探偵学園Q

Haven't been doing anything for the past several days except play the (fluff)Friends Egg Hunt on Facebook (which was welcoming cos didn't require brainpower), and watching my latest craze: the Japanese detective drama serial, 探偵学園Q (Tantei Gakuen Q).

Started watching it by accident, simply because it was my favourite kind of show: detective stories! Turns out the show was transcribed from a manga series, author of 金田一，one of my favs. So the stories were relatively believable with nice detecting & analysing clues.

Show focus on 5 young detectives-to-be, classmates in a detective school, solving one case after another. Each case finishes in either 1 or 2 episodes, with sub-plots on each character's personal life. The oldest boy is the martial arts expert with perfect eyesight, the youngest a computer genius. The only gal in the group has instant perfect memory, capable of remembering everything she's seen. The 2 main male leads are very good at detecting & analysing, ie. solving the case. One is an optimistic boy who sees the good in everybody, the other a loner with a sinister family background.

Best of all are of course, the actors & actress! The 3 main characters in the show are only about 14 yrs old, & they managed to find 3 great actors/actress for the parts! Only thing is, the 2 lead actors 长得太清秀. When I 1st started watching the show, I thought the main lead was another girl-dress-up-as-boy character!

Very irritating, the serial is only 11 episodes long, excluding the SP. (They made a 2 hr special episode 1st, showcasing how they passed the various detecting tests to qualify for the Q Class in the school. Ratings was very good, hence they proceeded with the drama serial.)

I'm actually re-watching the entire serial immediately after I finished the last episode, something I haven't done since the old Jap serial, Hero. Normally I don't re-watch detective shows so soon, since it's no fun when you know the story's ending, but the interactions between the various characters are just too interesting to stop at 11 episodes. Now I'm trying to lay my hands on the the 45 episode anime........

A bit silly to drool over a boy so much younger than I am, but the actor 山田凉介 looks really cool in the show. See what another fan prepared on YouTube, scene from the show:



About the negative thing in the show: the relatively scary corpses. The murder victims are always filmed eyes open with deadpan faces & plenty of blood (for non-strangulation cases), so I have to make sure I don't look at those scenes too long, else I have trouble sleeping at night. ;P

斗牛，要不要

Just finished watching the latest Taiwanese drama serial, 斗牛，要不要.

Started watching the show cos female lead is one of my fav, S.H.E's Hebe. This is the 1st time she's acting as female lead without Ella & Selina, so of course checked out her 1st effort.

After the show, found the 1st male lead, 贺军翔, to be actually good-looking: never understood why he was considered handsome from his previous 2 shows (换换爱 & 恶魔在身边). After this, can fully understand why he's so popular in Taiwan. Guess all the suits helped a bit. ;)

Also, finally found the 2nd male lead, 李威, to be acceptable. Previously found the actor to be a bit annoying. Now with such a heart-melting "protect her forever, even if can't be together" role, his popularity is also up.

One interesting aspect of the serial is its showcasing of fancy basketball moves. Really quite impressive, and the players soooooooo suave doing it!

However, cannot tahan the way the director keeps doing the 360 degrees filming. When focusing on the 2 leads falling in love it's lovely, but when it's done whenever they're together, & even when the 2 male leads are fighting for the attention of their gal, I can't help wishing to fast forward those scenes.

But a big plus: the soundtrack from S.H.E's recording company, HIM International. Really well suited to the show, having distinct themes for different threads of the story.

Loved this song 爱来过 describing Hebe's character's love for 贺军翔's.
This is extract from the drama:

咖啡王子1号店 Coffee Prince

Was in no mood to do anything except watch my korean drama serial, Coffee Prince, for the past week. Literally spent all my free time on the show, finished the 16 episodes in 6 days!

Started on the show cos the reviews for 尹恩惠's acting (the female lead in 宫S) was great. In the show, she's a tomboy who's mistaken by the male lead to be a guy. The 2 became friends, girl fell in love with guy, guy fell in love & thought he had became a gay. To muddy up the waters, handsome 2nd male lead had crush on female lead, 1st male lead secretly loving beautiful 2nd female lead for 7 years. In the end, 2 loving couples with happy ending, of course!

In fact, the show is on a happier note than I expected from the usual korean shows. The focus is more on the sweetness & happiness of the love between the couples.

尹恩惠 was really quite cute in the show, very impressive, the way she gobbled her food with her foot on the bench, no wonder the male lead mistaken her to be a guy! (though looks wise, hubby said it's obvious she's a girl.)

Loved all the other actors & the 2nd female lead 蔡貞安 in the show. Male lead 孔侑 not really my type in looks - 2nd male lead 李善均 is soooooo much more dashing! - but to see him in love, can't helping liking the guy!
And the other 3 'coffee princes' in the show also very cute! 2 of them are actually models, 1st time acting!

Unfortunately couldn't find a reasonable preview of the show on YouTube. Have to settle on this official MTV:

My Girl

Woke up with the opening theme song to the korean drama serial, My Girl, in my head.


Maybe cos heard the song being played in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf while we lunched upon arrival in LCCT, KL yesterday.

Maybe cos have rushed to re-watch the entire show on vcd in 5 days last week. Literally sacrificed my sleep to finish the romantic comedy!

Was triggered by the trailers on Channel U in Singapore, since they just started to screen it on weekends. I knew I've watched & enjoyed the show, but just couldn't remember the whole story line, so I whipped out my vcd & went through the love story again.

