i heard there will be a boys over flowers 2...
but the korean one covered everything that happend
in HYD 1 & 2

@Nom Kitteh
LOL did you actually DO that? That's, like, the most loyal thing ever. LOL

As for ep 4, yes, you basically got the gist of it. Truth is, the kid asked Akira to help him feign his kidnapping. At first, everybody was worried cos they all truly thought the kid had been abducted and then slowly all the members of the "family" found out the truth and eventually wanted to help. It started with Chisato and then every bro followed her example. They -along with her friends from the Net cafe- plotted every little detail in order to let the kid see his parents together once again (the kid really wanted them to get back together). They all are inspired by Shinzo's latest idea of amusement park (it's a treasure hunt...no wait, a "family hunt" kind of thing. It's basically an attraction for families, to make them overcome obstacles, strenghten their bonds etc). At the end of it, Sho realizes Shinzo really cared about *him* and the kid so much so that a)he had pushed Sho away so that he was forced to grow up and be a dad, b)he had given money to Sho's ex so they could survive, c)had already bought Riki a present cos he knew he most likely wouldn't be around for his bday (he had hidden the present in the house so Sho, thinking it was money, had gone looking for it). Sho realizes how important riki is for him and what's good for the little boy so he tells him he should live with his mom (and Oh god, I keep switching from past to present tense and viceversa. Sorry)

Whew. Ok, now as for my actual thoughts about it: it wasn't a great ep, but it was touching. It was nice seeing all the bros finally working together, as a family, as a team and honeslty the twist at the end of the ep? I didn't see that one coming. I wonder how they're going to react? Obviously not well. They'll feel betrayed, right? Anyway, yes, it was a bit too sugary and predictable, but that was to be expected.

almost forgot, it's Cannes weekend..I hope Mother will win.. Can't wait to see Won Bin with Kim Hye-ja, Jin Goo and PD Bong Joon-ho on the red carpet. I just saw the cast of Thirst..

@Nom Kitteh

PS: Sho, while watching a vid presentation of the Family hunt, calls Shinzo "dad" ("oyaji"), which was a BIG deal imho. It's the first time -that we know of- that any of Shinzo's adopted sons actually recognizes him as his father in the truest sense of the word. Big, big deal.

And I'm off to bed now. tty tomorrow, guys

@ Sere & Nom Kitteh

Okay, basically what I was major fangirl squealing about in episode 5 is basically that first of all, Fuu I think decides to come back to the family - he showed up a lot in episode 5, but for some reason Sho's scenes were cut. And so in the last minute, everybody's all buddy-buddy after reconciling their misunderstandings with Chisato and Fuu shows up and kisses Chisato on the cheek and says, "She's my new girlfriend."

YES. I KNOW. MAJOR SQUEALING RIGHT THERE. LOL. [I wish Kaname Jun would do that to me. LOL.]

But also, in episode 5, pretty much all of the brothers like Chisato now. I mean, you have Masaru who now obviously has a crush on Chisato [and Sho for some reason helps him out with trying to confess to Chisato or whatnot], and Takeru, and definitely Satoru all like Chisato. Obviously Akira is a little young. Sho, though, is just being friendly guy so who knows. He's nice to everyone.

I also read previews for episode 6. It's not as lovey-dovey as I wished, because it's just Fuu using Chisato against his 27 girlfriends. And yes, apparently he does have that many girlfriends.

Atashinchi no Danshi, I guess, is touching in a goofy way. Like, there are little touching moments and the rest of the time is mostly spent like, ahahahaha, crack drama, ahahahaha, and you don't process much of the information. Or, if you're like me, you're oggling Kaname Jun for whatever time he has on screen [which is rarely over 1 minute]. Or Mukai Osamu. Very funny stuff, though. And a nice drama to relax to.

Anyone catching the Han Woo-ri festival in Seattle this weekend?

If so, see you there for all the good eats and festivities.

Hi all4movies! I'm going to the Fed Way one, is that the same thing? Yeah, can't wait, you'll mostly see me around the food stands..^^

Woah super late reply, but thanks for the response JB! I knew I was missing one or two of them!

