starts to hurt, so Yuxi wants to be all noble and break up with Zhancheng, and blah blah blah. Luckily, the melodrama over this isn't as crazy as it could have been, but I could have done without the whole plotline, to be honest.

My favorite things about Someone Like You? One, that Kingone's character is actually a really nice guy. Usually, male leads are such overbearing and obnoxious jerks that you wonder why there are girls falling all over them. With Fang Zhancheng, I can understand why. Two, Bii contributed a wonderful, wonderful song, "We Are Walking in Love" (我們在愛中漫步), to the soundtrack. There is a beautiful instrumental version that plays in episode 15, and I'm sad that the OST (which is great overall) didn't include it. If only Kingone had sung something, though, since he used to be in a boyband. c:

Bonus gif because Kingone is too good-looking for his own good.

Related post: "Someone Like You" Continues Kicking Butt with Episode 2

ENJOYABLE DRAMAS
Marry Me Or Not?

As Marry Me Or Not? is Roy Chiu's newest drama, not to mention his second collaboration with Alice Ke from Office Girls (one of my favorite dramas from 2011), there was no way I was going to just skip over this one. At first, I was a little hesitant because the main female has such an off-putting personality and I'm not into watching two bitchy females catfight, even if they are catfighting over Roy. But I stuck it out, and Marry Me Or Not? has proven to be one of the better written stories I've seen.

In a nutshell, Marry Me Or Not? tells of two frenemies, Cai Huanzhen (Alice Ke) and Hao Shengnan (Joanne Tseng), who were best friends in their university days but got into a huge argument over Jiang Qianyao (Harry Chang), an older boy whom Shengnan really liked (and still likes). Years later, the two meet up again during a reunion lunch, and Shengnan, who is desperate to one-up the recently engaged Huanzhen, drags out her extremely attractive older brother, Hao Meng (Roy Chiu), and pretends that he is her boyfriend. More trouble ensues as Shengnan successfully ruins Huanzhen's wedding, causing her fiance to call the whole thing off, and a now engraged Huanzhen vows to steal Shengnan's "boyfriend" from her. Hao Meng, who is a divorce lawyer that doesn't believe in marriage, also has an agenda in this, as he believes dating Huanzhen will cause his mom to stop bothering him about marriage.

If the story sounds like a mess, it kind of is, but somehow, it all comes together quite well, even if I'm not too impressed by the schemes that Huanzhen and Shengnan come up with. However, Roy and Alice still have boatloads of chemistry left over from Office Girls, although they are playing drastically different characters, and I adore seeing Roy in an older brother role. It's also fun catching cameos from the various Taiwanese entertainers, including one from Chen Bolin as a parody of his character from In Time With You.

Whirlwind Girl

I went into Whirlwind Girl with very low expectations but came out pleasantly surprised. The storyline is simple enough: orphan girl Qi Baicao (Hu Bingqing) is a staunch defendant of her taekwondo teacher and adoptive father, Qu Xiangnan (Vincent Jiao), who is villified in the martial arts world because he was involved in a doping scandal years before. Although Baicao practices taekwondo every day, her connection to Qu Xiangnan means she cannot officially practice the sport, so he pushes her away and disappears, forcing her to be accepted by a taekwondo dojo. There, Baicao befriends Ruobai (Yang Yang), the highest-ranked student and her eventual boyfriend; Yu Chuyuan (Bai Jingting), a previous taekwondo supserstar who gave up the sport for unknown reasons and pursued a medical career; and Fang Tinghao (Chen Xiang), an international taekwondo champion who is by far the best character in the drama.

She also meets some other people and participates in various taekwondo competitions and events, but let's be real, we're only here for Yang Yang and Chen Xiang. The two of them really carry the drama, especially Yang Yang, who embodies the Perfect Male Lead character without once making you want to roll your eyes. Chen Xiang is an ace at comedy relief, and his character actually has a very compelling backstory. The story itself is pretty tame and predictable, but Whirlwind Girl is loads of fun to watch, and I'm all set for season 2 next year, provided Yang Yang and Chen Xiang reprise their roles.

Related post: Final thoughts on "Whirlwind Girl"

My Sunshine

Based off a popular novel that I never read, My Sunshine is one of those "they were together during college but later broke up and now they meet again" stories. In this case, it's Zhao Mosheng (Tang Yan) who has a huge crush on He Yichen (Wallace Chung) and eventually wins his heart. However, misunderstandings ensue (Mosheng's rich father interferes and sends her off to America, Yichen has a younger sister who is not related by blood who obviously likes him, etc.), and they don't see each other for years until Mosheng returns to China. Now a successful lawyer, Yichen is very cold to her upon meeting again, causing everyone to wonder "omg does he still like her" or "omg does he hate her now."

I'll admit, My Sunshine is all very cute, for the most part, maybe even a little too much "happily ever after." And while I do think the drama handles the story better than the movie adaptation does, there's just something about Yichen and Mosheng's relationship that just doesn't work for me. It's very disjointed and bizarre, almost like they're bipolar or something, which makes it hard to root for them or even want to spend time watching their scenes. Yichen as an adult, in particular, is almost like a robot! Why are people falling in love with this personality-less creature?

My Sunshine's one saving grace? Getting Bian Jiang to dub Wallace Chung. His voice, it slays me.

Related post: First thoughts on "Someone Like You," "My Sunshine"

Lady & Liar

Oh ho, this was a fun one. Lady & Liar pairs together Tang Yan as street magician Jiang Xin and Hawick Lau as mafia boss Bai Zhengqing. She accidentally rescues him from an assassination plot, and he falls in love with her, but she totally (and rightly) rejects him because she has Tony Yang, playing the blind gentleman Sheng Jiewen. But as fate would have it, Jiang Xin finds out she's Ye Xin, the long-lost heiress of the Ye family, and off she goes on a train to reunite with her family, except it gets derailed and she falls into the ocean! A thief named Du Xiaohan (Yang Rong) pretends she's Ye Xin, while Jiang Xin loses her memory and gets rescued by Bai Zhengqing, who claims she's his fiancee.

I really really liked the beginning of Lady & Liar -- the drama level was right up my alley, and I was totally swooning over Bai Zhengqing's love for Jiang Xin. I also liked Jiang Xin as a character and how she didn't fall for him right away and had a sense of justice. The derailed train scene was quite impressive, and there was a good sense of drama after that (there is one scene where Bai Zhengqing stabs himself to save Jiang Xin -- so fake but so good), but once Jiang Xin and the fake Ye Xin met after that, I got annoyed really fast because of all the petty bickering.

Also, Tony Yang was gone getting his eyes fixed for like TEN EPISODES. What gives??? I can only drool over Hawick for so long. Speaking of which, I bet he gets typecast in these roles all the time. I've never seen him in anything else before, but he is truly captivating in this type of character. And he did have great chemistry with Tang Yan, which makes me LOL wondering how Yang Mi (Hawick's real-life wife and Tang Tang's real-life bestie) felt while watching this drama.

Related post: "Lady & Liar" Heading Down the Crapper?

THE "MEH" DRAMAS
Cruel Romance

I was going to put Cruel Romance under the "So Bad It Was Painful" category, but to be honest, that wouldn't have been fair. It was an okay drama and lots of fun at some points, but I just got waaay too into the pre-broadcast hype (I actually read the original book in Chinese) that the actual outcome was somewhat of a disappointment. As it is, I don't really like to dwell too much on this one because I had a lot of hopes for it, and it didn't live up to my expectations at all.

Cruel Romance is basically how Rong Jinxiu (Chen Qiao'en) travels to Shanghai after her parents are horribly killed, bumps into businessman/triad boss Zuo Zhen (Huang Xiaoming), and somehow catches his eye despite her utter ineptitude at everything. She initially has a crush on Zuo Zhen's good friend, Xiang Yingdong (Kimi Qiao), who has a crush on Rong Jinxiu's half-sister, who is actually the woman of Yingdong's older brother but is involved in some dodgy business with an evil Japanese man whose deceased lover is Jinxiu's facetwin. Throw in some general stupidity on the part of every character, and you'll understand why I put this under "Meh."

I also get the feeling that Cruel Romance suffered from airing after Lady & Liar, because they had a lot of similar plotlines and characters, except Lady & Liar did most of them better. Sorry, Huang Xiaoming, this was not your best drama.

Related post: This is not the "Cruel Romance" I was hoping for

The Journey of Flower

Not gonna lie, I watched The Journey of Flower only for Wallace Huo. At first, I thought the story was fairly interesting, with Hua Qiangu (Zhao Liying) as an orphaned girl with strange powers who is taken under the wing of immortal Bai Zihua (Wallace Huo), with whom she later falls in love, even though master-disciple relationships are strictly forbidden. There are some cute characters in this, and it's chock full of drama and angst in the later episodes, but by the halfway point, I was watching it just to finish it.

The highlight of The Journey of Flower, apart from Wallace Huo (and his unintentionally funny facial expressions), was probably mainland actor Ma Ke. He plays the metrosexual demon lord Sha Qianmo, who takes on a sort of older brother role to Qiangu, and is by far the funniest character in the series (though he doesn't really have much competition in this area, tbh). He also has a very dramatic backstory and was definitely the character I was most invested in, though not invested enough for me to check out the "modern-age sequel." (Didn't anyone learn from the disaster that was Bu Bu Jing Qing?)

Related post: Anyone here a fan of Wallace Huo?

Death Note

Congrats, Death Note, for being the first jdrama I've checked out in years! I invited a friend to watch this with me, since we were both fond of the manga on which it's based, and after the first episode (which was sooo long), we both ended up agreeing that we liked the manga better. It's not that the drama was bad; it just wasn't what we were expecting. So this one's more or less on hold until... someday. Maybe when I'm bored enough to use Crunchyroll's 14 days of free Premium so we can skip over the endless commercials.

STILL TO WATCH
Love Through a Millennium
Watching for Chen Xiang.

Nirvana in Fire
I've heard good things about it. My cousin and uncle were both raving about it, and the storyline sounds interesting.

The Disguiser
Watching for Hu Ge.

Bromance
Watching for Baron Chen.

The Lost Tomb
Watching for Yang Yang.

Eight more days 'til Star Wars~~~~

kycoo — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:39:34 GMT

Lucasfilm released a new Chinese-language trailer for The Force Awakens earlier today with some new footage, but the lulziest part is that Luhan (the ex-EXO member) is now the "Chinese ambassador of Star Wars" or something so he has a dorky intro clip in the video. Like... why. Why does Star Wars need an ambassador in China? And why Luhan, of all the celebs you could have picked from? LOL.

How Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy's Wedding Was Twisted by Western Media

kycoo — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 05:24:53 GMT

For those living under a rock (or those who simply don't care about celebrity relationships), my Huang Xiaoming got married to his long-time girlfriend Angelababy in a super-extravagant wedding on October 8. To no one's surprise, the gorgeous wedding ceremony was all over Chinese news sites and social media, with all sorts of opinions from everyone and their grandmothers. Which is totally expected and okay.

About a week later, Western media* picked up on the story, and after I recovered from the shock of my "Huang Xiaoming" Google Alert blowing up**, I began to observe an uncomfortably pejorative slant in the reporting. Almost all of the news reports from Western media outlets, which ranged from sites like Forbes and The Telegraph to Cosmopolitan and Daily Mail, focused obsessively on the wedding's price tag and the newlyweds' comparative celebrity status.

Take a look at the headlines, for example:

Carbonated.TV tries to go for a more ~interesting~ perspective with the title $43 Million Wedding Highlights Severe Economic Inequality In China, but the URL and the structure of the article both suggest that the original title ran just like many of the others: "This is what a $$$$$$ wedding looks like."

Now, I understand that the cost of the wedding is easy clickbait -- "They spent HOW MUCH???" Even I, who can barely comprehend just how much "$31 million" actually is, would probably check out the article in hopes of seeing pretty pictures. Especially of the carousel cake and Angelababy's ring. And yes, the Chinese media had a field day with the wedding too, pressing Huang Xiaoming hard to reveal how much he'd spent on the whole thing.

