Everything but the kitchen sink

It’s March already. Where did the time go?

The start of this drama year has been mostly rather ‘meh’. Nothing truly riveting to whet my appetite. Well, a gaggle of kdramas either just started or are coming up in the near future but looking at what’s on offer it’s shaping up to be a loooong spring of nothing much to watch. I have no interest in Decendants of the Sun or the long weekenders, hence I’m not watching any of them. Tried Come Back Ahjussi but couldn’t muster up enough interest to continue. Next in line are Marriage Contact and Mrs. Cop – neither elicts even a semblance of anticipation. Sigh. Guess I have to start eyeing what the latter half of March will be offering. Goodbye Mr. Black, Memory, Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul Ho and Jackpot fall in the ‘maybe’ category. The only kdrama I’m actually looking forward to is Vampire Detective. As the Overly Cruel Network doesn’t seem to deem us worthy of neither TEN 3 nor VP 3, one has to be satisfied with what’s given. As a fan of Forever Knight and Moonlight, I’m game for another Vampire Seluth gracing my screen. XD May brings us Another Oh Hae Young and Eric. Anything with Mr. Mun in it deserves at least a look-see, no guarantees I’ll stick to it though. My interest in any drama hangs on the story and it’s execution.

I really want to watch 少林问道. It looks gorgeous and heartbreaking but I doubt there’ll be any subs. Oh well, as if a little lack of subs would stop me.

The ongoing dramas on my roster are still the same. Well, I did add Kaito Yamaneko, which turned out to be better than I expected. It’s a silly romp allright but with a more serious unertone. Something I think is typical to Japanese ‘silly romps’ in general and which Koreans don’t seem to be able to master no matter what. Signal keeps on giving… and breaking our hearts. I’m reduced to watching it in odd order; Sun/Sat as I need to know where the Sunday cliffhangers take us to. If I’d had any sense I’d just marathoned it once it’s done. Signal is one of those dramas you can’t really talk much about in a general way as there are so many things that can constitute as spoilers.

I’m also watching my first asadora Hanko to Anne, which I rather love. It’s a dramatised story of Muruoka Hanako who translated L.M. Montgomery’s ‘Anne of Green Gables’ to Japanese. I’ve always loved the Anne books so Hanako to Anne feels almost like coming home. It’s very much like the books and the Canadinan TV movies based on them; sweet, innocent and uplifting but also occasionally makes me tear up – the mushy sap I am. Another older drama currently on rotation is Bijo to Danshi. I’d already taken a note of it a while back for some odd reason and when I saw someone had finally picked it up for subbing I decided to give it a go. It’s basically an underdog story and I tend to like those. Yup, liked it enough to keep going. Funny thing is that the leads Nakama Yukie and Machida Keita both turned up as supporting actors in ‘Hanako to Anne’. Serendipity? *g* I’m not generally swayed by The Pretteh but there’s just something about Machida Keita that makes you take a note, even if he’s still got a long way to go as an actor. Boy is 25, so time enough to live and learn.^^

Browsing @ Viki sometimes leads to picking up odd dramas at a whim, LOL! That’s how I ended up watching two seasons of Forensic Heroes, a Hong Kong drama fanchise. There’s also S3 which is a reboot with a different cast and which I haven’t seen yet. Like the title hints, it’s about a team of forensic scientists working alongside the police, the CSI of HK so to say. As procedurals go these ain’t bad and surprisingly the investigations feel quite authentic. To balance of all the seluthing and nerdy stuff they also take an occasional bayway to eyerolling territory in examining the lives of the protagonists. Every third case or so seems to be somehow connected to one or more of the characters. There is more than one dramatically sad backstory as well and at least one dramatic death. 😀 All the central chars feel quite real and they are very likeable, which is the true charm of these shows.

A funny thing happened on my way to the forum a meeting. I stepped in an elevator and when the doors closed we got EXILE’s “Choo Choo Train” as elevator music. Not what I’d expect to hear in these parts, I was ever so mystified, ha. Coming back I was tempted to ride the elevator up and down a fiew times just to find out what else they would be playing. XD Coincidentally the song is my current ringtone. It’s one of my fave EXILE songs and I just LOVE the choreo. *g* Oh, that reminds me… I think the first EXILE song I’ve ever heard was probably “Futatsu no Kuchibiru“, the ending theme of Tokyo Dogs. That was in… 2009 – my, how time flies. Jdrama opening and closing songs are often great and the inserts fun to watch too. Mmmm… do I see a post on favourite OST songs looming up?

In random kpop corner we have today; Shin Hye Sung, Roy Kim, Winner, Jung Joon Young and Mamamoo. 😁