Ordinarily, I’d stay as far away from a drama centering on a man with split-personality disorder as Indiana Jones from a pit of snakes – but it’s been a down weekend, I’ve rarely not liked Hyun Bin, and there’s a lack of dramas in my weekly TV schedule now that Pinocchio has aired. So I thought I’d give this a shot.
Category Archives: film & television
Kdrama Review Hyde, Jekyll and I: First Impressions
NBC ‘Constantine’ Episode Screencaps: Quid Pro Quo
NBC’s Constantine had an awful, offputting pilot, but afterward they immediately ditched their lead actress and retooled the show with a fiery artistic psychic on the run in place of the former female lead, and I decided to keep watching. It’s predicted to get cancelled, but the last four episodes have been just stellar genre television, atmospheric, funny, and suspenseful without being campy or gruesome. It also ended with one of those giddy, incredibly romantic scenes that is tailor-made to make me fall in mad love. Regardless, whether it gets cancelled or not, here’s an ode to Constantine in the form of episode screencaps (gallery under the tag).
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The Hobbit Best of Cast Interviews, Extras, Production Videos
Like any person with a soul that harkens to dragons and hobbits, I’m obsessed with Lord of the Rings. After watching the final Hobbit film, I took a deep dive into production videos and cast interviews. The best of what I found is collected below, and will be periodically updated.
“I have a secret feeling that we’re all Hobbits. Deep down we all want to stay home and feel safe but we all dream about someone knocking on the door and saying ‘come on an adventure and let’s have a fun ride’.” – Richard Armitage
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‘From Mansfield with Love’ Review: Web Series Based on Mansfield Park
I highlighted From Mansfield with Love when it first premiered, and wanted to check back in regarding my impressions of it now that it’s aired a dozen episodes. First off, the practical aspects of it as far as adapting Austen’s 18th-century story to a 21st-century world were, and continue to be, very cleverly done – reworking Fanny Price as a housekeeper/maid-of-all-work at a large hotel just makes so much sense and allows so many aspects of the story to fall into place organically and not feel forced. Frankie Price has worked as a housekeeper at Mansfield Hotel for years under a dictatorial manager, with only the support of her best friend Edmund to comfort her. Her brother Will sends her a camera and asks her to makes vlogs to document her life for him.
Now that it’s aired twelve episodes, I’m a little disappointed in the series on the whole. It seems sweet but uninspired (perhaps not entirely unlike the original novel, ha!) There are a few moments and scenes peppered here and there that are just wonderful, and interestingly, they’re mostly the moments that deviate entirely from the novel, when Frankie and Edmund hilariously riff off each other about imaginary scenarios or contemporary fantasy or literary worlds or the line of suitors presumably lining up outside Frankie’s door. There’s a sparkly, very endearing chemistry in those moments that’s kept me tuning in the series. On the whole, however, while the leads are engaging, the writing and dialogue are alternately quite exposition-heavy (i.e. episode 12 detailing exhaustively the details of the Crawford family), or just flat, consumed with domestic and daily details that don’t move plot or relationship forward. I do enjoy the series, but I recommend a light viewing schedule, feeling free to skip episodes or jump around within it to find the most interesting parts.
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New Web Series: ‘Baker Street’ Based on Sherlock Holmes
Baker Street is a new web series based on Sherlock Holmes. It’s genderbent, with both leads female, which is perfectly fine with me – as I’ve said on Twitter, I don’t care what juxtaposition of gender you make Holmes and Watson, as long as under no circumstances do you make it a romantic relationship. That would be to go entirely against the fundamental spirit of the relationship as Conan Doyle wrote it.
In Baker Street, Jane Watson has dropped out of medical school in Britain and returned to Canada to help out her family in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, they have rejected her, and her mysterious roommate is driving her mad. This feels a little lower-budget than some others, but is also much more dynamic and willing to shift physical settings and scenes. The pacing and camerawork are uneven and the character of Sherlock is both underwritten and underwhelmingly acted. Not a fan of this so far, though I do love the concept and would love to see this done well. (PSA: For web series I really do love and which are incredibly sharply written and acted, see my list of 8 Favorite Literary Web Series)
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Far from the Madding Crowd Trailer Starring Carey Mulligan, Tom Sturridge
How did I miss this trailer when it first came out? This is my favorite Hardy novel and one of my favorite love stories.
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TV Love: Hindsight
VH1’s Hindsight , which aired its first episode this week, is funny, romantic, and an absolute blast of fresh air in a TV year heavily dominated by legal dramas, procedurals, and comic-book adaptations. Forty-something Becca (the effortlessly charismatic/adorable Laura Ramsey – what else has she been in??) has a slightly successful, very ordinary life, but she can’t escape the feeling that she’s let herself down, and on the eve of her second wedding, finds herself questioning all her life choices. When an elevator malfunctions, she finds herself cast back in time to 1995, to the day of her first wedding. Instead of working a low-level management position and marrying a kind but stodgy lawyer, she’s a 20-something who still wears motorcycle jackets and is about to marry first love Sean (Craig Horner), a free-spirited Australian artist. Female characters take central stage – Becca’s best friend Lolly delivers a quirk a minute, quotes Sixteen Candles, and knows her inside and out. It’s fast-paced, refreshing, and lovable.