The thing is, I don't think Huang Xiaoming ever told the media exactly how much the wedding had cost. Maybe he did and I just missed it, since I don't really care how he spends his own money, but the number seems to be mostly conjecture. Even The Straits Times, which posted a relatively neutral article about the wedding, wrote that it "reportedly cost nearly 200 million yuan" without stating who was supposedly reporting this amount.

A lot of Western media sites also pounced on the idea that Angelababy is suddenly China's Kim Kardashian. Basically, one day, The Telegraph started off their article with "You may recognise Angelababy from the odd Dior front row. An actress, singer and model, she is dubbed the Kim Kardashian of China." And suddenly, every news article after that started calling Angelababy "China's Kim Kardashian."

I don't keep up with the Kardashians, so I don't know if this comparison is positive or negative (I'm guessing the latter), but it bothered me a little that Western media felt such a need to define Angelababy by comparing her to a Western celebrity. I understand that this is a way to show readers unfamiliar with Chinese entertainment how hot of a star Angelababy is right now and how huge her wedding was, but as far as I know, Angelababy was never compared to Kim Kardashian before the Western media got their hands on her.

I'm not even an Angelababy fan, but it kind of bugs me that in the minds of hundreds of people, Angelababy has now been equated with some ditzy socialite when her entertainment career is actually on the rise and people should be focusing on other aspects of her. (And it sure as hell doesn't help that her stage name is "Angelababy" and that all of the other English-language news about her these days are about how she got her face examined in order to refute plastic surgery accusations.)

And last but not least, what bothers me most about the Western media's coverage about the wedding is that not a single article talks about Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy's charity work. And not just charity work in their normal lives, but charity work done in preparation for and during their actual wedding.

How come none of them talked about how Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy sent out wedding favors with cookies made by disadvantaged people? Or that the wedding favors came with cards urging their friends and family to support the disadvantaged? Or that Huang Xiaoming is now providing financial aid to 527 hearing-impaired children? Or that he invited five of those children to perform at his wedding and go sight-seeing in Shanghai afterward? Or that his wedding gift to Angelababy was establishing a charity fund in her name?

Nope, all of the Western media outlets took one look at the wedding's price tag and ran with it, conveniently ignoring all of the ways Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy tried to give back to society on their special day. Which is why you now see ignorant comments like "Sickening. Imagine what good they could of [sic] done if they donated to charity instead of wasting it on an over-the-top wedding." UM COUGH COUGH.

Was their wedding over-the-top? Probably, a little. But are they "disgusting" people who "contribute nothing positive to society," as one commenter put it? Hm, I don't know. Do I see you funding 527 children?

In conclusion, to those of you who know nothing about Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy, except what has been reported through the eyes of the Western media, let it be known: THERE IS MORE TO THEM BOTH. Trust me, I've been following Huang Xiaoming for more than seven years now. He's more than just a pretty face with money to throw around.

Footnotes
* A phrase which I'm using to refer to English-language websites that do not normally focus on Chinese/Asian news
** On average, I receive actual news from this Google Alert about twice a year. About 99% of the time, all the articles are about stuff I've already read and sometimes even translated myself. It's a good thing Google Alert doesn't look at Tumblr, otherwise I would just be receiving updates of my own updates.

Final thoughts on "Whirlwind Girl"

kycoo — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 06:44:03 GMT

a.k.a. the "I can't believe I have to wait until next summer for season 2" rant

In July, I started watching the drama Whirlwind Girl (旋風少女), also known as Tornado Girl, despite knowing nothing about it except that Chen Xiang, one of my favorite singer-turned-actors, was playing a supporting role. And that it was martial arts-related, which I was kind of craving after watching the decidedly not-really-fighting in The Journey of Flower.

To no one's surprise, the "taekwondo" in Whirlwind Girl turned out to be kind of a joke, but I ended up loving the drama anyway. The series is actually based off a story by Ming Xiaoxi, the author of Summer of Bubbles, which was later adapted into a pretty terrible drama with Da S, Peter Ho, and Huang Xiaoming. You'd think Ming Xiaoxi would have refused to allow any of her stories to get adapted in the future, but I'm glad she didn't because us viewers really lucked out with Whirlwind Girl.

The general storyline for Whirlwind Girl follows Qi Baicao, a kind-hearted orphan girl who is adopted by taekwondo world champion Qu Xiangnan, whom she sees as a mixture of father and martial arts master. Unfortunately, when he gets involved in a doping scandal, his life essentially falls apart -- his wife dies, his real daughter refuses to acknowledge him, and he is banned from teaching or competing in taekwondo. Baicao is the only one who sticks by his side, insisting (somewhat blindly at times) that he did not use performance-enhancing drugs. Every day, she takes care of her master and also gets in some kicking practice, even though her loyalty to Qu Xiangnan means she can never officially practice taekwondo.

Baicao is played by Hu Bingqing, whom I'm not familiar with, but I felt she was pretty well suited to her character and her acting was never over the top. Looks-wise, she's kind of a mix of Wang Luodan and Bai Baihe, with that sort of understated prettiness that still allows viewers to easily relate to her.

Qu Xiangnan, her father/master, is played by Vincent Jiao, whom I've had a crush on for more than a decade now. I actually don't follow his work as closely as I could (since he doesn't get starring roles that much anymore), so it was a pleasant surprise to see him. He's definitely aged visibly since The Switch, and there was clearly an effort to make his character rougher around the edges, especially since he's playing a down-and-out taekwondo practitioner, but that can't stop me from fangirling over Vincent. I was rewarded for my patience in episode 29, when they showed him wearing a suit.

Anyhoo, Master Qu Xiangnan feels guilty that Baicao won't get to develop as a martial artist because of her connection to him, so he tries to push her away and ends up pulling a disappearing act so that she's forced to move to another dojo. At first, Baicao is only in charge of cleaning, but after a series of events, the dojo master and some of the older students there realize that she has untapped potential and invite her to practice with them.

Here we have Ruobai, the highest-ranked student who is in charge of training everyone else. He is your typical stoic shixiong who eventually develops a crush on Baicao and ends up doing all sorts of crazy supportive things for her (e.g. doing part-time jobs to help pay for her school tuition and her taekwondo tests) without her ever realizing and without asking for anything in return. In other words, the Perfect Male Lead.

Ruobai is played by Yang Yang, who is becoming one of the "it" young male actors, probably thanks to his sunny smile. He's actually a minor character in another drama I'm watching, Tiny Times (which was filmed in 2012), and he's such an adorable woobie in that one! His looks have matured quite a bit for Whirlwind Girl, and he's definitely a swoon-worthy heartthrob across China now.

Heeeere's a Yang Yang picspam!

Because you can never get enough of Yang Yang's martial arts poses. I don't know if he ever did any sort of martial arts in real life, but he's convincing enough in the drama. (Or, as convincing as you can get with manga-inspired fighting moves.)

After rescuing a little boy. That's how you know he's good with kids!

The generous drama gods gave us a shirtless scene in the drama's first week.

Exclusive practice session with Baicao. This is how the seeds of love are sown.

SEWING BAICAO'S TAEKWONDO UNIFORM. I KID YOU NOT. HE IS SEWING.

HOW CAN ANYONE SIMULTANEOUSLY SEW AND BE LIT BY SUCH BEAUTIFUL LIGHTING???

Random cute fact, netizens started calling Ruobai "Daddy Ruobai" after witnessing how carefully he looked after Baicao. Like when he put a blanket over her when she fell asleep outside.

Or when he carried her back to the dojo when she fell asleep at some dinner outing.

Or when he took her out to eat beef noodle soup and gave her all of the beef from his bowl so that she wouldn't be hungry. And then took an awkward couple-not-a-couple photo together, even though her hair looked hideous from an unfortunate haircut.

And yes, sometimes being a daddy calls for her pouring water on Baicao's head in order to wake her up during a tournament.

But sometimes it also calls for a sweet cotton candy treat to share with your crush.

I will go down with this ship.

Back to the storyline... sort of.

This is Ruobai's BFF, Hu Yifeng, played by Wu Lei, whom you might recognize as the guy who played young Yang Guo in the most recent Return of the Condor Heroes adaptation (the Chen Xiao/Michelle Chen one). He is pretty much comedy relief, but he does a swell job at it.

Also at the dojo is a young man named Yu Chuyuan, who used to be a taekwondo superstar but gave up the sport for unknown reasons and decided to become a doctor. He also used to be close friends with Ruobai and Fang Tinghao (another taekwondo superstar whom I'll talk about later), but their friendship kind of fell apart when Chuyuan stepped down from the taekwondo stage. Baicao meets Chuyuan by accident and they both start liking one another, but neither is assertive enough to admit it. To be honest, I found Chuyuan kind of boring -- there is nothing really off-putting about him and Bai Jingting does an okay job playing him, but he just wasn't as squee worthy as Yang Yang or, as seen below, Chen Xiang.

Ah, Chen Xiang. Where to start? He's playing Fang Tinghao, an international taekwondo champion who has a bit of a rebellious and fun-loving streak to him. As expected, he's pretty arrogant and believes that talent (which he has in spades) will always be superior to hard work, an attitude Baicao hopes to disprove. He also has a crush on Baicao, but it's pretty clear that she doesn't have any interest in him as a boyfriend, and instead of pushing the matter, he just stays as a friend. (He's also a very obvious Ruobai/Baicao shipper near the end.)

Tinghao's one goal in life is to defeat Yu Chuyuan in a taekwondo competition in order to avenge his mother, who is permanently in the hospital after a serious accident in a taekwondo match against Chuyuan's mother. Of course, since Chuyuan gave up taekwondo, Tinghao is left with no way to vent his anger. He is without a doubt my favorite character in the drama, surpassing even Ruobai, because even though you can tell his main purpose is comedy relief, he still has a very compelling backstory and storyline. Also, being portrayed by Chen Xiang doesn't hurt.

Trying to serenade Baicao. The song they used was "Fireworks," which is one of Chen Xiang's actual songs.

Tinghao tricked Baicao into treating him to a meal.

Then, when she went off to the "restroom" in order to see if she had enough money, he secretly paid for the meal and then told her that they were going to dine and dash. Heehee.

So anyway, I rather enjoyed watching Whirlwind Girl, only to discover at the end of episode 32 that it was not really the end!!! The series ends on a cliffhanger of Baicao vs. her mortal enemy Fang Tingyi (Tinghao's younger sister) to see who gets to compete in an upcoming tournament. We'll find out the outcome in the second season, which will reportedly air next summer. WHAT. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME.

According to Ming Xiaoxi, the screenplay for season two is currently being prepared, whatever that means. I guess it's not really surprising that cdramas are taking the "one season per year" route (if I'm not mistaken, The Lost Tomb is doing something similar), but it's going to take a while to get used to. I'm a little annoyed that I'll have to a wait a whole year for more Whirlwind Girl, but I'm mostly worried that they won't be able to get the entire original cast back, since there hasn't been news about the cast signing a contract for the entirety of the series, however long that's going to be. I'm trying to imagine this without Yang Yang and Chen Xiang, and I just don't think it would have the same charm.

What confuses me about all this is that I randomly saw this picture online, which I'm guessing is supposed to be Ruobai, Baicao, and their future kid? (Yes, I read spoilers online, and the two end up together in the book and have a daughter.) So did they film this part of season 2 already? Or are they already filming season 2? What's going on? And why isn't it summer 2016 already?

Anyone here a fan of Wallace Huo?

kycoo — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 05:00:31 GMT

Or more specifically, Wallace Huo's face?

I wasn't planning on watching The Journey of Flower (花千骨), Wallace's latest fantasy-wuxia drama, but holy crap, just look at him!

I knew from watching Swordman that Wallace could pull off the ancient drama look as well as he does modern styles, but I didn't expect him to look so breathtakingly beautiful in The Journey of Flower. I mean, this is a drama that I've written news articles about, and I've seen these pictures posted by other people before, but for some reason, it never really hit me how beautiful he was until I was watching the actual drama.