@ 75 Nom Kitteh - (Re: cereal) LOL, that was totally me.. I was just taking up space in a double-post. XD But yeah, Fruit Loops are awesome! They're probably my second favourite cereal. :3

This thread isn't as popular as some previous open threads, is it? :P I guess people are busy..?

..crap. PAPER DUE IN 30 MINUTES. *scurries*

@ hjkomo -@nycgrl, did you check it out?

Unfortunately, sadly no and it looks like it is no longer playing at the film forum now. I got so caught up with work, buying epik high tix and mother's day activities I completely forgot.

This was going to be a date night picture but I know my husband was pushing for Star Trek. Looks like he will get his wish.

@Samsookie

I remember that scene quite well from MNIKSS and I love that scene. There is something so cute, endearing and so korean about the exchange between the two women. And like Samsookie says you almost get everything it means to be korean in that one little scene. I haven't watched MNIKSS in 3 years but my favorite scene has to be when she is watching her ex-bf's engagement party from afar leaning on the doorway after she finished baking their engagement party cake wondering where their calorie of love went. That part just always brings tears to my eyes since you realize that any great love could fall victim like hers did and time is fickle since love is there one day and then gone another day.

sarah was here. ;)

JDrama fans,

Fuji announced their 50th anniversary project, Fumou Chitai, to be aired on October. It is based on a novel written by Yamasaki Toyoko, whose other works include Shiroi Kyoto and Karei Naru Ichizoku. Both titles were already adapted into dramas, both very successful. Fumou Chitai will have the same lead as Shiroi Kyoto (Fuji's 45th Anniversary Project).

Cannot wait! If successful, I suppose this year's drought of good jdramas may be somewhat saved.

not really, its saturday right now, i have exams, i just finished an exam, and i have another exam in 4 hours, so yea, its not even a weekend =(
im gonna be behind on the korean entertainment, ill miss it
wish me luck!!

i'm jumping on the wagon a little late (its already saturday), but i just wanted to share that i loveddddddd my name is kim sam soon so much because there's a little bit of everything. there's the eye candy, the funny scenes, the makes-your-heart-melt scenes, and the truly provocative and intriguing bits of the drama that makes you realize stuff about life. every time i tell ppl to watch it and ppl tell me they tried it but hated it because sam soon appeared desperate, i just get so...speechless. it seems like these days ppl prefer watching frivilous (albeit fun) dramas like boys before flowers. a damsel-in-distress type heroine with practically no flaws and is all around angelic and innocent and the kindest person on earth, is what ppl like to see, instead of fierce, realistically flawed and human heroines like sam soonie.
i also wanted to say that i started watching city hall all b/c of kim sun ah, but it turns out city hall is pretty awesome. it was outrageously funny in the first 4 eps, but eps 5 and 6 turned a little serious when mi rae didnt get her prize money from the beauty contest. that's why we got to see mi rae's perservance and jo gook's emotional weaknesses. which is AWESOME. not to mention sun ah and cha seung won's fiery chemistry and great acting. dramabeans should really give it a try lol.

@sere
I have both the Creative Zen and the iTouch. I prefer the Zen for my drama watching. I had all 11 episodes of Pride loaded on it for my vacation last year. I think I like it because it is a bigger screen and it seems clearer. However, the Zen is heavier and bulkier.

GO ROCKETS!!!!

@ 88 annieee,

wow, you are right re city hall. I have just finished the latest 4 epis. I laughed through epis 2 to 4. epi 1 was a bit slow for me. 5 and 6 is about developing the plot and the characters so it got a little serious but the story is still riveting enough for me to want to know what's going to happen next. Dialogue is so much more interesting than Lovers in Paris, Hello Missy or On Air. (This is coming from a person who totally bailed out on Lovers' series and On Air). If the writer keeps up with whatever she has been doing, that will be great. I would hate to see her ruin this drama.