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Favorite Asian Dramas: #1-5 – Mars, Coffee Prince, Nobuta wo Produce, Thank You, Tsuki no Koibito Reviews
2)The First Shop of Coffee Prince(Korean)
Coming in at #2 is much-loved, wildly famous Coffee Prince, starring Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-Hye.
Eun-chan (Yoon Eun-Hye) plays a girl who’s had to grow up quickly in order to keep her family going after the death of her father. When a wealthy, irresponsible coffee-shop owner mistakes her for a boy and hires her to pretend to be his boyfriend so that his family will think he’s gay and let him off the marriage hook, a whole series of events are set in motion. When Eun-chan later goes to work at his coffeeshop, an intense attraction springs up between the two – but he still thinks she’s a man.
My take: Coffee Prince is just standout in Korean dramas – it’s well-written, well-acted, well-directed, with a lovely soundtrack featuring indie artists and stellar performances from both Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye; it’s funny, offbeat, and romantic, doesn’t drag until perhaps the very end, has a cast of charmingly quirky(and good-looking!) supporting characters, has an unconventional romance trope(guy falls in love with girl whom he thinks is a guy), and even more importantly has that extra spark of magic that just pulls a whole drama together and makes it out-of-the-world amazing.
When it gets good/Got me! moment: end of second episode
Fav scene: it’s tied between The Kiss(you know the one;) and the bumping-into-each-other on the street as they’re both picking up what she dropped
3)Nobuta wo Produce (Japanese)
Popular, good-looking Kiritani Shuji (Kame) has it all – the unofficial king of his high school, he’s loved by everyone from the cool kids to the nerds. There’s just one person Shuji doesn’t get along with – Akira. The quick-talking, hyperactive Akira rubs Shuji in all the wrong ways. When odd, reserved new girl Nobuko enters the school, she is immediately, viciously bullied. Shuji and Akira agree to work together to transform her into the school queen. An unlikely friendship springs up between the trio.
My take: I came late to the Nobuta fanwagon late, but when I did I fell hard. It was universally recommended to when to try when I first tried Jdramas, and while I liked it then, I just didn’t get it, and stopped after a few episodes. Two years later, with 9 other jdramas under my belt, I tried it again…and magic happened. It instantly shot past all the other jdramas I’d seen to become, not just my favorite jdrama, but one of my favorite dramas ever. And this for a show with very little overt romance!
It pitch-perfect, superbly acted (Kame as Kiritani Shuuji is basically a cross between Ferris Bueller and Jim Stark and won the Japanese equivalent of an Emmy for his lead role), well-produced and directed (light and dark are often interestingly played with and there’s just some lovely shots peppering it throughout), and completely funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and completely heartwarming. A love story, a coming of age tale, a romance, family, and friendship epic. It’s brilliant. It has something for everyone.
When it gets good: I already loved it by the end of the first episode, but the second episode solidified that
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Prosecutor Princess, Brilliant Legacy, Aishiteiru to itte Kure, Hana Yori Dango 1 &2, Yamato Nadeshiko Shiche Henge, My Lucky Star, Silence, Wish to See You Again, ToGetHer, and Smiling Pasta. These are all dramas which are well-written, compelling, and hugely enjoyable, which I definitely recommend watching if you haven’t seen yet, but just didn’t quite have that spark of consistent magic that I require in my top dramas, or just don’t have my heart in the definitive way the others do.
NEXT: Favorite Asian dramas #6-9
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New Web Series Alert: ‘East & West’ based on Gaskell’s North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South is one of my favorite romantic novels of all time, I consider it a successor to Pride and Prejudice, so obviously I’m interested in a webseries adaptation of it. It’s a little unassuming but very cute so far, and I’m dying of curiosity to see who they cast as Thornton. Also, as a third culture kid, I completely identity with Margaret’s culture shock here.
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The Atlantic on Cowboy Bebop
Alex Suskind brilliantly profiles Cowboy Bebop at The Atlantic.
“On paper, Cowboy Bebop, the legendary cult anime series from Shinichirō Watanabe, reads like something John Wayne, Elmore Leonard, and Philip K. Dick came up with during a wild, all-night whiskey bender. (As Wayne famously said, “Talk low, talk slow, and … I’m not drunk you’re drunk Elmore why’s the room spinning?”)
Set in 2071, Bebop imagines a dystopian future where earth has been irrevocably damaged due to the creation of a “stargate,” forcing humans to evacuate the planet and create colonies across the solar system. The result is a galaxy of lawlessness, where crime lords rule and cops pay bounty hunters (often referred to as cowboys) to handle some of the grunt work. People drink in dive bars. Income inequality is terrible. Everyone speaks like they’re background extras in Chinatown. The show ultimately features so many cross-ranging influences and nods to other famous works it’s almost impossible to keep track. It’s Sergio Leone in a spacesuit. It’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with automatic weapons.”
Coffee and Irony 