I could talk about the plot of the drama, but I'm not really an expert on the storyline, having never read the novel that it's based on, and let's be honest, I'm not really watching for the plot! LOL. I'm not even really watching for the romance between him and Zhao Liying, which is one of those taboo master-disciple relationships, although they do have a cute chemistry together. They are not really "together" as of yet, though. I imagine the angst will shoot through the roof once that happens.

Anyhow, I'm already 12 episodes in, despite telling myself to just "check it out." Looks like I will continue checking it out until all 54 episodes are released. Luckily, the drama only airs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so it's not like the usual crazy cdrama release schedule.

I predict I will have nothing of worth to add to my ramblings about The Journey of Flower, since I am basically just drooling over Wallace, so have a bunch of pictures below. Oh, and can we have him star in an ancient drama with Liu Yifei someday? Seeing him in all white really reminded me of Liu Yifei as Xiaolongnv in Return of the Condor Heroes.

I really love that crown hairpiece or whatever thing he has going on. It's such a simple stylistic addition, and yet you can see how exquisitely designed it is. A+ in fashion. (Not that that means much, coming from me. xD)

I think this scene below is where I really fell for Bai Zihua (Wallace's character). I even made a gifset of it on Tumblr. Basically, Hua Qiangu (Zhao Liying) is fighting a bunch of baddies to protect her sect, and even though it's obvious she isn't strong enough to defeat the leader, she strikes up a deal saying that if she can withstand three of his attacks, he will take his followers and leave. His second attack already has her sprawled on the floor spitting blood, but she gets up to take the third attack, which will probably kill her. So she meets the third attack hand-to-hand, and the leader ends up being blasted away from her. Shocked, she turns around to see that Bai Zihua had mysteriously arrived to lend her some of his power. Then she promptly faints in his arms, because what else would you do around Wallace Huo, right?

Even when you can see the wires that he's hanging from, he still has an ethereal beauty to him!

I'm including this last pic because it's actually my favorite Wallace look in the drama. (Yes, his long luscious locks of hair are very pretty, but I've realized that this is probably my favorite male hairstyle in ancient dramas. Looking back, it probably stems from when Vincent Jiao sported something similar in The Switch.) This is from the first episode, when Bai Zihua descended to the mortal realms to meditate or something or other (clearly, this is very important). He saves Hua Qiangu from a monster, introduces himself as Mo Bing, and becomes her very first friend (apart from her dad, who dies soon thereafter). Over the next few days, he tries to teach her some kung fu and then leaves without saying good-bye. Obviously, Qiangu has developed a crush on this extremely handsome stranger, so she goes off looking for him, and that's pretty much how the story gets rolling.

FANIME 2015 (Finally, Finally, Finally!)

kycoo — Mon, 25 May 2015 05:23:05 GMT

Over the weekend, my sister and I finally got to attend FanimeCon! We've been wanting to go for the past two years, but something always came up, so we were super stoked to get the chance this year.

We both took Friday off work -- I initially felt really guilty about it, because it was the birthday of one of my students, but to be honest, it was worth it. Even though Friday was mostly spent walking around and checking out merchandise, we accomplished a lot of stuff in that one day, which led to a much more relaxed experience the rest of the weekend.

This post is basically going to be me rambling about what Fanime was like, so feel free to skip this if you're not into anime or manga. I'ma try to put everything under subheadings, so everything is not just a block of text, but it'll still be pretty rambly. lol.

COSPLAY: I've officially caught the cosplay bug
My sister and I didn't cosplay until Saturday, which is when I found out that conventions are WAY MORE FUN when you're in costume. We had fun picking out our favorite characters on Friday (conventions are a great place to people-watch!), but somehow, everything is a lot more exciting when you're dressed up as well.

I also learned that asking cosplayers for photos is terrific! It's essentially paying them a compliment, and you get a souvenir out of it too. I used to wonder if asking for photos annoyed them, especially since I can be pretty shy, but when my sister and I were asked for a photo almost right after we exited the parking garage on Saturday, it felt really good. So I wanted to pay other cosplayers the same compliment, and now I'm not at all shy about going up to cosplayers and asking for a photo of or with them. They're all really nice about it too, which definitely helps.

(Worked up the courage to ask one of the Mandalorians for a photo with him. He was super nice!)

Anyhow, the two of us went the Pokémon route for our costumes: my sister was a Pikachu, while I cosplayed a Team Aqua grunt. I've loved Team Aqua ever since I casually played my sister's Pokémon Emerald game -- Water is my favorite type for sure, and the Team Aqua grunts are so adorably clueless when you talk to them.

The costume itself was fairly low-key. The Team Aqua bandana I bought on Etsy, while the black-and-white-striped shirt was a random find at JC Penney. My little sister had actually sent me black gloves last Christmas, so that was perfect, and my older sister had a ton of Pokéballs for me to choose from as a prop.

The only part of the costume that I agonized over was the pants. I spent forever trying to find aqua-colored sweatpants that were affordable and had no logo. Ultimately I ended up finding a cheap pair of scrubs at Walmart and sewing on ovals made from white felt. Since I have no sewing skills to speak of, that part looks a little cheap, but I think it worked out okay.

There was a Pokémon cosplay gathering on Saturday, which my sister and I took part in. It was so awesome seeing other Team Aqua cosplayers, even though all of them were wearing the "updated" Team Aqua look from the newer games, which means they had black bandanas and blue-and-white-striped shirts. But I definitely like the older look better.

At the gathering, a nice Fisherman cosplayer even let me take a picture with his adorable Magikarp plushie! I've been wanting a Magikarp plush for years, but I can't decide if I should settle for a normal-sized one, or go for an enormous one, or try for an enormous shiny version. (Or all three?) Anyway, I probably should have taken a picture with the Fisherman cosplayer too, but I was too enamored with his Magikarp. Oops. lol.

Saturday was also the Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplay gathering, which I didn't take part in because of my lack of costume, but I did take loads of pictures. I'd say this is my Number One Fandom, so I was pretty much in fangirl heaven seeing all the costumes.

Predictably, almost all of the cosplayers were female, and a lot of them even did "fem-style" or "gender-bent" versions. The most impressive cosplay was one of Gaia the Fierce Knight, which is one of the Monsters in the card game. Unfortunately, the cosplayer did not have a purple horse or a golden dragon to go with him, but he still looked pretty badass!

Other cool cosplays I saw...
* Captain America Minion (Marvel + Despicable Me)
* Link (Legend of Zelda)
* Zero (Code Geass)
* No-Face (Spirited Away)
* Mandalorians and Stormtrooper (Star Wars)
* Astrid and Stormfly (How to Train Your Dragon)
* Aladdin with what looked like a real baguette from Le Boulanger (Aladdin)
* Ling, Yao, and Chien Po as concubines (Mulan)

(Sorry for the horrible backlighting! I'm not even a good photographer, and I knew this situation would not work well... but I had to get a pic of the concubines and their fruits.)

MERCHANDISE: Good thing I had a strict budget for all this
On Friday afternoon, we hit both the Artist Alley and the Dealer's Hall, which are basically where you can buy all your anime/manga merchandise. Friday night was the Swap Meet, which is like a garage sale meets Taiwanese street stall, except indoors.

My sister and I picked up a few prints at the Artist Alley (I now have this gorgeous Death Note fanart of Light, L, and Ryuk -- and because the artist had no business cards or anything, I had to Google his Artist Alley stall number and pray that he'd mentioned it somewhere online, which he did -- yay for Google). We also picked up...a bit more than a few prints at the Dealer's Hall and Swap Meet. lol. Let's just say we blew through our cash more quickly than we thought we would.

Anyhoo, I learned a few things about myself after wading through all the merchandise in the Artist Alley, Dealer's Hall, and Swap Meet.

1. I'm too much of a sucker to haggle.
Haggling isn't really done in the first two locations, but some sellers at the Swap Meet are okay with bargaining. Lucky for them, I totally suck at it.

First example, I saw this gorgeous Hikaru no Go artbook. Hardcover, in very good condition, and featuring art by one of my favorite mangaka, Takeshi Obata. Anyway, you know how you're supposed to act like you don't really want whatever product you're haggling for? Well, I just can't do it when it comes to something that I really love. The seller and I chatted a bit, and then I just started gushing about how beautiful the artbook was. lulz. She was nice enough to knock off $5 from her asking price, but I'm pretty sure I still overpaid for it. But whatever. IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

(Also, I now own two Japanese artbooks that I cannot read -- this one, and Kazuki Takahashi's DUEL ART, which I bought when I was in Taiwan in 2012. What can I say... you don't buy artbooks to read them, right?)

Second example, one seller had four random Yu-Gi-Oh! One Coin figures. She was asking for $4 each, which is a pretty decent price, to be honest. (Another seller wanted $10 each.) I asked her if she'd give me a discount if I bought all four, and when she wanted me to give her an estimate, I thought, Should I ask for Buy 3, Get 1 free?, but instead blurted out, "How about $15?" Which is, you know, a $1 discount. lol. I think I just felt bad because the price was already pretty reasonable.

2. It's a good thing I never started buying figurines.
Apart from the Yu-Gi-Oh! One Coin figures, I've actively resisted purchasing any other figurines from any series. Yes, there are some beautiful Yu-Gi-Oh! figurines, and I saw a lot of gorgeous Attack on Titan ones standing around (LEVIIIIII). There were also some really nice Sailor Moon ones (including some super adorable Tuxedo Mask mini figures!).

The problem is, figurines are HELLA expensive, and once you start collecting, you never want to stop! So no matter how many beautiful figurines I see, I always tell myself that I will never bring one home. Don't fall into the trap!

3. It's also a good thing I don't watch that much anime or read that much manga.
When walking around the convention, I sometimes felt an urge to go watch more anime or read more manga, just so I could recognize more cosplayers, identify more fanart, and essentially engage more with all the other con-goers. I mean, it's more fun when you know what's going on around you, right?

On the flip side, though, seeing all the merchandise available made me a little relieved that my anime/manga knowledge is so limited. I don't even want to know how many plushies I would own if I were familiar with more series. (Jeez, even Pokémon alone is enough to drive you crazy collecting plushies. I currently own three Squirtle plushies, and two of them are the same exact plushie, except that one has a Japanese tag and the other has an English tag. I'm not kidding.) Let's just say that I would probably be insanely broke.

FANIME: Was it worth it?
Since my sister and I got through everything we wanted to do in three days, and the one panel we wanted to attend on Monday ended up getting canceled, we actually won't be attending the last day of Fanime 2015. But that's not because we were disappointed by Fanime. On the contrary, we thought it was an amazing experience and we're already planning to attend Fanime 2016! :D

Since my sister and I are more of the introverted type, we didn't socialize with too many people at Faninme, apart from telling people we liked their costumes or plushies. On our last day there, we did randomly start chatting with two guys who also liked Yu-Gi-Oh! and used to be really into the TCG (not competitively, but they said they once played until 8 o'clock in the morning LOL). I don't even like conversing with strangers, but it was such an open and positive environment at Fanime that I think I'll try more of it next year.

I've heard that in the past, people have had really bad experiences with Fanime, particularly in 2013 when the registration lines were so long that people were calling it LineCon. (I guess it's a good thing my sister and I didn't get to go that year. lol.) However, this year, everything ran pretty smoothly, and the lines were always moving once the doors officially opened.

We didn't attend any of the really big events, like the Cosplay Masquerade or the Black & White Ball, so I can't speak for how any of those went. But speaking as a casual con goer, I had a great time at Fanime, and I would definitely go again. :)

On a random note to end, I can no longer look at the word "famine" seriously. I keep wondering if someone just misspelled "Fanime."

This is not the "Cruel Romance" I was hoping for

kycoo — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 06:08:03 GMT

I suppose I should have known better than to keep my hopes high for Cruel Romance, the 1930s Shanghai cdrama starring Huang Xiaoming and Chen Qiao'en that I was really excited about last year. But I mean, when you release pretty stills like this, what am I supposed to expect?