I woke up early early this Saturday morning to pop in my MNIKSS DVDs, and jeez, I forgot how Heon-nie looked. I am a guy and I can say that HB is pretty darn hot in this. Even when he is being a dork, or when he is doing that smirk, anytime, HB is pretty hot. I've watched almost 2 dozen korean dramas now, and HB as Samshik is STILL the hottest k-guy I've seen.

@85, nycgrl:

I saw that scene you mentioned early this morning. I love that scene too!

Just ranting.

Check out Super Junior's New song - It's You.
Would never confess to being a fan of them, but this song rocks.

@ X
I know! WTH?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQKMQloY6rM&feature=related

@ Kender
The KAL guys rock! Kudos to them!

@Samsooki Re: Hyun Bin
You know, I'd say Gong Yoo is hotter, at least for me, but only Binnie can wear acid green or neon pink shirts and he doesn't look like a complete fool (he was actually very hot). Also? He really does rock the suits like nobody else imho.

@85 nycgrl
That was one of the best scenes of the drama. Bittersweet, sure, but a good scene. And a few scenes later, Jin-heon confronts Hyun-woo, woohooo. Guys, all this talking about MNIKSS makes me want to rewatch it.

@90 katwoman
Huh. I thought the iTouch had the biggest screen. Thanks!

@Sere,
Thank you for filling in the blanks for Ep 4. You are absolutely right about the significant moments in Ep 4. I went back and watched it at a normal pace and realized again just how lovely this show is. You're right: in this episode Sho realizes Shinzo really cared about him and Rikki, and it was a turning point. I really want to know why Shinzo ended up messing up so badly -- he seems to be a fairly decent man, his relationship with Chisato is very sweet and loving and touching, and he is very aware of what kids wants. Why then did his sons turn out that way. OR, maybe he saw his sons as broken, useless, infighting people when in actuality we know that each of them is a sweetheart. The best example of this the second brother fighting off thuggish kids to save a homeless person's home! They just presented themselves as thuggish. I still want to know why they did that. Anyway, I loved the episode the second time around.

I watched EP 5 without subs, but this is not really a show that needs subs (well, all shows do, but this one is easier to follow than some).

SPOILER ALERT

@A,
I can see you fangirl-squealing! And you should be -- Kaname Jun's looks are ridiculous, ridiculously gorgeous, I mean. His acting is pretty solid as well, even though this time he was on screen for, what, like, 4 minutes max. Can someone teach Jdrama writers something about fan service? In a Kdrama by now there would have been multiple scenes of Fuu showering.

And there were maybe 5 minutes of Mukai Osamu! What is wrong with the writers?

I loved Ep 5 b/c the bond between Chisato and boys (minus Fuu) is now solid. There are no secrets between them -- they know that she is doing things because she is contractually obligated to and that she is homeless. Despite all this, they are coming together as a family. I loved the moments when the brothers beat up on each other out of jealousy. It's so cute that the boys have crushes on Chisato now.

Again, a good, fun episode. I love how consistently goofy and silly it is, but the messages are silly at all. The need for family members to be there for each other, for people to watch out for others in the community (e.g., the brothers helping the homeless), the need for us to make time to sit down and have a meal with each other, all of these messages are heartwarming and important. The delivery through high jinks and comedy gives it extra awesomeness. Good show!

SPOILER END

@Sere, are you enjoying it? Thank you for taking the time to catch up on all the episodes. I hope you're not regretting it -- you like the show, right?

@73, Sere -

"What ep was that again?"

Ep 13, probably three-quarters of the way into the episode...

@96 Nom Kitteh

Hmm, I wouldn't say Shinzo messed up actually. I think he approached the whole thing in quite an odd way. First off, he was an eccentric man so his quirks -while funny and interesting- were not exactly ideal qualities in a would-be father imho. I think he was looking for -or he was perceived as he was looking for- an heir rather than a son and when Fuu -and then slowly all the others- failed to meet his expectations he went on looking for another "candidate". Which is why all the potential "sons" didn't really feel any real connection with him. Of course he cared for them all, but his actions, his "ok, not good enough, let's move on" attitude was not going to help him bonding with the kids -or the kids bonding with each other for that matter...in that each kid saw the other as potential "enemy", you konw? - or help him "make a family". After all, he threw a bunch of seemingly random strangers together, living under the same roof with little or no supervision and he sort of expected them all to get along and be a family just because. Huh nuh, things don't work like that.