Basically, the female lead posed as the fake cousin of the male lead upon his request, to fulfill the dying wish of his grandfather. Turns out that the grandfather was so happy to find his long-lost granddaughter, he recovered from his stroke. So the act has to continue. Meanwhile, the 2 leads fall in love with each other, but being 'cousins' they can't admit so. Plus 2nd male & female leads to muddy the waters. The drama unfolds.........

Love the handsome male lead! ;)

Love the songs in the show too! Not just the opening theme, but also this one:



Oh, literally melt when hear this song played while the male lead is torn between his love for the female lead & his beloved (though autocratic) grandfather!

P.S. The rest of the OST, I've compiled into a playlist on my YouTube channel.

ISWAK 2

Couldn't assess my fav Taiwanese idol dramas while in Singapore.

And I had gotten totally hooked on the latest offering: 惡作劇2吻 (It Started With A Kiss 2).

So was desparate enough to watch the episode 9 on YouTube.

Was the 1st time I had to watch such a long show on YouTube. Luckily found a good source, the show only divided into 7 parts (some versions I saw had 10 portions), & most of the breaks coincided with the show's commercial break, so had quite an enjoyable time.

The trailer for the episode that triggered my craze:


Now waiting impatiently for episode 10...........

Shouldn't have watched a currently-showing drama..........such a difficult wait!!!!!!! But then, had enjoyed the 惡作劇之吻 a lot, so really couldn't wait to watch this sequel!!!!

In fact, missed the show so much, had rewatched part of my vcds in attempt to quench my 'thirst'!!!! ;)

神探伽利略

Have finally exhausted my 6 days of tv-watching craze! Once in a while I get into one of these moods, when I feel like doing nothing except to sit & eat & watch tv till very late at night.......this time, it's taken a bit longer than usual to run out of steam, maybe cos I can no longer do nothing except sit & eat & watch tv. Have to cook dinner, play with Sam, so can only fulfill my craving at night after Sam falls asleep........

Noticed this Jap drama serial initially cos it's starring one of my fav male actors, 福山雅治. Was crazy over his previous show 美女与野兽, hence very glad he's acting again.

This time, his character is a very serious Physics professor, whose interest in proving the non-existence of paranormal activities results in him helping the female lead, an enthusiastic new police detective. He's a genius in his own field, and many other areas, showcasing different talents (eg. cooking, boxing, archery, etc) in different episodes.

There's a different crime story, coupled with a seemingly paranormal activity, and a different guest star actor/actress, in every one of the 10 episodes. Also, the scientific solution to the 'paranormal' activity will be explained & demonstrated in the lab (to the ignorant female lead), so can pick up a bit of physics along the way.

What attracted me aft the 1st episode is the kind of attraction between the male & female leading characters. Initially they were so formal to each other, always arguing sarcastically. By the end, the petty arguments & sarcasm remains (which is the fun part), but they are friends who obviously care for each other (romantically or just pure friendship, that's up to one to interpret).

The only "silly" part of the show, I find, is the interpretation of the thought processes of the male lead. I suppose there aren't many sensible ways to indicate how the genius' came to his brilliant conclusions, but I still find it silly to watch the presentation: the male lead scribble formulas & equations on the nearest available flat surface, with whatever he can lay his hands on to write with. The theme music starts in the meantime, then realisation struck, a stream of formulas & equations & screenshots of critical questions zoom to the final scene of the male lead striking his signature pose (3 fingers spread out on the centre of his face).

If not for the actor's good looks, I think I would have been laughing my head off........

Nodame Cantabile

Was in a very bad mood, so watched a new episode of Nodame Cantabile SP Part 1, despite the late hour.

Oh, it was great! Aft the 2 hr show, I'm back in a sensible mood. Am willing to empty the dustbin instead of letting it attract ants & cockroaches overnight, which was what I was seriously contemplating before the show.

So wanna share my current fav: the Japanese drama serial, Nodame Cantabile, 交响情人梦.

It's a adaptation of a jap comic, and the show retained some of the comic elements, eg. person being thrown abt like a rag doll. This I find amusing, adds to the 'anime' feel. Ultra exaggeration of certain aspects (eg. female lead's flat is dirty = room really looks like a rubbish dump!) makes the show even more light-hearted, very suitable for cheering oneself up!

The show is basically a standard love story, the female lead (Nodame) chasing aft the dream prince male lead (Chiaki). What makes this show different is its classical music background. Story occurs in a music university, Nodame plays the piano, Chiaki (being the dream prince) plays the violin, the piano, & aspires to be a conductor.

For every few episodes, there will be a showcase of some classical piece, which the leads would have been practising. At some point, the history of the piece would have been explained.

So aft hearing the signature tune of the piece several times, & knowing the music's background, it became much easier for a classical ignorant like me to remember the piece. So much more effective than listening to a CD or listening to hubby explain! ;P

This is my fav classical piece from the show, love the way it's being presented! It's also the show's ending theme:



Now Astro (Malaysia's cable tv provider) is showing the serial on Sunday 3pm on the 8TV channel. Hubby watched episode 1 the other day, & he agreed it was good. :)

Only problem is, the show being in Japanese, have to read the Chinese subtitles, & it's difficult for me when it comes to the technical music terms. Luckily had watched the show on vcd, I had to pause the disc several times to read the subtitles!

The show is so popular back in Japan they flimed 2 additional special episodes in Paris & Prague. So can get to watch the beautiful scenery in addition to the good music! Can't wait to get my hands on the dvd!

Yes, will splurge on dvd instead of vcd for the SP. The show's good enough to worth it (for me)!