To be fair, Cruel Romance wasn't all that bad until near the end, when the entire plotline hinged on an idiotic miscommunication between the OTP (I'll rant about this later) and each episode started throwing 10 minutes worth of flashbacks at us. I was actually enjoying it a lot and had even signed on as a spot-checker/editor for the Viki subbing team (should have waited until the drama finished airing, oops). But the drama got sooo stupid at the end that I couldn't even enjoy it just to see Huang Xiaoming on the screen.

Anyway, here are some of the things I think plagued what could have been Huang Xiaoming's best and most rewatchable cdrama:

Bad editing
The editing of Cruel Romance didn't bother me until I noticed around episode 30-something that the number of episodes had been cut from 48 to 40. At first, I didn't mind so much since 40 episodes is an ideal cdrama length for me, plus the plot was starting to get unbearable and I didn't want them dragging it out for eight more episodes than was necessary.

But the editing decisions in the final ten-or-so episodes were absolutely horrendous. We got so. many. freaking. flashbacks, including flashbacks of scenes that had just happened in the very same episode! And the editing team didn't even cut the flashbacks to show only the most important interactions or dialogue -- they just played the whole scene through again.

You'd think that with eight episodes cut, they'd tighten up the drama's plot even more and cut out the unnecessary stuff. Well, you thought wrong. Makes me wonder which scenes ended up on the cutting room floor... maybe it was eight episodes worth of flashbacks? :O

Major deviation from the book
After finishing Cruel Romance, I was left wondering why I spent those two weeks going through the original novel, The Fate of Jinxiu, when the drama adaptation is pretty much nothing like it! The screenwriters essentially just took the names of the characters and their general occupations, and then ran with it.

On one hand, I can see why they changed up the plot so much. To be honest, the original novel's plot was nothing special; it was pretty much devoted to the romance between Zuo Zhen and Rong Jinxiu and that's it. Moreover, there was no "big baddie" character in the book, and a lot of the characters were only tangentially related to the plot. So in some ways, it was a smart move on the screenwriters' part to bring in the evil Japanese villains (as stereotypical as that is for a 1930s Shanghai drama) and make characters like Yin Mingzhu and Xiang Hanchuan more prominent in the plot.

One really smart move was totally changing the plotline for Mazi Liu, who is one of Zuo Zhen's underlings. In the book, he actually ends up betraying Zuo Zhen and is the closest we get to a "big baddie" character. So when he first showed up, I was all attentive, trying to spot any clues as to when he would betray Zuo Zhen. (This is after Lady & Liar turned a character into a traitor with no hints to it whatsoever.) Thus, imagine my surprise when Mazi Liu (spoiler) gets blown up by a bomb and dies. This is the only time the drama genuinely surprised me.

Despite those two good points, sometimes the focus on so many characters got too overwhelming. This ties more into the next point on stupid characters, but I got really tired of Yin Mingzhu and her pathetic life. Sure, I felt sorry for her, but I didn't really need to see her miserable life spelled out all the time. I even got tired of Xiang Yingdong, and he was acted out by Kimi Qiao! Then there was Tang Hai and his short-lived romance with Xiaolan, which may have been touching but just ended up being exasperating.

In short, there were scenes from the book that I wanted to see (acted out by Huang Xiaoming), and there were quotes from the book that I wanted to hear (from Huang Xiaoming's lips), and they never materialized. I even had a whole list of touching moments in the book that I wanted to make into photosets on Tumblr, but those scenes were never adapted.

Stupid characters
So the whole crux of the second half of Cruel Romance is that Jinxiu believes that Zuo Zhen, who is now her unofficial husband and the father of her unborn child, was the one who killed her parents x years ago. The whole reason Jinxiu went to Shanghai was to discover her parents' killer and avenge them, and when her Japanese friend gets someone from her hometown to say that it was Zuo Zhen, Jinxiu believes them both without a second thought.

Okay, yeah, she does go home to Zuo Zhen and starts asking him vague questions about what he was doing on a certain day of a certain year and whether he regrets all the bad things he's done over the years. And he answers her very earnestly, because he loves her, and says that everything he's ever done has been for her good. And instead of double- and triple- and quadruple-checking to see if he actually says "Yes, I killed your parents," Jinxiu thinks he's admitting to the crime and then runs away.

*FACEPALM*

Yes, yes, I know that dramas are meant to revolve around misunderstandings and miscommunication. But couldn't the writers have come up with something more interesting? I don't really know if it counts as a misunderstanding if the whole situation is due to the stupidity of one girl.

There are other stupid characters (e.g. Yin Mingzhu, who accepted opium-laced cigarettes from some guy who'd already drugged her drink and manipulated her; Xiang Yingdong, who throws a tantrum whenever he can't compare to his older brother, which is... all the time; and almost all the minor characters whose names I can't even remember now), but Jinxiu really takes the cake. gg.

Uneventful fight scenes
I realize I have a high standard for fight scenes after watching wuxia dramas, but it's not like I was expecting people in Cruel Romance to fly around and execute perfectly choreographed attacks. I just wanted to see some good and gritty action, y'know? And yes, it was good to see Huang Xiaoming kick butt, but a lot of it was terribly unrealistic. Especially when Xiaoming would finish an attack and hold the pose for, like, three seconds. Maybe that looks good on screen, but it doesn't make much sense.

The most disappointing part about this is that the book had a really epic fight scene between Zuo Zhen and Mazi Liu, which involves Zuo Zhen starting off the fight with a bullet-less gun. Guess what happened to this fight scene? Yep, it never happened.

But at least there was a lot of eyecandy!
Here's the one thing Cruel Romance had going for it... male eyecandy galore! I even lost count of how many shirtless Huang Xiaoming scenes they had. I'm a little disappointed that there was only one shower scene, since in the book, Zuo Zhen takes countless freezing showers to try to make himself forget about his feelings for Jinxiu (LOLOLOL). But I guess you can't have everything.

"Lady & Liar" Heading Down the Crapper?

kycoo — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 06:50:10 GMT

As of episode 24, I was all on board with the currently airing Lady & Liar. I'd been anticipating this one since last January, and the first few episodes were pretty much right up my alley, with street magician Jiang Xin (Tang Yan) accidentally rescuing mafia boss Bai Zhengqing (Hawick Lau) from an assassination plot. He develops feelings for her, which she does not return because her heart belongs to a blind gentleman named Sheng Jiewen (Tony Yang). As such, she doesn't take it kindly when the White Wolf (as Bai Zhengqing is called) tries to force her to his side. YES. I AM ALL FOR THIS.

Then you throw in a birth-secret plot, and Jiang Xin discovers that she is actually the long-lost daughter of the Ye family, who has been searching for her for years. While traveling to meet her family, her train gets derailed and Jiang Xin falls into the ocean. Her necklace, the only thing identifying her as Ye Xin, the long-lost heiress, is stolen by the thief Du Xiaohan (Yang Rong), who goes on to usurp her figurative throne. Jiang Xin, on the other hand, washes up on shore with no memories of who she is, and Bai Zhengqing takes her in, claiming that she's his fiancee.

The whole mistaken identity storyline is actually plotted out very well, and I really enjoyed watching it unfold, especially the part where Sheng Jiewen returns from eye surgery abroad and is desperately searching for Jiang Xin, whom he can't recognize by face even when she's right in front of him. (It's Tony Yang, everyone. He can do no wrong.) I'm actually still anticipating the final reveal of how Jiang Xin is actually Ye Xin, despite the drama's attempts to drag out the melodrama.

At least, I was, until they released this new teaser over the weekend:

To put it bluntly, THIS TEASER PISSES ME OFF. The beginning shows Jiang Xin (now recognized as Ye Xin, I think?) and Bai Zhengqing exchanging marriage vows. Seems like this should be a happy start, but later Jiang Xin says that she's only doing this to save the Ye family, while Bai Zhengqing says he wants to eat up the Ye family business (or something to that effect).

Why does this piss me off? It's soooo out of character for Bai Zhengqing. For 24 freaking episodes, the drama has hammered it into our heads that he is head over heels for Jiang Xin, and that he would do anything for her, even if she has no idea that he's behind all the special treatment that she receives. The drama intends for viewers to swoon over Bai Zhengqing and his unconditional love for Jiang Xin.

Does this forced marriage thing play into that? Hell no! Not to mention, he later tries to force himself on Jiang Xin on their wedding night (I bet nothing happens), and then he deliberately knocks over the cup of coffee she made him to show her that he doesn't want to drink it. What an asshole! Yeah, it's probably just an act on Bai Zhengqing's part, but acting like a douchebag, regardless of the circumstances, is always an automatic strike against a drama male lead in my eyes.

Maybe there's a way that Lady & Liar will spin this new plot development to make it more palatable, but I'm dreading this turn of events. Even worse, they seem to be angling for a Sheng Jiewen/Du Xiaohan secondary OTP, which is... really, guys? Even if Sheng Jiewen doesn't end up with Jiang Xin (I say "if"... we all know he doesn't stand a chance, even if he is Tony Yang... *sob*), there's no way he'd switch over to Du Xiaohan that fast. Although to be honest, I can totally relate to Du Xiaohan here -- if I met Sheng Jiewen, I'd be scheming how to get him romantically interested in me too. >_>

By the way, for the Tony Yang fans, I stumbled upon a Tony Yang YouTube channel, where they have a playlist of all the Tony Yang scenes in Lady & Liar. Woohoo! And yes, I realize I used "Tony Yang" three times in that first sentence. Is there something wrong with that?

Anyway, I'm totally railing against Lady & Liar, but I'm obviously still following it... What can I say, it's quite entertaining, even if recent episodes have been draggy. I blame my obsession on the pretty posters. And Tony Yang. >_>

"Someone Like You" Continues Kicking Butt with Episode 2

kycoo — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:45:48 GMT

Let's talk about this scene.

The second episode of Someone Like You starts off like you'd expect: Chen Yuxi (Kirsten Ren) does not get along with her client, Fang Zhancheng (Kingone Wang), and he eventually fires her when she mutters something about how men who cause their girlfriends' deaths should be embarrassed to continue living. (This was in response to something she read in the newspaper, not directed toward Zhancheng.) They later bump into each other at an orphanage, where Yuxi has some more heated words for him, which causes him to storm off.

Yuxi learns from the orphanage head that Zhancheng has been in an emotional slump for two years since his fiancee, Liang Luohan, was killed in a car accident when he was driving. Realizing that Zhancheng got angry because of her off-hand comment the day before, Yuxi feels guilty and goes off searching for him. She finds him blindly trying to navigate a busy intersection, where she desperately tries to convince him to go back home.

Back at his place, she bandages up a wound on his hand (Kingone is really cute when he does the "this hurts but I don't want to show it" face) and then tries walking around the place blindfolded to get a feel for how it is to be blind. (Zhancheng went upstairs to be by himself.) She later ends up watching a horror movie by herself, which freaks her out, and things get worse when she goes to use the bathroom and the electricity goes out.

Cue this beautiful scene.

Since Yuxi is screaming her head off in the bathroom, Zhancheng comes over to see what the matter is. She tells him that the electricity is out, which obviously surprises him since he can't tell. She insists on holing up in the bathroom until the electricity comes back but grudgingly follows him out when he says he's going to leave.

"From now on, follow me," he says.

"But you can't see. How am I supposed to follow you?" she asks.

After a long pause, he replies, "Facing the dark is what I do every single day of my life."

She says she's still scared of the dark, but Zhancheng tells her to close her eyes, relax, and go with him. He slowly leads her out of the bathroom, left foot, then right foot, then left foot, then right foot, until they reach the kitchen. He tells her to use the tips of her toes to see if she's going to bump into anything, and then stops by the kitchen sink so she can get a drink of water.

"After the water touches the cup, start counting," he instructs her. "2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. Now the cup will be exactly 60% full."