Secondly, in typical drama style, they do NOT talk! Shinzo and the boys didn't communicate like at ALL (think Sho) so of course the kids had no idea that guy really cared for and loved them. Seriosly, miscommunication is one of the things that drives me bonkers when I watch dramas (esp in Kdramas, omg!). Situations that could be solved in 5 minutes by talking take 16 eps to be resolved because characters are proud/arrogant/prejudiced/hurt/stubborn/whatever and they refuse to talk, darn it. Plus -and this is going to earn me lots of "OMG you're such a sexist person" comments and YES, I know, I'm grossly generalizing and I shouldn't- they're men. It's even harder for fictional male characters to open up and talk about *gasps* feelings. So there, another problem.

No, no, I think he really saw how good all of his kids were, but maybe just maybe he didn't know how to tell them that or how to bring their potential out. Clearly, he cared for them. Anc clearly he chose them cos he thought they were special in some ways and because, despite how different they all seemed to be, they had lots of things in common. which is why I think he thought they all could be a family in the true sense of the word. Anyway, back to my first statement about Shinzo not messing up. I said that cos he already had a plan b in case plan a failed and I'm pretty sure he might also had had a plan c/d/e/etc in store should plan-Chisato go down the drain. You could accuse him of lots of things, but not of not being resourceful that in Shinzo's case, imho, showed just how much he *wanted* his family to be a family, he wanted his kids to have a safe harbour to be at and good people to live with. He really did care and love them all. (unless of course he had a savior complex and then all this rambling of mine is just meaningless. LOL)

Hey, yes, I like the drama. jdoramas tend to be hit or miss with me, but this one is far less cracktastic than I expected. Then again, I may be reading too much into it. LOL But yeah, I like the drama and no, I'm not regret watching it. It was already on my ever growing must-watch list so no worries ;)

Notes of the Epik High show in Los Scandalous . . . (with the many, many, many people taping the show, I'm sure it'll be on Youtube tomorrow ;) )

A LOT OF PEOPLE. Whoa. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Literally all the promo was done on 2 or 3 websites and on relatively short notice. But HOB on Sunset isn't a big venue, and it's basically 5-10 minutes away from UCLA. HOB was pretty dang close to packed on the 1st floor. Proportionately more guys than, say, at the KMF. That also surprised me, though I'm not sure why looking back.

First act Far East Movement was a lot of fun. Of course, I'm really biased because the DJ and one of the MCs came out in astronaut outfits and I LOVE DAFT PUNK. On a couple of their songs, they brought back some of Miami bass grooves, which SOOO take me back to high school.

I'm sure other people at the show will disagree with me, but I think Kero One had difficulty connecting with the audience. (There was a 5-10 minute technical glitch, but I didn't think it should have made the crowd restless.) Among all the acts there, Kero One probably makes the most challenging/"backpacker" music of the night, and you can hear both the Common and Q-tip/Tribe in what they do. There was a lot of downtempo/bossa nova grooves (kinda like this site, actually), but I think after the raucous FEM act, it was just the wrong vibe. Anyway, I got pissed off when some dudes (guys at a K-pop gig, 4 realz!!) in the back did a "we want Epik High" chant. The highlight of the K1 gig was when MYK did a guest spot. This is the first time I got to really listen to Kero One, though, and I really enjoyed his lyrics. It's so . . . old school.

"MC Dumbfounded" (no, really, that was our MC for the night) was great BTW (and his flow is real clean and has Busta Rhyme-esque speed.) He also did the SF show and actually battled that same night

Onto the Epik High/MYK main act. When Epik High did KMF a few years ago, they were by far the best young (as opposed to the seasoned older groups, meant for the adults) live act. It wasn't just the songs themselves, but that their rapport with the American K-pop audience is pretty damn close to what a domestic hip-hop act is like anyway. Anyway. . .

