The Heirs

Read my review , a guest post at .



Lee Min Ho had been my favorite Korean star since forever, and Park Shin Hye had made her way into my heart little by little through 'Heartstrings', 'Flower Boy Next Door', and 'You are beautiful'. And, the joy of watching them together on screen for the first time! Priceless!! They look best as a couple. Loved 'Heirs'.

Education by Entertainment

I'm not sure why I still watch a lot of anime and read a lot of manga that I do.I got into this stuff when I was in my teens- and back then, it was all revolutionary, because on average, there were a lot more adult themes to anime/manga that you couldn't find in American comics of the same era.French comics were way ahead of American comics in this respect: they often dealt with taboo content such as sex, violence, and real depravity of the human psyche that American comics dealt with superficially, but I hadn't yet discovered these at the time so I'll make the comparison to manga/anime exclusively for now.



Maybe I'm outgrowing it.There are few animes now that I think are trying to do anything intellectual.The last interesting ones that bothered my brain a bit were Psycho-Pass, a story about the struggles of law enforcers in a Minority Report-esque legal system that crosses a bit with Gattica themes of social determinism; and Guilty Crown, to a lesser extent, a story about a young teenager's rise to power in an Animal Farm setting because he arbitrarily come upon a power superior to those around him (hence, the "guilty crown").I found those interesting because of the general themes to the animes- in executation however, looking too closely at any bits of it in isolation from the theme revealed how disintegrated animes and managas really are.I think there's a big difference between the way that an anime is executed and the way a live action series is executed. I think it has something to do with the serialised nature of the typical television anime- it's episodal, and there are usually shitloads of characters.However, at the end of the day, anime characters are all scripted by the same person, and art direction is done by usually one person whose job is to keep things in sync.The big difference between anime and live-action is that with live action, the director inevitably creates the screen production by linking together a handful of actors' interpretations of script- and if you have good actors, you have a lot more space for some really interesting stuff with all of their acting- their acting is a mess of vector quantities trying to push different interpretations of the whole theme in different directions simulatensouly.In animes, the tug is limited to voice.I'll give you an example.One of my favourite characters of all time is Louis Litt from Suits.Sure, he gets some great dialouge- but I'm certain that a lot of my image of this character whenever I close my eyes is due to everything the individual actor (Rick Hoffman) put on top of the written idea. The character has a particular posture, a particular smile, a particular rhythm of speakingand body language that I do not think could be planned on paper.

soompi

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 12:10 AM PST



LEE MIN HO recently won the male high excellence award for his performance in "THE HEIRS" at the "2013 SBS DRAMA AWARDS" hosted by LEE BO YOUNG, LEE HWI JAE, and KIM WOO BIN.

Welcome to 2014!

Hoorah to the new year! I was going to post at midnight, but you guys might know of the multiple social networks one can have and such..



I've had an amazing 2013 even though there were such downs and ups, but that's usual, and I hope 2014 will be SO MUCH BETTER.

Memories of 2013 part 12: What is fun is good!!

I had a little trouble this year determining what would take the final spot on this list. Usually, there's an unforgettable series or show, or an important development in the community that everyone talks about. But there was none of that this year, at least for me - that's probably one of the reasons that four of my memories this year are from non-Japanese live action series! And I even found myself skimming some of the fun-but-OTT COVERT AFFAIRS, even though I haven't followed the 4th season because I was a little put off by some of it's opening episodes. But as I kept waiting for that one series that would sweep me away with its Oomph! factor, I realised that one had already crept into my heart. So, whilst I always knew that UCHOUTEN KAZOKU (aka The Eccentric Family) would make it onto the list, it is with some surprise that I present it as the most subliminal experience of this year.



It's WAR!!

For Culture's Sake in 2013

The beginning of a new year is often a time for summing up the past year. So I'll do so. This post will be related to the blog itself. Some musings and statistics.



But first, I'd like to thank all the readers for being with me, for reading and commenting and for inspiring me. Writing this blog I was able to find a lot of new friends. I hope to keep in touch with you in this new 2014 year and later on. THANK YOU! I wish you all the best during this year.

A Girls and Panzer New Years...

One of the joys of being an anime fan in Japan is visiting the real places seen in your favorite anime series, which is known asseichi meguri in Japanese, lit. "making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land." My first visit to a real place in anime was in Shinjuku, standing in front of the hallowed then exploring the station to find the City Hunter "xyz" blackboard. (Yes, I rock my anime old school.) These days most every anime are set in real locations for added realism, and if you should want to eat in front of the train station from Kanon, walk up the sakura tree-lined road from or enjoy a pleasant afternoon of boating on the lake from and the final scenes from , it's possible to do so. One of the most popular places for otakus to ring in the new year this year was Oarai, Ibaragi Prefecture, the setting for the popular moe tank anime , and many fans traveled there to see the first sunrise of the new year.

Many Gal-Pan wishboards were hung at the temple in Oarai.
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Memories of 2013 part 11: Marital spat

The first K-Drama I watched this year, and the one that got me hooked onto them again (it was sooooo good!) was CITY HUNTER. The show draws its name and basic inspiration from Hojo Tsukasa's manga of the same name, though the story is mostly it's own - a tale of family, love and revenge that was really hard to put down. But whilst it was generally a serious show, I also want to remember it for some of its light hearted moments: and this was definitely the best one.



Hah! And I do especially love that look on Nana's face! (and Yoon Sung dying of embarrassment at that!)

2013: My Year in Film

Hey, I don't solely watch asian cinema that's based on anime and/or manga properties! Sometimes I watch other movies. These are the best older movies I watched all year.



DISCOVERIES

Overdue K-drama reviewish things

I'm so behind in my semi-reviews of k-dramas so I'll try and make these brief. But brevity isn't really my thing so...



MI-RAE'S CHOICE/MARRY HIM IF YOU DARE - 1.5 STARS

Lee Min Ho Plans to Lose Weight and Get Buff for Movie Role

Super star LEE MIN HO has no time for rest as he has recently announced, "I think I am going to crazily work out my body. I think I will lose even more weight."



This was one of Lee Min Ho's resolutions for 2014. After a wildly successful run with "THE HEIRS," Lee Min Ho has confirmed his next project to be the film, "GANGNAM BLUES," which is an action noir film.