She takes a sip and is surprised by how cold the water is. He says that when one becomes more accustomed to the dark, one is better at sensing hot and cold.

He leads her out of the kitchen, five steps to the living room, six steps past the table, then eleven steps backward. She freaks out over the backward steps, but he patiently guides her through each step until they reach a turn and four more forward steps to the couch.

They both sit down, and Yuxi lets out a deep sigh at having survived the ordeal. Zhancheng stands up and says he needs to leave, and when she grabs him and says she wants him to stay, he tells her that in order to get used to the dark, she should keep her eyes closed.

He later tells her she can open her eyes, and voila! He's brought out a bunch of candles and somehow lit them all without burning the house down. She's really impressed at him and says it's like there's nothing he can't do.

He tells her she's wrong. "It's not that there's nothing I can't do. But when a person stays in the dark for a long, long time, he's been there for so long that he no longer needs any light."

She asks him what he does when he feels helpless and lonely, and he says that since he can't see, he likes to listen to a sound that makes him happy. Yuxi sings him the song that she was singing in the spa in the last episode (a song that Luohan liked to sing, which is what drew Zhancheng to Yuxi that day), and he is moved to tears by the song and his memories of Luohan.

The electricity comes back, and the moment is broken.

***

I wish they had more screencaps of this scene, but to be honest, the beauty is not in the lighting (or lack thereof) or the cinematography or even Kingone's cheekbones. It's a very simple scene but it beautifully displays a vulnerability that I have rarely seen in a SETTV drama. The dialogue is sparse but appropriate, and the darkness-blindness metaphor is not heavy-handed. Put simply, it is a scene where one person tries to help an acquaintance and the acquaintance tries to help him, and in the process, they understand each other a little more.

Keep this up, Someone Like You, and you will be my Favorite Drama of the Year, hands down, and it's only January.

Now, there were some things in this episode that I didn't really like, namely (1) Luohan most likely being Yuxi's long-lost twin sister and (2) Zhancheng suddenly having a younger sister who is not related by blood and is of course madly in love with him (yes, the exact same plot point as the currently airing My Sunshine). Everyone knew from the start that Someone Like You was just an amalgamation of twdrama tropes thrown together (dead fiancee, accident-induced blindness, fiancee's face/voice-twin showing up), but after reflecting on the touching black-out scene between Zhancheng and Yuxi, it seems like such a shame the writers couldn't spend more time on the other parts of the story.

But oh well, this is still miles ahead of Just You and Fall in Love With Me, the last two SETTV dramas I watched, so I'm pretty content. I've actually been watching the BTS segments, which I don't always do because watching the episode itself tires me out, but I just want to see more Kingone, darnit!

This week's BTS showed the scene from the first episode, when Zhancheng is standing next to a store display box, and it falls down just inches away from his face, causing the media to freak out and ask why he didn't move away and is he really actually blind, blah blah blah. Well, guess what? During filming, the display box actually hit Kingone. Like, full in the face, and so hard that his sunglasses flew off. I'd read about it in the news, but it was much more painful to watch in motion.

Luckily, the injury wasn't too serious and Kingone was able to grit his teeth and continue with filming, but holy crap, I can't imagine what it would be like if he'd actually gone blind from the accident. It was even more jarring because right before the take, Kingone was joking around about how the display box was made out of sugar glass and even took a little bite to show everyone. (To his dismay, the taste was very bitter, and a crew member told him it was actually made out of silica gel. LOL.)

Anyway. Hope Kingone is doing okay. Poor bb.

First thoughts on "Someone Like You," "My Sunshine"

kycoo — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 02:18:29 GMT

This post could also be titled "KINGONE IS THE LEAD IN A DRAMA AND IT DOESN'T SUCK."

Maybe I should backtrack. If you've been watching twdramas in the past decade or so, you probably know Kingone Wang. He was in MARS, he was in Devil Beside You, he was in Silence, he was in Wish to See You Again, he was in Black & White, he was in Drunken to Love You. But he's known for two things: (1) never playing the male lead, and (2) almost never getting the girl.

In recent years, he's been getting a few more leading roles, but none of the dramas have seemed particularly interesting, except maybe Happy 300 Days (遇見幸福300天), which I never got around to checking out. BUT NOW THAT HAS CHANGED.

Today was the premiere of SETTV's new weekly Sunday drama, titled Someone Like You (聽見幸福), literally "Hearing Happiness." Kingone plays Fang Zhancheng, the CEO of a department store who is engaged to his true love, doctor Liang Luohan (Kirsten Ren, aka Lorene Ren). Unfortunately, they're involved in a car accident, and Luohan passes away, while Zhancheng loses his eyesight.

During a press conference two years after the accident, Zhancheng overhears a girl who says the exact same phrase Luohan did minutes before she died. She is our female lead, Chen Yuxi (also Kirsten Ren), who is at the department store to enjoy the spa. She gets a little too into the comforts and ends up revealing a bit too much to Zhancheng, who followed the sound of her voice into the spa. Yuxi accuses him of being a peeper, not knowing that he didn't see anything because he can't actually see.

Zhancheng's trusted friend and company investor, William Shen (William Liao from Lollipop-F), heads to Yuxi's home to smooth matters over, since they don't want Yuxi mouthing off about how the CEO is a peeper. More importantly, they don't want the public finding out about Zhancheng's blindness. Since Yuxi and her mother (who are professional con artists) claim that the incident caused Yuxi to be unable to work at her regular job, William offers her a well-paying job as a 24-hour personal nurse. Yuxi readily agrees and promptly arrives at work the next day... only to find that her client is none other than the peeper, Fang Zhancheng.

Most SETTV idol dramas hit all the right notes with the first episode, and Someone Like You is no exception. The pacing is right, the characters are engaging and quirky and introduced at the right time so it's not overwhelming, there's a cameo from Bii (who also sings most of the soundtrack), and the male and female leads meet each other in a weird and awkward fashion. In other words, I want the next episode.

I wish I could say the same about the other drama I'm watching, the newly aired My Sunshine (何以笙簫默), which stars Tang Yan and Wallace Chung. I haven't read the source novel, Silent Separation, so I really have no emotional attachment to the characters or the story. The first two episodes were somewhat interesting, laying out the story of how Zhao Mosheng (Tang Yan) left for the United States seven years ago when she thought that her boyfriend He Yichen (Wallce Chung) was eyeing another girl. In reality, the girl was his not-related-by-blood younger sister, He Yimei, but of course, this is a drama, so nobody explains these things.

Seven years later, Mosheng comes back to China, where she bumps into Yichen shopping with his sister Yimei, whom she still thinks is his new girlfriend. Yichen is angry at the fact that Mosheng skipped town and abandoned him, so he treats her coldly... which is justified in the eyes of Chinese netizens, who seem to be all gaga over Yichen.

Then, as the plot seems to be picking up a little, the drama throws about 60 minutes of backstory at us, showing us how Mosheng chased after Yichen when they were in college. It all started when Mosheng (a photography buff) tried to take a sneaky photo of Yichen on campus. They struck up a distant acquaintanceship, which was obviously a major one-sided crush on Mosheng's side, seeing as she copied down his course schedule and tried to stalk him around campus. She even joined the debate team to spend time with him, even though she's a chemistry major.

All of this is cute and all, but it's soooo boring. And the backstory isn't even finished yet! I imagine seeing this all played out is great for fans of the book, but it really put a damper on the series' pacing. I get that it's important to show how all the characters were connected in the past in order to understand how fractured their relationships are in the present, but my goodness, whose decision was it to throw all this backstory in right now?

Anyway, I'm still watching both, though Someone Like You will clearly get priority. More Kingone, please! I'm including a gorgeous photoset the leads did, simply because I want to stare at the pretty color palette and at Kingone's cheekbones.

2014 Drama Recap

kycoo — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:17:30 GMT

You could call 2014 a slow year for me, in terms of drama watching. A huge part of it is because I started working full-time near the end of April, which meant a significant cut in my drama-watching time. I also started consuming much more anime/manga than I do normally, which is quite a time commitment. But at the same time, 2014 just didn't have much to serve up, especially after the big Bu Bu Jing Qing disappointment.

In short, I don't have a favorite drama from this year. There just wasn't anything that really stood out or that I would really want to rewatch. Here's to hoping 2015 will be better. (Please air Cruel Romance, please.)

Total Number of Dramas: 10 (6 cdramas, 4 twdramas)
Breakdown: 6 finished, 1 still watching, 3 given up

ENJOYABLE DRAMAS
Lovestore at the Corner

Give me a quaint indie bookstore in a Taiwanese drama, and I am so there. Lovestore at the Corner is the story of Du Kexin (Nikki Hsieh), whose older sister Du Kejie (Tracy Chou) went hiking one day and disappeared, throwing the family into chaos. Meanwhile, Kejie's boyfriend Xiang Shulei (Lee Wei) struggles with feelings of guilt because he'd been two-timing Kejie with her best friend, Dong Xinni (Chloe Wang), and he's afraid that Kejie disappeared because she learned of their betrayal.

When searching for details about her missing sister, Kexin comes across Shulei in another city, and she recognizes him... except he's now running a bookstore and calling himself Yang Mocheng! Kexin ends up moving to there and taking a job at the bookstore to find out more about this man and his possible connections to Kejie. As they get to know each other, Kexin finds herself falling for her sister's old boyfriend and learning more about the meaning of literature.

Lovestore starts off fairly promising, but like most twdramas, it loses a lot of stream near the end. For some reason, the final episode showed this really long scene involving two entirely new characters, which confused me so much I had to check to see if I was even watching the right drama. It's a bit of a shame because this was a pre-filmed drama, so it's not like the producers were scrambling each week to come out with a new episode, but at the end, it really seemed like the writers lost sight of their original goal.

I actually checked this one out for Xiao Xiao Bin (of Autumnn's Concerto fame) and tangentially for Nikki Hsieh (who had blown me over with her portrayal of a deaf-mute girl in Die Sterntaler). The former I thought I'd fallen out of love with, but nope, I am as much of a Xiao Xiao Bin fan as ever, even if he is bordering on dangerously pudgy. As for the latter, Nikki is still a phenomenal actress, but her character starts to get annoying fast. Though to be fair, I didn't really like any of the characters, except maybe for hipster Lee Wei (but only when he's Yang Mocheng).

Perfect Couple

There's no denying it: Perfect Couple is really cute. Yu Qilin (Tang Yan) accidentally gets married to Jin Yuanbao (Wallace Huo) when the real bride, Jiang Xiaoxuan (Gong Mi), tricks Qilin into taking her place so she can run off with her true love. Cue lots of crazy antics as Qilin tries to keep up the act while also (1) trying to find out if her new husband is actually the son of her adoptive mother, (2) searching for the real Xiaoxuan in order to get the situation fixed, and (3) fending off the interests of Yuanbao's cousin, a.k.a. her brother-in-law.

Perfect Couple almost made it on the Favorites list -- it's beautifully filmed, the acting is pretty good, the fighting is nice, the script isn't terrible, and there's lots of eye candy -- but once the second half comes up, pretty much all the good will I had for it flew out the window because it becomes sooooo draggy. I may rewatch this drama when I'm bored in the future, which is a plus in its favor, but I really wish it'd stayed entertaining for the whole run.

Related entry: Final thoughts on Perfect Couple

Tiny Times

I'm about a quarter of the way through Tiny Times, which is proving surprisingly engaging despite its departure from the original novel. Unlike the movies, which were pretty much just pretty people, witty lines, and nothing else, the Tiny Times drama does a decent job of fleshing out the lives of university students Lin Xiao (Ivy Chen), Gu Li (Jiang Kaitong), Nan Xiang (Andrea Chen), and Tang Wanru (Xu Dongmei). The four girls are best friends and suitemates who try to stick together despite whatever curveballs life may throw at them (including but not limited to cheating boyfriends, abusive boyfriends, awkward not-yet-boyfriends, scheming mothers of boyfriends, and physically hot but emotionally cold bosses). Yes, they have problems concerning issues other than boys (mostly work), but when you have a male cast line-up with Kimi Qiao, Chen Xuedong, Li Yifeng, and Peter Ho, it's hard to pay attention to the other plotlines.