The crowd was CRAZY. :D I mean, I thought standing near the front of a Godspeed You Black Emperor gig was loud. This was close, and it was all coming from the people to the left and right of me. :D Fangirl Screaming > "Volume Control at Level 11""

It's not so much about Epik High (and MYK actually kinda stole the show in his bit), but that the crowd was incredible. For one thing, everybody knew the songs, very loudly. All the lyrics, all the choruses, and they were shouting the lyrics during the songs. it's like everybody there watched Epik High's performance on MBC Music Core so many times that they know exactly they were going to do before they did it. During "Love Love Love" and "One", the entire crowd was one massive substitute for the "female voices." It was awesome. I wish every Epik High fan in the States could experience singing and making the "Love" sign in synchronicity. Or singing "you are the one. ONE!" Or shouting "Fly! Fly! Fly!" and "come respect me or fcuking come and get me" all in unison. Because everybody was doing it, and it was that awesome. :D At certain points in the song, Tablo would just put the microphone to the audience and skip singing the choruses altogether, because the crowd basically sang the whole damn song. Dude, it was like a "BOA Meri Kuri in Japan" moment or something.

Beatboxer DG was actually a personal highlight for me. He and Tukutz did beats from the Neptunes, Timbaland, Planet Rock, and I thought I heard Underworld in there too. :D

I kinda came out of the gig really feeling that Tablo is really a "love or hate" (or "love and hate") kind of dude. You could tell the other members were kinda "WHOA" with the vibe from the crowd. At one point, MYK was literally like "wow, this is loud" when Epik High asked us to scream. But, I think for Tablo, you can really, really feel his anger. And like the success of Epik High at this and the SF gig was more personal vindication for him, that it reinforced that Epik High did the right thing going independent, and youj can absolutely see the satisfaction whenever he wasn't rapping. BTW, I think at one point, he tried krumping(?!?) O_o When Epik High was performing, he was the principal chatting with the audience, and he gave a short "real talk" about their decision going independent. It echoed what he said before in the previous Epik High piece here, that people who complained about slaving under the labels should "shut the fcuk up." Ahem. Though he did also point out that, they've tried for years to tour around the world, but their major label wouldn't let them do stuff like this. And he thanked the audience for making this possible. Tablo's a hilarious hype man BTW. He threw water at the audience a few times (and I got hit in the face EVERY TIME lol.) But the best bit was him toweling off Mithra (who looked seriously happy to be doing this show) multiple times in the show. It was borderline fan service. :D

I left pretty quickly (gotta work Sunday), but I wouldn't be surprised if the Map the Soul crew has one helluva after party.

But, really, the best part of the Epik High/MYk show were the fans. I've been to gigs with great acts where the fans were crap or they were, uhhh, stereotypical hipsters who "fold their arms" and look really bored. (Gah, especially when I used to live in the Bay Area. UGH x 20!!) But when you have a crowd that has strong fangirl representation, you don't really know because a lot of them haven't seen a lot of the show. they tend to be most excited up until the actual show, then they kinda stand around and watch. But this crowd was awesome, and I finally got to experience the "Belleza sings Love Love Love Very Badly in the Shower " Routine with other people. And that was definitely worth every cent. :D

Anyway, those of you going to the Seattle and Noo Yawk shows, I know you guys will have a blast. And, for the rest of you, don't worry. It's very likely that the Map the Soul collective will tour again in the future.

BTW, while I was a light on Sunset, walking across the street was a dude who EERILY looked like Caleb from Kings of Leon. Beard, bad hair, flannel, all there. If that dude yelped right there on the street, well you know I can use somebody . . .

Finally . . . saw Star Trek. I agree with my friends, Zachary Quinto was born on this watery, silly planet to play Spock. I never knew Vulcans guys could be hot, and Spock is one sexy logician. Too bad they're not many of them left. :(

And, oh yeah, don't worry about security not letting you bring cameras and stuff. Every other person in LA was taping the show. :D And Tablo LOVES posing and being all dork-macho for camera shots.

Eek. I really lost my hearing. LOL