1 Pound no Fukuin

Japanese title: １ポンドの福音
Number of episodes: 9

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Based on a manga by the author of Maison Ikkoku, Ranma and Inuyasha. Kamenashi Kazuya (member of KAT-TUN) plays Hatanaka, who is pro boxer, and happens to have problems controlling his eating habits to maintain his weight in the weight category that suits him the most. While trying to frantically lose weight in order to pass a weigh-in for an upcoming match, he collapses while running [due to lack of food and water and over-exercising] only to find himself awoken by a concerned [and beautiful] Sister, named Angela [played by Kuroki Meisa].

Not surprisingly, Hatanaka falls in love with Angela and this thing will actually form the focus of the show (not sure about the manga) rather than the actual boxing matches. Angela, being a Sister and all, is also confused by all these happenings as she has [apparently] never encountered them before. Well although it’s very hard to date Angela due to various [obvious] reasons, she nonetheless often still plays the important role of encouraging Hatanaka to become a better boxer.

At the very end, Angela quits being a Sister and ends up marrying Hatanaka [yar very nice in the wedding dress. heehee], while Hatanaka is on his way to a World Champion title. [extra info: A total of 3 scenes with Angela NOT in her Sister outfit. And all 3 are in the later half of the LAST episode.] Hohum.

As for the title of the show, I guess it’s because of Hatanaka being overweight by 1 pound in the weigh-in shown in episode 1, while gospel refers to Sister Angela’s appearance during such a time. Shrugs. Haha, just my guess.

I guess this show contains enough comedic scenes and stuff to keep viewers watching on and perhaps some fanservice for KAT-TUN fans. As for the actual boxing, I guess they did go through some sort of training though for the pro boxers, they seem not so pro, but I guess the post-production team did try to edit the footage such that it looks somewhat ok. Nice effort by the production team and cast I guess. Even Angela went through some training, though the screen time for that isn’t a lot. Like not so worth it eh? Hahaha, oh wells.

As expected, the theme song is sung none other than KAT-TUN, though I don’t particularly like it or anything. Haha. As for the ending credits, it’s rather simple this time, showing some highlights of some scenes that happened earlier in the episode.

Now for some other misc comments. In the last episode of the drama, Angela was reading Inuyasha manga. What a way to pay tribute to the author. Heh. And, oh, the pork and beef cutlet set (among other food) looks really yummy. Lols, so I’d suggest not to watch this on an empty stomach just in case the food is too tempting. =P Oh, and as for the parts where they get bruised/injuries from fighting etc, there are continuity errors for you know what. Lol.

Another thing to note is the presence of many Sisters as well as some religious stuff. Although it’s usually nothing very much imo, I wonder if it’ll put some people off. Well, at least from their explanation of Angela’s background, I guess it’s not -that- bad that in the end she left to become a normal person and get married etc. Hehz. Quite an average show overall I guess. Go watch it if you’re interested in this one. ;)

Ikebukuro West Gate Park SP

Japanese title: 池袋ウエストゲートパーク SP
Number of episodes: 1 (special)

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki (on the series)
2) Official Site (Japanese)

I’ve actually watched the main series quite long ago (think at least a couple of years?), but I’ve only watched this not too long ago. To me, the drama series was rather different from what is usually offered, as it contains some amount of physical violence, crimes and other stuff. Something you don’t see very often on dramas, or at least not to this extent.

The special is set after the TV series’ timeline, where Makoto [played by Nagase Tomoya, lead singer of TOKIO] becomes well-known due to publication of books that contained events about the gang wars 3 years ago (during the TV series’ storyline). Many things have changed since the series, but you’ll still get to see many familiar faces in this 2.25 hour [that's like 3 episodes worth] special.

This time, he still gets himself invovled in solving mysteries, this time attacks specifically targetted at homeless people. These homeless people suffer from broken bones, though each of them have different parts of their body injured. Though this time Makoto was really trying to move on, wanting to change his present self. However, being him, he stills end up using various connections and methods to gather clues to attempt to get to the truth behind this weird occurrence.

Well, not surprisingly, he kinds of saves the day again, although he nearly got himself bashed in the head quite badly. Turns out this band’s sound director goes around breaking people’s bones in order to produce the kind of sound that will make many of their fans go wild and high. A bit sick imo, but oh well, it’s not something unimaginable for this show. Lol.