I'll probably be slowly making my way through this one. Luckily, it only has 32 episodes, which seems much more manageable compared to the 40+-episode-length that's been trending lately.

Related entry: Tiny Times, Movie Vs. Drama

THROWBACK DRAMAS
Hello Gorgeous

I began Hello Gorgeous late last year, after it originally aired in March of 2013, and finally finished after about four months. It started off pretty snappily, but it can't have been too great because I don't remember many of the plot details looking back. The basic premise is that Song Jiaoyang (Shera Li) is a fashion design student who finds herself on the road to becoming a supermodel. She then meets two guys: Li Zhen (Godfrey Gao), who is seeking revenge against his uncle and becomes a model to achieve those means, and Zhao Yutian (Jed Lee), a supermodel who came from humble roots and ends up being Jiaoyang's best friend after Li Zhen goes cray cray with revenge.

As expected from the title, there is plenty of gorgeous in this drama, but the story really is not all that engaging. To my surprise, Li Zhen turns out to be a rather unlikable character, while Zhao Yutian goes from slightly insufferable to ideal male lead. I remember reading that the ending that was aired was voted on my viewers, which goes to show how well planned out this drama was. *eyeroll* All in all, decent but not worth a rewatch.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Thank you, The Pursuit of Happiness, for introducing me to the wonders of Tony Yang. The drama is actually about Ji Anlei (Sonia Sui) and her pursuit of happiness, which she thinks she will achieve by winning back her first boyfriend, He Weiting (Cash Chuang), from his new, young girlfriend Helen (Aggie Hsieh). Because Helen has a secret admirer, namely Huang Yikang (Tony Yang), Anlei decides to team up with Yikang in order to split up the couple. It goes as well as you'd expect.

I've already shared most of my thoughts on The Pursuit of Happiness, so you can check out my earlier posts for more, but for the most part, it was a good, watchable drama. The series rides very heavily on the shoulders of its two leads, and both Sonia and Tony pull their weight, but even that can't salvage poor screenwriting, LIKE WHAT THEY DID TO SIMON. >:( Yes, I'm still angry about that.

Related entry: Final thoughts on The Pursuit of Happiness

THE "MEH" DRAMAS
Fall in Love With Me

It wouldn't be exaggerating to say that Fall in Love With Me pretty much epitomizes the "meh" drama. The basic plot is that advertising genius Lu Tianxing (Aaron Yan) goes on a sabbatical in order to ~find himself~ or something, and he ends up working as a freelancer at an agency called OZ. Said agency used to be owned by Tao Leyuan, a young man whom Tianxing looked up to, but after Leyuan died in an accident, ownership has passed on to his younger sister, Tao Lesi (Tia Li), who is determined to make OZ successful.

Unfortunately, Tao Lesi hates Lu Tianxing's guts, so Tianxing must disguise himself as "Xiao Lu" in order to help out OZ and its employees. You'd think that once he's found out, that'd be the end of the drama, but no, Fall in Love With Me gets dragged out to include an angsty love square between Lu Tianxing, Tao Lesi, OZ employee Leo, and the batshit insane Li Huanhuan. None of the characters are developed particularly well, except for the villain Lance (Victor Kao) and sometimes Tianxing. At least the soundtrack is good, but that's standard fare for SETTV dramas. If only their screenplays could match up.

Related entry: Final thoughts on Fall in Love With Me

Incisive Great Teacher

I got through eight episodes of Incisive Great Teacher before I decided that it just wasn't worth it, even to see Nicky Wu and Liu Shishi as an on-screen couple in an ancient drama. I was fairly excited for this one after seeing a trailer that expertly mixed humor and angst, but there is just way too much of a humor overdose at the beginning, and I wasn't patient enough to hold out for the angst.

There are a lot of cute moments in Incisive Great Teacher for sure, and for a bit, I thought it would go the route of Xiao Shiyi Lang, my number one Nicky Wu drama, which had its bouts of silliness but got very serious and angsty when needed. But I never really cared about the over-arching plotline of the drama, which is something about how Liu Aotian (Nicky Wu) disguises himself as a teacher in order to discover who is against the new imperial edict allowing female students at the academy. Do we care? No, not really.

You Light Up My Star

I think this may be the fastest I've ever dropped a drama. I didn't even get halfway through the first episode of You Light Up My Star before giving up on it. The premise sounded super intriguing, since it discusses the difference between appearances and reality in the Taiwanese acting industry, with the two leads (Joe Cheng and Janine Chang) playing long-time lovers who have become A-list actors and yet find themselves deeply unsatisfied with their lives. It sounds deep, but the drama opened with a very strange fantasy-esque sequence that just confused the heck out of me. It didn't help matters either when the female lead kept saying "Well," which, it turns out, is the male lead's English name.

The Romance of the Condor Heroes

I think everything that should be said about The Romance of the Condor Heroes has pretty much been said: Chen Xiao looks miscast as male lead Yang Guo, Michelle Chen looks even more miscast as female lead Xiaolongnv, and pretty much all the other actresses are more beautiful and ethereal-looking than Michelle, who is supposed to be playing the most beautiful woman in the series.

I got through about four episodes of this one, which wasn't even long enough for Yang Guo to grow up and be portrayed by Chen Xiao. Most of it was backstory, which was done pretty inoffensively though very cheesily at times, so I can't say much about the main plotline. But to be honest, I've never really liked the plot of Return of the Condor Heroes that much, and the romance is one of the least interesting aspects, so focusing even more on that is not going to win any favors with me.

I do have to say, though, Zheng Guolin (aka Calvin Zheng) as Guo Jing is strangely attractive and adorable. I used to have a major crush on Yang Guo, solely because he was portrayed by Huang Xiaoming in the 2006 version, but I think Guo Jing has my heart here. Awkward...

THE "SO BAD IT WAS PAINFUL" DRAMAS
Bu Bu Jing Qing

I'd forgotten I had a category for dramas like this, but Bu Bu Jing Qing was just too terrible to go with the "meh" dramas. Like just about everyone else who had watched Bu Bu Jing Xin, I was excited for this one. I wanted Fourth Prince (Nicky Wu) and Ruoxi (Liu Shishi) to get their happy ending, darnit! And that did happen... but not the way we wanted it to at all.

The big issue is how Bu Bu Jing Qing was supposedly censored in order to get around the no-time-travel rule. In other words, Zhang Xiao (Liu Shishi) didn't really travel back to the Qing Dynasty, become Maertai Ruoxi, and fall in love with Fourth Prince. Nope, she's watching this all unfold on her TV screen! She's crying because she's just sooo immersed in the story, so of course it's perfectly natural for her to begin stalking Yin Zheng (Nicky Wu), a Fourth-Prince-lookalike whom she bumps into at a museum exhibit on the Qing Dynasty.

When you throw a switcheroo like that in the first episode, you're going to alienate fans. Worse, both Nicky and Shishi play drastically unlikable characters. Yin Zheng has no redeemable qualities whatsoever, which is far cry from his Fourth Prince persona, and Zhang Xiao is a somewhat boring and weepy average girl. Then, of course, there's Lan Lan (also Liu Shishi), a bitchy model who hates Zhang Xiao for no reason other than plot convenience. The plot of Bu Bu Jing Qing really sucks, but it's the cast of characters that's the real stinker. I couldn't empathize with anyone, and the only one I sort of liked was Zhang Xiao's friend, Huang Di, but only because he was portrayed by Chen Xiang.

Such a mess. Please avoid.

STILL TO WATCH
Pleasantly Surprised

I've wanted to watch Pleasantly Surprised since I found out its Chinese name, 《喜歡‧一個人》, which could be interpreted as "like someone" or "like to be alone." Such an ingenious title, which unfortunately couldn't be replicated in the English translation.

As you might be able to guess, the story is about how Du Kaiqi (Puff Kuo) is devoting her life to cooking (she's a wannabe chef) and reading manga, which means she has no time for romance. Perfect, I approve immediately; this is way better than those "I'm approaching 30 but I still haven't found my One True Love!!!111" plotlines. I don't know much else about the drama, to be honest, but it looks like a low-key watch, and I've really liked Puff since she did Just You last year.

Wine Beauty

I actually have all of Wine Beauty downloaded on my computer, but I haven't gotten around to starting the drama. I've seen bits and pieces of it on the Yangzhou City TV website, but half the time, the episodes were blocked, so I soon gave up. Luckily, it's now on YouTube and other sites, but by then I was so pooped out from trying to figure out how to watch this darned series that I was all Wine Beauty'd out.

But you know I'll end up watching this sooner or later. It's Roy Chiu, after all.

***

This isn't related to dramas, but here's a list of the anime/manga I watched/read this year:

January: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's manga, Vol. 1-5 - Meh. Vastly inferior in comparison to the anime.
February-March: Sailor Moon manga, Vol. 6-11 - I think my indifference for the manga crossed over to my feelings for Crystal. The manga is definitely drawn very prettily, but I can't connect to any of the characters.
April: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime, Episodes 1-6 - It was entertaining but not really that gripping. May pick it up at some other time.
July: Attack on Titan anime, Episodes 1-25 - Watching this was kind of like watching Bu Bu Jing Xin -- it gave you that constant sinking feeling that something terrible was going to happen. AoT isn't one of those series I will want to watch over and over again, but it did get me interested in both the upcoming sequel and the manga, so I'd say it succeeded there. Also, LEVI. <3
July-now: Sailor Moon Crystal anime, ongoing - Episode 1 was so beautifully done. It pretty much went downhill from there.
August: Hikaru no Go manga, Vol. 1-23 - I've been searching in vain for a Hikaru no Go manga box set. I've never wanted to own a manga series so badly. Reading this is how I knew I was a Takeshi Obata fangirl for life.
September-now: Hikaru no Go anime, still watching - I'll probably make a separate entry about this one day. It's good. Really good.
October-November: Bakuman manga, Vol. 1-20 - I checked this one out from the library to satisfy my Takeshi Obata withdrawal. Then I found out that Rightstuf.com was having a 50% off sale for this and the Death Note box set, so I snapped those up as fast as I could. I'll probably write about this one separately too, but I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.
November-now: Attack on Titan manga, ongoing - The art is not really my thing, and the plot is getting really weird, but it does have the distinction of being the one manga series I have any interest in following while it's being serialized.
December: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Season 1, rewatch - Celebrating its arrival on Netflix!

'Sorrowful Farewell' (傷別離) - Zu Hai (祖海) Translation

kycoo — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 05:18:15 GMT

The entire soundtrack of Legend of the Condor Heroes 2003 (starring Li Yapeng and Zhou Xun) is amazing, but this is the song that always guts me, especially the soaring notes in the chorus. Unfortunately, I could only find a low-quality video on YouTube and it's just a clip from the drama so the dialogue is still there, but check it out nevertheless.

Lyricist: Yi Ming 易茗
Composer: Zhao Lin 趙麟

VERSE:
凄楚人間道
太多是別離
江水也嗚咽
傷心人已去

qi chu ren jian dao
tai duo shi bie li
jiang shui ye wu ye
shang xin ren yi qu

The wretched world says
There are too many separations
The river water also whimpers
The broken-hearted have already left

PRE-CHORUS (x2):
北風無情
霜冷月迷
從此告別了舊日的歡愉

bei feng wu qing
shuang leng yue mi
cong ci gao bie le jiu ri de huan yu

The northern wind is without mercy
The frost, cold; the moon, lost
Henceforth bidding farewell to the joys of the past

CHORUS (x2):
為什麼留給我
一個人的日子？
苦苦的守着你
生命的延續

wei shen me liu gei wo
yi ge ren de ri zi
ku ku de shou zhe ni
sheng ming de yan xu

Why did you leave me
To spend my days alone?
Painfully keeping watch
Over the continuation of your life

Too much Hikago

kycoo — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:30:35 GMT

So my sister picked a Japanese restaurant for her birthday dinner, and when we got the menus, I saw the word "nigiri" and my mind immediately jumped to "nigiri" from Go...

