Let’s go for another year of Laziness - Part 1

Ok right… I said I’ll do countless reviews… But don’t you think there’s already so many good Blogs talking about doing them already?

Ok listen, it’s not because I’m lazy…

Ok right, IT IS because I’m lazy but who cares? And anyway I did mention that I was planning to make this blog as a diary of my drawing progress and so far there’s been let’s say… none since I’ve started. Ah! It’s all thanks to my Laziness curse. [ It's too bad I had started three reviews already but well, too lazy to finish them anyway...]

So my first resolution for 2008 is not to make reviews ( btw, I’m just taking a resolution by principle, I honestly don’t give a damn about Christmas or New Year’s Eve). But I’ll still do some personal rate based on a twenty points basis ( we’re used to give grades from 0 to 20 in France so let’s keep it at that). First rate will be about the “objective” quality of the drama/anime/manga seen or read and second rate will be on my general enjoyment…

So How was 2007 for you? ( By the way I advise you to go read the “2007 Round-up” made on Javabeans’ Blog concerning Korean dramas. See direct links for Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4)

I won’t talk about anime because I haven’t watched a single one of 2007 this year ( those I’ve watched were from 2006). In fact I did store some that I’ve yet to watch but I like to watch all episodes in one go. Someone did mention that I watched lots of dramas at the same time. Well that’s true but actually I’ve started to watch half of them in August… and I honestly don’t think I’ll finish them before May. No harm done Life is busy enough as it is and I want to put my priorities in proper order this time, I did say “Stop Watching, Start Drawing” after all.

 

I won’t talk about Japanese dramas either… Because I tried to watch only two :

One was “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e” not like the story was extraordinary in itself but since Hanakimi is one of the first manga I’ve read… must have been 9 or 8 years ago, I have a soft spot for it. Well I enjoyed myself but it was really so so. In fact if it was not for Ikuta Toma acting as Nakatsu I would have given up from the very first episode. I’m not a fan of Oguri Shun ( who acted as Sano) though I admit he acted his part well, but Horikita Maki ( as Mizuki) was so damn stiff!!! AHHHH! Please take actors with talent before looking at their faces. And you know what? She even got the title of “Best Actress” for this role. Ridiculous.

 

 

Second I tried was Hotaru no Hikari simply because Shazou, who must be one of the only one coming regularly here ( mainly to answer the messages I leave on her blog though I seriously have to improve the content of this blog if I want people to write “real comments” honest ), recommended it. Well I had confidence It would be good, and I had good reasons: First it starred Ayase Haruka who is by far my favorite Japanese drama actress. I saw her in my all time favorite Japanese drama which is Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu, plus she had also starred in Byakuyakou, which I didn’t finish because it was a bit too heavy for me, but still based on quality alone, excellent. And finally it also starred Fujiki Naohito who I loved in Gal Circle, though 2006 seems a bit far away now.

However… well like we say in French ” la sauce n’a pas pris“. I simply didn’t get into it, I watched two episodes and felt simply bored so I gave up… And that’s it.

Now concerning Korean dramas that’s another story. When I first started watching Korean dramas I was not really picky. I liked almost everything and anything, you could say it’s the fresh feeling of testing something new, you feel like every thing’s good even if you’re watching more than mediocre shows. That was my Hallyu craze ( It’s also at that time that I subscribed to Korean studies). I heard young Koreans were stopping watching Korean dramas for American series because it simply sucked. Yeah well, I did feel that 2005 and 2006 were years with few gems and lots of crap.

2007 however was different. I felt high rated dramas deserved their rate and that some low rated ones were treated unfairly… So what Am I talking about?

The first biggest injustice was definitely Mixed Up Investigative Agency - 얼렁뚱땅 흥신소 which I just recently finished. That one was completely crushed between two sageuk which are still airing : Yi San - 이산 on MBC and King and I - 왕과나 on SBS. Mixed Up Investigative Agency didn’t even manage to get 4% but did not lack in anything. In short you follow the race between a bunch of thugs and a group of 4 silly friends : a rich heiress, a super mega lazy manhwa addict, a fake clairvoyant and a Taekweondo freak. If you want to know more I advise you to read some of Javabeans recaps ( see link section). Ah… A tight plot, lots of surprise, emotion, lots of silliness and surprisingly enough almost no romance. One of my favorite for this year.

What else was so unfairly underrated according to me and myself? What did I like? What was overrated? What is me? To watch dramas or to watch anime? To read novels or to read manga? To sleep or to stay awake.. blabla

Well you’ll have to wait for another post… coming… in the future. If you’re used to come here… which I doubt… You know that I live according to the “Don’t Worry, Be Lazy” motto. “In the future” can be “never”…. or “maybe one day”. I’ll see.

 

PS: I gave up Bad Love aka 못된 사랑

…because well I just felt it was “too much”: Completely unrealistic, not the least bit fun, nor did it manage to make me sympathize with the characters and so on… so end of the story. I did appreciate looking at Kweon Sang Woo’s pecs though Don’t like his face but that’s a nice body for sure ahem.

I also gave up Ballad of Seo Dong aka 서동요,

…too slow paced and patience is not my cup of tea.

I finished In Soon is Pretty aka 인순이는 에쁘다

…without subs unfortunatly. You’ve probably heard about this issue concerning WITH S2 taking a forced break
As In Soon is not really what you can call a difficult drama to understand I don’t think I’ll bother waiting for their releases… Thanks to the soompi community I got the part I didn’t understand properly translated so every thing’s well for me…

To give it a rate I’d say:

Objectively : 15/20 Visually they worked the settings very well, I honestly felt like I was watching a painting… The acting was strong too. Really well done. But the story unfortunately got some flaws, biggest one must be In Soon becoming some sort of celebrity… I just felt they could have done something better not using this…

Personnally : Hmm… 16/20 I really enjoyed that one… but In Soon’s mother just pissed me so much, I wanted to give her one hell of a good bash-up. Some stuffs… just didn’t feel in place. No explanation, just a feeling of mine.

Finally I also finished The Legend aka 태왕사신기

 

Objectively : 17/20 The story in itself lacked a bit compared to other period drama ( Btw, I never know if I should add an “s” to drama… I mean do I have to consider it the English word “drama” which doesn’t refer exactly to drama as in the japanese word dorama or korean one deurama?) I had the chance to watch. Visually however, apart from the first episode when sometimes the special effects looked a bit weird, all I have to say is…OH MAMA! Oh my, why spend 8€ to go to the cinema, when you can watch 24 episodes of one hour each looking even better? ( Btw, I’ve seen Will Smith’s last movie “I am Legend” It sucked big time. Visually the devastated New York was splendid, but for the rest… I just felt a bit sad when the Dog died… Poor dog.) There’s one huge BUT though I decided not to consider the last two episodes because, pardon me if it sounds rude, It’s been a while I haven’t seen such a fucked up end. I guess they’re gonna make another one for the DVD release because I seriously felt I got cheated.

Personally : 19/20 Yeah well, I did enjoy myself a very very very lot. Again I’m not counting the last episodes which simply both sucked… But overall, lots of adventure, great action scenes, stunning costumes, strong acting, splendid visual effects… Que du Bonheur!