For those who haven’t watched the drama series, there is a short summary of main events at the beginning of the show. But anyway, the events that happened back then ain’t exactly all that important though it’d be useful to know in order to understand the state that some of the characters are in the special episode.

Overall, I think the special episode has somewhat continued the spirit of the series, though I think it’s not going to be readily accepted by all viewers due to the nature of the show. Heh.

天机算

English title: A Change of Destiny
Number of episodes: 20

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Traditional Chinese)
3) Episode synopsis + screencaps (by K for TVB)
4) Series analysis (Traditional Chinese)

This drama isn’t very long in terms of number of episodes, but at least every episode is rather well spent. It caught me off guard a few times though I started to get used to the style of the show and wasn’t thrown off any longer, or at least not much.

The 2 main male leads have the same 生成八字 and yet at the beginning the way they live their lives are vastly different. 叶杨 is the son of a rich family who produces the most and best joss sticks in his homeland, 曹州. 袁喜 on the other hand, was first introduced as a 小混混, swindling people to make ends meet. The cause of their meeting was none other than a fake 推背图 made by the latter, while the former is interested in these things. In fact, this 推背图 thing will be the central object moving the scenario, changing the people personalities etc.

推背图 contains a picture and some cryptic description that goes along with the picture, and is supposedly able to predict major events in history, hence people have always wanted to get hold of it, especially the emperors who are so scared of losing their kingdom. Needless to say, this object of “fortune-telling” is highly sought after not only by the king, but also other “nobles” in the show.

I won’t be going into gross details of the story, but what I feel is that some parts are quite nicely done in terms of all the strategy and mind games some of the characters put into play apart from using their knowledge of 风水 and 算命 to analyse the situation. In the earlier parts of the show, I did get thrown off track at times since I hadn’t expect the story to progress as the way it eventually did.

However, I’m not exactly very satisfied with the ending as it really looked bad and doesn’t tie up loose ends properly. What’s more, the final ending is indeed quite lame. Lol, but I can’t think of a nice way to end it once it hit episode 20 and the series was trying to clear things up and end the show.

According to some user who analysed the show (link 4), he says that many of the things are not true when in fact they do have historical presence in the actual history happenings. Well of course, I wouldn’t know who is more right (or incorrect), but I guess for most part of the show, it seemed rather well done anyway so I guess it doesn’t really matter how closely it is to actual historical events. Other than the facts part, some of the other elements of the show is really quite nicely analysed by him, so it’s not too bad though I found reading through all that 繁体 at a somewhat fast speed a bit hard to digest. Haha.

Onto other comments: some phrases are used quite frequently but I got too lazy to note down the phrases. And I mean those 成语 type lor. Haha, bleah why do I always notice such things? Oh, there are also some continuity errors like dressing, hairstyle, injuries, dirt etc. Also, many places were re-used as different places at least for 2-3 different locations. Haha. Bleah.

Overall, it’s not too bad for a short chinese drama series that is 古装. The ending is kind of a disappointment, but I guess the producers have already made everyone watch through till the end liao, so it doesn’t matter THAT much? Lol.

p.s. I did thought of writing this entry in Chinese, but it’ll take too long to formulate nicely and type out everything properly. So I resorted to just using some of the names and terms in Chinese to have an easier writing this entry. Sigh, my Chinese is really becoming cmi. At least still can read/listen and understand quite well. 听说读写 indeed.

Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi

Japanese title: 鹿男あをによし
Number of episodes: 10

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

If not for QY who erm requested for this show from me, I probably wouldn’t have picked up this show, at least not so soon. It didn’t catch my attention when this, along with other titles, were announced as drama titles in 2008. But turns out it’s an entertaining and funny show, even though the viewership ratings in Japan seem a little lousy.

Looking at the roster of the more important characters, they actually have quite a few of veteran actors and popular stars. Ogawa (played by Tamaki Hiroshi of Nodame fame) is a research assistant who’s made to teach at a girls school in Nara after he causes some trouble at his old workplace. Fujiwara (played by Ayase Haruka) plays Ogawa’s colleague and also an important member of the trio trying to solve the mystery later on. There are also other important characters, but I’m kinda getting lazy trying to introduce all the important people. Haha.

Anyway, Ogawa under certain circumstances, becomes the Deer Deliverer who has to deliver a treasure so that a rite can be completed to prevent Mt Fuji from erupting, and possibly destroying Japan. Basically, there are 3 factions, the deer, the fox, and the rat. The rat supposedly will get in the way and indeed its Messenger causes much problems. Some things may appear to be quite crazy cos such a scenario would normally be considered out of this world and unbelievable anyway. Indeed, this poses much hindrance whenever Ogawa needs to seek help yet is afraid by telling the true story people will continue to see him as someone who has a nervous breakdown (as his previous workplace has condemned him so).

I don’t really want to go into too much details, but basically Ogawa is supposed to find the treasure and deliver it yet was only given very vague clues as to who to get it from, what it looks like and is called etc. Expectedly it leads to many problems due to the vagueness of certain information. How else would this drama last 10 episodes anyway? Haha. Precisely I know that this drama is 10 eps, supposed discovery of the treasure sometime near the middle of the series isn’t going to be the real treasure. Haha, but good thing at the end, everything seems rather plausible. There’s also explanations for everything that has happened and how certain things have led to further misinterpretations etc. So, I guess one needs to watch everything in order to appreciate it properly. Haha.

Along the way, there are many funny moments and interesting dialogue. Some parts were really well crafted and executed by the cast and crew. Some things require a little inference and seeing beyond the superficial level to get the joke or perhaps why they’ve said things in certain ways that seem to be “off-topic”. Thumbs up for the team.

Onto something else, for the parts where he faces the mirror, supposedly with a “deer head”, sometimes the actions of his reflection don’t really correspond to his actual movements. Ah well, I guess it’s not that easy since I think most of it (if not all) will be shot separately. Or maybe it’s CG but not so well co-ordinated. Hic. I wonder how long Ayase took to remember those long, long lines of history-related explanations that her character just keeps going on and on about the background and details about certain events/things in history. Some more have to say it with that kind of enthusiasm etc.

While Fujiwara and Ogawa becomes a couple in the end, I find that their chemistry isn’t very much leh. The attraction isn’t really there, as compared to Ogawa and his student, who plays the Deer Messenger. Lol. But lucky him, got to kiss both of them anyway, though the reason for each is vastly different. Hahahaha.

Overall, though it’s quite ridiculous and a bit lame at times, the general feel is that it’s a nice show with fun moments, touching moments and times where you’re trying to figure out what really is going on. Lol. Quite a surprise imo. Haha. Quite hard to fully express some of the fun I got from this show. Go watch if you are able to tolerate (at times) the deer/fox/rat + rite thingie.

Proposal Daisakusen SP

Japanese title: 14年越しの恋に永遠を誓う瞬間は訪れますか?
Number of episodes: 1 (special episode)

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Ah, I finally got to watching this SP after Dom was like asking me to watch this a few times, saying it’s very nice. Well, after watching this 2 hour SP, I figured out why he recommended this. Firstly, and most importantly, this episode manages to tie up the loose ends that were horribly left dangling during the TV series which sparked quite a lot of discussions among many forum threads. Haha, it’s good that they managed to wrap things up properly.

Secondly, this episode still carries the nice part of the TV series, which is about Ken (played by Yamapi) going back to help prevent the marriage breakup of 2 of his close friends. This event takes place about a year after where the TV series left off and it was Tsuru and Eri’s wedding. However, things don’t seem to go right on the big day and Ken was once again wishing he could do something to change the present outcome, and yup, the fairy appears again! Hahahaha. Well yea, the fairy conveniently appears to aid Ken (once more) even though Ken is still not progressing very much in his own love life. Heh.

Oh yah, the hallelujah chance was done twice. Sheesh, really lame way to allow for the first pose to be a “failure”. Hahaha, fan service maybe? =P Yup anyway, as usual Ken learns more about himself and the importance of doing things while his trip back in time which eventually led to him making some moves that will finally make some progress in his relationship. Haha.

Okok, that aside, I guess the nicest part of the show was to find out what Tsuru was really doing back then while Eri was doubting him. I can only say whatever Tsuru did was actually very nice and sweet, though his “suspicious” actions nearly cost him his marriage the first time round. Perhaps this is the part that Dom was referring to as super nice or something. Haha. With a little help from Ken, his best friends’ marriage was saved. =D

Back to present time, the main leads of the show finally settle their relationship and take it a step further. Haha, which also means there’ll probably be no more Pro Dai related drama coming liao. Also good la, end it while it’s still nice and good. =P

Overall, it’s another nice SP that manages to continue from a successful TV series that ended quite disappointingly and bringing the story back on track while wrapping up things in a nice manner. Whether it was the plan from the start, or a well done attempt at salvaging the bad ending of the TV series, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the story is eventually nice and complete.