11/20 Edit: Then at work today, one of my students used her friendship bracelet to cover up my face on my staff ID so that my eyes weren't showing. "You have no eyes," she said. If I were a group of Go stones, I would be dead, I immediately thought.

TINY TIMES, Movie Vs. Drama

kycoo — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 00:11:29 GMT

I originally had no interest in checking out the drama adaptation of Tiny Times, since I'd watched the first two movie adaptations and hadn't really found the plot compelling enough. Not to mention, to be completely shallow, the drama cast simply couldn't compete with the movie cast in terms of prettiness.

Then I randomly found out that the drama's opening theme was Anthony Neely's "Everything is Love," the first single from his newest album. It's not my absolute favorite track, but it's one of the strongest songs on there and I do enjoy listening to it. So I decided to give the Tiny Times drama a chance.

As expected, since the drama has a lot more time to work with than the movies do, it does a lot better job of developing its characters. I found the friendship between the four female leads much more believable, and even though there are quite a few changes to the plot (so much that novel author Guo Jingming pretty much disowned the TV adaptation and then decided to direct the movie adaptations himself), none of the changes are so terrible that they make the drama unwatchable.

I'm only eight episodes in, but the drama itself is quite an easy watch, since the plotlines are not too convoluted and pretty much just revolve around relationships and work (and a little school) right now. For those who don't already know the characters, however, it might be a little overwhelming at first because it's a large cast, and the drama even adds in a few characters who weren't in the original novels. But if you need some help keeping track of who's who, check out the character guide I've posted below, complete with pretty pictures!

LIN XIAO (林蕭)
Movie Actress: Yang Mi	Drama Actress: Ivy Chen
Our main character, or at least the one from whose point of view the story is told. She presents herself as an "average girl," since she's not as rich as Gu Li, not as pretty as Nan Xiang, and not as athletic as Tang Wanru, but I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't consider her average. WOW, do Yang Mi and Ivy Chen look similar in these pictures or what? I guess it's because they're both sporting the typical "make me look younger" haircut. imo, Ivy is still baby-faced enough to pull it off, while with Yang Mi, it looks like an older lady trying to look younger. But both of them play the role rather well. Ivy has always been hit-or-miss with me, but she's great in this.
GU LI (顧里)
Movie Actress: Amber Kuo	Drama Actress: Jiang Kaitong
Lin Xiao's extremely rich and logical suitemate. Looks-wise, I much prefer Amber Kuo, simply because she makes much more of a striking first impression as Gu Li. There's nothing about Jiang Kaitong that really makes her stand out, and one time, she even put her hair down, and I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out who she was because I couldn't recognize her like that. Both of them portray the no-nonsense side of Gu Li very well, but Amber embodies the character more.
NAN XIANG (南湘)
Movie Actress: Bea Hayden (Guo Biting)	Drama Actress: Andrea Chen (aka Jassie Chen)
Lin Xiao's extremely pretty and artistic roommate. Hey, guess what? I can actually tolerate watching Andrea Chen in a drama, even after watching her as the insufferably annoying Maggie in *In Time With You. I guess I was too busy grinding my teeth in frustration when watching ITWY, because it turns out Andrea is actually a pretty good actress. She can't hold a candle to Bea Hayden* in terms of physical beauty, but she's not ugly by any means, and the drama makes her looks work. Bea Hayden is for sure the weaker actress, though, and I never really cared for her character much in the movies. At least with Andrea, I care somewhat.
TANG WANRU (唐宛如)
Movie Actress: Hsieh Yi-lin	Drama Actress: Xu Dongmei
Lin Xiao's extremely athletic and loud suitemate. The most improved character in the drama! While I think Hsieh Yi-lin is hilarious in the movies, it's undeniable that her Tang Wanru is just comic relief and nothing else. In the drama, Tang Wanru actually has, you know, a storyline. A compelling storyline, at that. Yes, Xu Dongmei does occasionally have humorous scenes, and she's pretty good at them, but they aren't her character's sole reason for existence.
JIAN XI (簡溪)
Movie Actor: Li Yueming	Drama Actor: Li Yifeng
Lin Xiao's boyfriend and Gu Yuan's good friend. Is this even a contest? Li Yifeng all the way. Li Yueming was sooo forgettable in the movies that if you showed me a picture of him, I probably wouldn't be able to put a name to the face. With that said, Li Yifeng does luck out because Jian Xi gets considerably more screen time in the drama and he actually does, like, cute things with Lin Xiao. In the movie, all Jian Xi did was ride a bike with Lin Xiao and sing a song to her or something.
GU YUAN (顧源)
Movie Actor: Kai Ko	Drama Actor: Xu Yue
Gu Li's boyfriend. From a super-rich family. This role is a little painful to reflect on now thanks to Kai Ko's recent drug bust (which is also delaying the release of Tiny Times 4.0), but I'll just say that Kai is definitely the better choice for Gu Yuan here. Xu Yue is serviceable, but his Gu Yuan comes across as overly young, romantic, and naive. Kai's Gu Yuan better encapsulates the "young master" feel of the character. Or, I could just be biased toward Kai. :P
XI CHENG (席城)
Movie Actor: Jiang Chao	Drama Actors: Ares Wu
Nan Xiang's douchey and violent ex-boyfriend. I like how the drama is attempting to give Xi Cheng more of a backstory and having him struggle with trying to be a better person and make better choices. But in all honesty, Jiang Chao was born to play bad boys. Ares Wu, on the other hand, is more like your slightly younger cousin who's pretending to be a bad boy by wearing gangster clothing and gelling his hair -- and it shows in his acting.
WEI HAI (衛海)
Movie Actor: Calvin Du	Drama Actor: Kingscar Jin
Tang Wanru's crush. So far, Wei Hai has not been too important of a character, so I don't have much to say. Calvin Du is not that memorable of an actor, though I do love his introductory scene in the movie, when he accidentally walks in on Tang Wanru showering in the boys' locker room. (Tang Wanru shouts, "What are you yelling about?," which he interprets as "What are you called?" and obediently replies, "I'm called Wei Hai!") Kingscar Jin does a good job of playing the drama version of Wei Hai, who has been turned into an adorkable jock with a crush on Wanru (which is very different from the movie).
GONG MING (宮洺)
Movie Actor: Rhydian Vaughan	Drama Actor: Peter Ho
Lin Xiao's cold-hearted, cold-blooded, but extremely good-looking boss. A total clean freak. I actually have a major soft spot for Peter Ho because I like his singing voice, but his acting is really not my cup of tea. Moreover, I feel like he's always playing the cold-hearted but good-looking boss type of roles... so I wasn't that excited that he got cast as Gong Ming. But despite all that, I rather liked his portrayal, especially since they fleshed out his character a lot more. When watching the movies, I never got the impression that Rhydian Vaughan's Gong Ming paid any particular attention to Lin Xiao (except when he wanted something from her), but they develop the boss-employee relationship pretty well in the drama. With that said, though, I do prefer Rhydian for the role, mostly because he's been one of my biases for forever, but also because he got Gong Ming's austerity and eccentricity down pat, whereas with Peter, it seemed a little forced sometimes. If they'd cast Rhydian in the drama, that would have been even better.
ZHOU CHONGGUANG (周崇光)
Movie Actor: Cheney Chen (Chen Xuedong)	Drama Actor: Kimi Qiao
Columnist for Gong Ming's magazine who has an unfortunate habit of turning in work late (and driving his editors crazy). Also happens to be Gong Ming's younger brother and have a terminal illness. Maybe it's because Zhou Chongguang is naturally such a charismatic character, but both Chen Xuedong and Kimi Qiao hit it out of the ballpark with this role. Chen Xuedong has this innate cuteness and silliness that really suits the part, and Kimi knows how to work that naughty-boy smile of his.
LU ZHIWEN (陸之問)
Movie Actor: N/A	Drama Actor: Cheney Chen (Chen Xuedong)
Nan Xiang's manager and wooer. This character doesn't exist in the movie, but I just wanted to throw him in here because I think it's hilarious how Chen Xuedong is in both the movies and drama of Tiny Times, albeit as different characters.

Sunshine Award 2014

kycoo — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 05:47:04 GMT

It's been two months since my last post, so probably about time for an update, whaddya think? To be honest, I haven't really been in the blogging mood recently, but I had to show my appreciation for jyl's nomination of me for The Sunshine Award. It's kind of like the Liebster, and like always, she has some great questions for her nominees to answer. :)

1. How were you introduced to dramas?
I probably didn't come out of the womb watching dramas, but it was pretty darn close. Watching dramas is like the birthright of all Chinese kids or something. When I was little (like, elementary school age), weekday evenings were devoted to whatever drama was showing on the local Chinese channel, and my entire family would just sit in the living room and watch. It wasn't until high school (when I got my own computer) that I started watching dramas on my own, though.

2. Which do you prefer: the marathon or the live watch?
This varies depending on my mood and on the drama. I think for the most part, though, I like having a little breathing space between episodes, especially if I'm watching multiple currently airing dramas. If the drama is really really good, then maybe I'll want to marathon it, but I typically won't have the stamina to sit through more than two 90-min episodes or four 45-min episodes at a time.

And let's face it, with their crazy release schedules, sometimes a cdrama live watch feels a lot like a marathon.

3. What is the most important life lesson you’ve learned from watching dramas?
There is a quote from Chen Xinyi in Fated to Love You that has stayed with me for all these years. It goes something like, "I'm going to prove to you that treating somebody with sincerity doesn't require any conditions." (我會證明給你看真心去對待一個人不需要有條件的。) I don't think I'd do the quote justice if I tried to explain it, so just go watch the drama.

There's also another one from Office Girls, said by the notoriously childish Qin Ziqi, of all people. Quote: "The dinner of one person is just a meal. The dinner of a family is love." (一個人的晚餐只是一頓飯。一家人的晚餐是愛。)

4. What is your go-to form of entertainment when you’re experiencing a drama slump?
Reading. I loved reading before I loved dramas, and I've never been in a book slump before. There's just so much available at my fingertips, and rereading a favorite book is much less strenuous than rewatching a favorite drama (which is fun, but takes forever).

Lately, I've been dabbling a bit more in anime/manga. It all started when I tried the Death Note manga and anime last year and ended up really liking both. So in August, I devoured the Hikaru no Go manga, which is by Death Note illustrator Takeshi Obata and which was recommended to me by both my dad (a big Go fan) and your_insomnia. I can't believe I could like a series about Go so much, but I guess it appealed to the Yu-Gi-Oh! fan in me. Either way, I liked it enough that I'm starting to watch the anime. I might write a whole post about that once I finish... if the manga is anything to judge by, I predict I'll have a lot of feels about the anime.

Over the summer I also checked out the Attack on Titan anime, which, to my surprise, I found myself liking even though the plot is ordinarily the type that I would run screaming from. I don't know if I like it enough that I'll try the manga, but I'm definitely looking forward to the second installment, whenever that comes out.

And, of course, there's Sailor Moon Crystal. I woke up at 3 in the morning to watch the first episode, which should clue you in on how much I loved Sailor Moon when I was little. So far, Crystal hasn't been *that* good, and the animation has been laughably embarrassing in several episodes, but there is enough nostalgia to keep me tuned in every two weeks. Too bad Crystal's Tuxedo Mask is such a creeper, though, because he showed so much potential in the first few episodes (and was really really really good-looking to boot).

5. As drama viewers, we sometimes experience something called Second-Lead Syndrome, wherein we “ship” a protagonist with a supporting character rather than the destined co-star. Oftentimes it is the second male lead we support in his pursuit of the heroine, and rarely do we ever root for the second female lead as a potential companion for the hero. What’s your take on this trend?
Put nicely, we can attribute this to the fact that most dramas follow the 2-Boys-1-Girl love triangle formula, leaving little room for much development from other female characters. Put bluntly, drama screenwriters simply suck at writing second female leads. I mean, they struggle enough with creating relatable, interesting, and three-dimensional female leads, so what hope can the supporting female characters have?

As an experiment of sorts, I went through my favorite dramas and listed the secondary female leads, as well as some thoughts on each one.

Xiao Shiyi Lang: Feng Siniang - I knew there was a reason I love XSYL so much. Feng Siniang is actually a pretty awesome second female lead. The only reason I don't ship her with male lead Shiyi Lang is because he makes it pretty darn obvious that he thinks of her only as an older sister. At no time does he lead her to think otherwise.
Fated to Love You: Anna - As second female leads go, Anna isn't *too* bad, but she did get annoying at times. Also, she did some pretty insane things to Chen Xinyi, and I'm not on board with that.
The Switch: Qin Caiqing, Li Jiarong - Caiqing was clearly destined to be with her betrothed from episode 1, so even though I liked her character, there was no way I was shipping her with the male lead. And Jiarong was pretty much created to be loathed by the audience, so no contest there.
In Time With You: Maggie - Oh God, even the name makes me want to spit blood. She was even more annoying than the female lead, which is saying something.
Bu Bu Jing Xin: No second female lead
Wish to See You Again: No second female lead
Huan Zhu Ge Ge: No second female lead
Office Girls: Zheng Kai'er - There is nothing redeemable about Zheng Kai'er. The writers try to make her sympathetic by making the creeper manager make advances at her and then hinting at her tragic past, but by the time they reveal her backstory, it's really too late to want me to feel sorry for her. Probably the worst written second female lead I've seen in a while, not helped at all by Tia Li's horrid acting.
Legend of the Condor Heroes: Mu Nianci, Princess Huazheng - These ladies have the unfortunate luck of being in the same story as Huang Rong, the awesome female lead. I actually rather like Nianci, but the male lead makes it very clear early on that he has eyes only for Huang Rong. As for Huazheng, there's nothing that really stands out about her, so no points for her there.
Waking Love Up: Mu Zhiqing - Somehow the screenwriters made this character soooo lifeless that even Qi Wei couldn't salvage her. I'm not saying Zhiqing had to be spunky like the female lead, but she pretty much had no life apart from the two guys in her life. Sad.
Autumn's Concerto: He Yiqian - Probably the most likable second female lead in a twdrama, but somewhat boring as a result. I actually had to look up her name because I couldn't remember it.
Just You: Ding Jiayu - NO NO NO NO NO.

As you can see, there is a serious dearth of interesting, competent, well-developed second female leads. Three of the dramas I listed don't even have a second female lead competing for the male lead's love (which can be a plus or a minus for the drama, depending on your take). Most second female leads are simply relegated to "annoying obstacle in the way of the OTP," so it's little wonder we don't root for them.

Final thoughts on "Fall in Love with Me"

kycoo — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:22:20 GMT

I've been in a bit of a drama slump recently... or so I thought, before I remembered that I was following two currently airing dramas, which is probably two more dramas than most people watch at a time. lol. Anyway, one of those dramas, Fall in Love with Me, also known as Excuse for Aaron Yan Fanservice, just ended, so here are a bunch of randomly strung-together thoughts because the drama was such a mess that I don't want to spend more time thinking about it than I have to.

The actors
* Aaron played the only role he's any good at -- the jerk who may or may not really have a heart of gold -- which is honestly fine with me. If something works, milk it for as long as you can. Unfortunately, I don't really like how he's styled. When he's in disguise as Xiao Lu (the persona he takes on so he can secretly help the OZ advertising company), I like the hairstyle and glasses, but the clothing is just a disaster. (He once wore a sweater that said CROISSANT. I kid you not.) And when he's normal as Lu Tianxing, he looks snazzy in suits, but the hair is just a no.

* Tia Li is still lacking in expressions 9 times out of 10, but she did a much better job than I thought she would. Not as much of her "careful posing before line delivery" shtick. Thanks to this drama, I came up with a way to survive watching her scenes, which is to not look at the screen when she's on it! That way, I don't have to personally witness her wooden acting and her emotionless face. It's not like the drama was so captivating that I had to keep my eyes glued to it or anything.

* Surprisingly, I think Tia's at her best when she does crying scenes. If you remember that scene from Office Girls, when she's silently crying while washing off her hands in the restroom, you might see why. (It's funny how people always point to that scene when they try to argue that she's a good actress, though. Uh. That's one scene. Out of hundreds. She sucks in anything else.)

* Can somebody give a round of applause to whoever played Lance? (Wikipedia says the guy is Victor Kao, also known as Gao Yingxuan. I don't think I've seen him in anything before.) Yeah, I realize I have a soft spot for the older-brother characters, but the actor did a really good job portraying the guy who should have it all made but who gets shafted by his mom and little sis all the time. Too bad they had to turn him into the villain, but I can definitely see how he got there.

* Anyone who claims that they don't love Uncle Fu (Lu Tianxing's butler/confidante) is a liar. This character was one of the best parts of the drama.

The writing
* SOOOO BAAAAD. I don't think anybody expects super good screenplays from SETTV, but this was a new low for them. They pretty much just re-used the "crazy female antagonist" trope from Miss Rose and then decided that they didn't want to take that route and turned Lance into the villain. Sadly, Lance turned out to be the best-written character. lulz.

* I was originally quite happy with the female lead Tao Lesi, because for the first few episodes, she wasn't annoying at all, despite being played by Tia Li. Sure, she was a little uncertain being the boss of her advertising company, but you could see that she had a vision for the company and that she was willing to move forward and stuff.

* Then, in true SETTV fashion, they completely screwed her character over by making her the most passive female lead ever, just watching the love of her life get married to someone else. And the worst part? The male characters encourage her passivity. Lu Tianxing and Leo seriously just tell her to sit there and watch while they make the decisions and try to get everything under control. WTF, SETTV!? I mean, I get that Aaron is the crux of the drama, but come on.

* Also, it was a little hard rooting for the OTP, because I could not, for the life of me, understand what Lu Tianxing saw in Tao Lesi, apart from her being the younger sister of the guy he used to idolize. That's how bland Tao Lesi was. I think even the writers realized how fail of a character she was, because she was such an unimportant part in the finale episode.

* On the plus side, I did almost sob during episode 3, when the OZ people were filming that commercial with Auntie Jing and it had Xiao Xiao Bin's dad and youngest brother. What can I say, SETTV knows how to tug on those heartstrings. If only they put this much effort into the actual plot.

The music
* Yaaaay, the saving grace of SETTV dramas! The whole drama was pretty much Aaron Yan songs, which I'm totally down with. I had the ending theme, "That's Not Me," on repeat for a few days, and once Aaron's DRAMA album came out (five of the songs on the album are featured in Fall in Love with Me), I went and downloaded it almost immediately.

* I really liked the combination of upbeat opening theme and serious ending theme (continue reading for video embeds). SETTV did something similar with Just You, and it worked really well.

Both the opening and ending have official MVs, but I didn't really like either of them, so here are the TV-size videos. Please excuse the crappy English in the first video. xD

Opening Theme: "One Out of Two" by Aaron Yan, G.NA

Ending Theme: "That's Not Me" by Aaron Yan

Final thoughts on Wallace Huo's "Perfect Couple"

kycoo — Fri, 30 May 2014 05:00:34 GMT

When I was 10, I watched and fell in love with a drama called The Switch.

I know, you're probably wondering, what the heck does this have to do with Perfect Couple? Surprisingly, a lot.

The Switch remains one of my favorite dramas, the type that I am always up to rewatch and from which I can probably recite dialogue. It's one of those shows that cause you to forever remember the leads with fondness, and no, that's not just because Vincent Jiao is really hot.

The best thing about The Switch is its perfect mix of comedy, romance, and action. When I was little, what I could understand about the plot was limited, so I basically watched for the funny moments, the swoon-worthy moments, and the kick-ass kung fu moments. To be honest, not much has changed.

But there is one thing that cripples The Switch, and that is its awful sense of pacing. Few dramas get this perfectly right, but even so, The Switch can get unbelievably draggy, especially when it's trying to go for the angst.

Perfect Couple reminds me a lot of The Switch.

Top-notch humor that had me laughing out loud at times. Cute, bickering main leads who eventually fall in love. Feisty female lead who actually knows kung fu! (And in Perfect Couple's case, is actually really good at kung fu.) In the beginning, lots of cuteness and lulziness, with hints of the underlying actual plot, but everyone knows it's really all an excuse for adorableness between the OTP and their friends... before shit hits the fan and everything turns super angsty.

As you might be able to tell, Perfect Couple is a very easy and enjoyable watch. (Very unlike Bu Bu Jing Qing, which I would not have survived were it not for my fondness of Nicky Wu, Longshi, and Chen Xiang. I am hesitant to start on Incisive Great Teacher now.)

The plot for Perfect Couple is not particularly strong. Seemingly important plot points are wrapped up in an alarmingly snappy fashion (one time, the female lead got locked up in jail after being accused of murder, but she got out by the next episode), while the angst is dragged out unnecessarily. Also, the writing turns to absolute shit in the second half, especially this one chunk that basically went, "Let's see how many times we can beat up Wallace Huo in a single episode!"

But the acting is decent (Wallace really wowed me with some of his intense, teary-eyed scenes), and the OTP is sooo good. Tang Yan always has such crazy good chemistry with her costars that I end up wanting to ship the couple in real life. But we all know how she and Roy Chiu (my last big ship) ended up, so I'm holding off on any wishes since I know that Tang Tang and Wallace are good friends irl and it would suck to have that ruined.

Unfortunately, the characters are pretty one- or two-dimensional, with the exception of villain Liu Wenzhao, who is portrayed by Wayne Wang (Wang Yang). Honestly, I think Liu Wenzhao is the most complex character in the series, and I sympathized with him way more than with Jin Yuanbao (Wallace) or Yu Qilin (Tang Yan). Even though the actor doesn't do that great of a job (he's not too good at acting with his eyes), the character is so well written that he comes across as genuinely compelling anyway.

See, here he is talking to Yu Qilin, on whom he harbors a secret crush. (Since she is married to his cousin -- a fact that infuriates Wenzhao because Yuanbao doesn't cherish her like he should.) Qilin is being forced to throw a birthday banquet for her mother-in-law, even though she knows nothing about the process and has been given an extremely stingy budget. Wenzhao commiserates with her and even offers to help her... what a good guy. ;o;

And this is him after Qilin flat-out rejects his confession, since she sees him as just her cousin-in-law and a good friend. Ouch, unrequited love.

I think it helps that Wenzhao's an older brother, since I have a huge weakness for those types. It is a little sad that he seems to have no real friends, though, apart from Qilin, which I guess is why he likes her -- she's the only one who treats him like an equal, worthy human being.

Sadly, Wayne Wang is not good-looking enough to compete with Wallace Huo, or even with whomever plays Ah Gui, his underling and the closest thing Wenzhao has to a male friend. But I suppose this might be a good thing, otherwise I'd be way too conflicted about who my OTP should be.

Anyway, if there's one thing I would change about Perfect Couple, it's that there aren't enough swordfights! I think part of this is because Yuanbao isn't known for being a martial artist, even though he knows some basic stuff. I got really excited when I found out that Yu Qilin is really good at kung fu, way better than Yuanbao is, since it's rare for females to dominate in this area. But she doesn't get much opportunity to show off during the second half of the series, even though there are instances when she could clearly just fight her way out of the mess.

With that said, Perfect Couple is one of those dramas I would considering shelling out money for to get VCD copies. In a time when HD videos can be found all the time on YouTube (and I did indeed download most of the episodes in HD just to drool over Wallace Huo), wanting to buy the actual VCD/DVD set constitutes high praise.

Btw, HD was made for Wallace Huo. Here he is during one of Yuanbao's "I don't know who I am anymore so I'm going to become a beggar" phases.

To end, here's the ending theme, sung by The Voice of China winner Li Qi: