PrettyCarEye

Life is so short. Even though I'm still relatively young, I feel like time is ticking away & there's still so many things I haven't accomplished. I think, God forbid, if I die tomorrow, I'd die with a lot of regrets because I haven't fulfilled any of my dreams. So all we can do is pray for a long life & the hope that we'll get to do the things we want. While solo traveling can get lonely, I love it because you dictate your every move without having to consider someone else's preferences. I'd love to travel with my husband 1 day. I think a couple that can travel together in peace, will also stay together. As for dramas, I'm more of a movie buff really, but I've seen a few dramas. I mostly watch SK and Japanese dramas, but I also have some Taiwanese & Chinese dramas on my list. I've seen Coffee Prince. I liked it, but didn't love it. Gong Yoo is so hot. I'm not much of a K-pop fan.

When I contracted my drama addiction last year it was all about South Korea for me. My familial roots stem from the Caribbean & I recognized a lot of cultural parallels between the Caribbean and SK. But lately I have really started to like Japan too. Not that I didn't like it before, but I like it more now. I never had an interest to visit Japan until now. As a matter of fact before Oct 2012 I wasn't interested in Asia or Asian culture at all. Now I want to spend at least 6mths of my 1 yr RTW trip exploring the entire region. I've been a solo traveller all my life. It gets lonely, but my relatives don't have the same interest or time to travel & most of my friends have young families so they can't afford to travel. That's why I want to wait to acquire those things because I feel like there's still so many things I have to do & places I have to see.

Well, the only tip I have is to make use of your young adulthood & travel as much as you can now while you have minimal responsibility. I really, really wished I had understood this when I was your age (I'm 8 yrs older than you). I spent most of my time travelling the EU, North & South America, the Caribbean, but I had many opportunities to go to Asia, Africa & Australia which I never took because I was distracted by things that I now realize weren't important at all. To me travel & experiencing new people, places & culture is the best teacher about life. So yeah, I'd say travel, travel, travel ... far and wide. If you can afford it, consider a gap year dedicated only to travel. You won't regret it. Now that I'm such a fan of Asian cinema I really can't wait to explore that region. I'm planning a RTW trip for the near future. How was Japan? Did you go their recently or long ago?

Thanks. I did a lot of travelling during my student years when my life was less stressful & free. I miss those days. I wish I had taken the opportunity to travel to even more countries because I had the time & the money. Now life as a grown up is all about working and paying bills, bills, bills. I still try to travel every chance I get though. I can't wait to visit South Korea & Japan. I don't know if I'll ever have kids, but it'll be nice to get married before I'm 40. I'd like that. However, I want to do things at my own pace, not because well-meaning family & friends pressure me into it. :)

Thanks for your friends request! :-)
I love your reasons for loving Asian dramas. Many of them are similar to mine. Hope we'll have some fun discussions now & in the future! :-)

Can I ask where do you download from? I usually stream stuff on gooddrama or dramacrazy, but lately my internet connection has been acting really weird so it's been almost impossible to stream. I've complained to my ISP a thousand times & they seem clueless. So annoying because I used to have the fastest connection in my house. I don't know what happened all of a sudden.

I checked out that movie. Looks intriguing. Were you able to sleep last night? :-)
Have you seen Salaryman? If yes, what did you think of it?
Since I have a whole week off from formal work I started Unexpected You, 58 episodes long. It's a bit much, but I like family dramas so I decided to give it a go. It's not too bad so far, but it's still in danger of being dropped. What drew me to it was the fact that the lead couple is already happily married & I wanted to see how they handled their relationship because usually k-dramas are sooooo conservative. The couple so far is quite cute, and their interaction together seem natural & affectionate. I'm also watching Salaryman, but it hasn't quite hooked me yet.

Hehe, I know what you mean about the language. My brain's acclimatized to Korean and Japanese, and when I hear Mandarin (or any variation of the Chinese language) it's like my ears are being abused. So normally what I do is turn off or turn down the sound very low and just read the subtitles. I wouldn't be able to watch any Chinese/Taiwanese movie otherwise. It helped me a great deal when I watched Autumn's Concerto because not only did the language sound a bit strange, the theme music was constantly on repeat and after about 2 episodes it became sooooo annoying! Anyway, the show itself was fine. It's not a fav, but still watchable. It's a romance, though. Funnily enough, I watched Lust, Caution the other day & the language didn't bother me. Maybe because I was so caught up in the story. It was a really good movie.

I've been looking forward to watching Smile, You but when I found out she's in it I pushed it down on my priority list. I just finished watching her in Bad Couple, and gosh she made me wanna scream. Hhehe. I only watched that show for Ryu Soo Young, who I love. Yeah, you're not the first person to complain about the actress in Mary. Guess I won't be watching that drama anytime soon! I haven't yet come across any Japanese actors that I dislike. In general I find them less annoying than the Koreans although I am a Koreaphile. Do you watch Chinese/Taiwanese dramas? Any favourites? What about your fav/least fav actors from these countries? I've so only watched 1 Taiwanese drama (Autumn's Concerto), no Chinese.

OMG, that has got to be Choi Jung Yoon, closely followed by Kim Na Heul and Ha Ji Won. I know the latter two are very popular, but they annnnnoy me! I haven't come across a male actor that I can't stand as yet, but I'm sure in time I will. What about your most annoying actor? Who is your favourite?

Haha, I watched it twice for him too. He's a real cutie!

Well, if you've been to one you've been to them all. Even the languages are similar. I understand Swedish quite well, but I can't speak it.
The worse drama I've seen so far? Hmm ... good question.
Well, from those that I have seen I have to say Save the Last Dance for Me. It was the second K-drama I saw after Padam Padam & I wish I could get back the time I wasted watching it. This drama was so crazy and melodramatic. I didn't really care for Loving You A Thousand Times either, but that was mainly due to the heroine who I really wanted to shoot with a shotgun. She was soooooooo annoying. OMG, I wouldn't wish this woman on anyone! lol
What about you?

If you can think of any, that'll be awesome! :-)
And since you love comedy have you seen Brother Beat? I don't know if it's your cup of tea, but it was so much fun for me! lol
Hey, have you ever been to any of the nordic countries?

I thought season 1 was the best of the four. I like prison dramas because the prison politics and the constant pressure the inmates face of getting caught. That alone kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what will happen next.

I watched a couple episodes of Lost from pretty much every season, but could never really get into this series because the story seemed aimless and nonsensical. The first season was the most suspenseful, but I soon lost interest toward the end of it.
I've heard of all the dramas you mentioned, but I don't know if they're for me. I don't really care for (Asian) dramas that are set in high school. They tend to annoy me.

No idea. More than six feet it looks like. He clearly towered over the average Japanese person when he was walking aimlessly around the street. I didn't care for Isao's slackness throughout the first half of the film, but I think he changed for the better by the end. What touched my heart was their journey together. At the beginning I thought why the heck does this woman put up with this guy? Then I understood, he was the only one who loved her at her worst -- now she had to love him back at his worst. The layers underlining this film was just magnificent. I loved it.

You can download it with english subs from fenopy.se. I couldn't find it on iTunes so I went looking for it elsewhere & that's where I found it.

Good that you liked Always. You're welcome.

OMG of all the horrors I've seen The Exorcist, esp the older version, & The Omen are some of the scariest movies I've ever seen. Horror movies that play with mind & deal with the spiritual (demons) or the paranormal (ghosts) are those that scare me the most. I saw both movies in a house full of people & was still terrified. Slasher horrors don't scare me.
I like most genres of dramas, but there has to be some romance in them for me to stay interested. The only TV show I've watched with little or no romance & was able to remain hooked was the western drama Prison Break. There was a bit of romance but I didn't like it because the leads had NO chemistry. I didn't care, however, because the show otherwise was just so awesome. If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend it! :-)
Re: video games, I do like them, but I'm no gamer. I think the last time I played one was when I was a kid.

I recently saw a Japanese family drama called Brother Beat. It's an oldie, but oh so good & funny! It's about a mother who lives with 3 sons after her husband passes away. She was not a conventional mother at all, but still a great & wonderful influence on her children nonetheless. I'd highly recommend it!

And thanks for these recs, I love family dramas because with so much more episodes you come to know & love or hate the characters really well!

Awww, this was such a lovely movie! And it has a very sweet ending (which, by the way, comes AFTER the credits roll). I think you'll love this, Winnie!!! :-)
Next to Kimura Takuya, Abe Hiroshi is now my latest Japanese crush! He's one very handsome man and TALL!!! Tallest Japanese man I've ever seen (on screen or in real life!). I'd so date him! Yum! Hahaha

Yeah, just hop over Bad Couple. You won't be missing much.

hehe funny thing is I can only watch horrors when I'm not alone in the house. If my Yobo is around then I don't get scared at all, but if I'm alone my mind plays tricks on me. I watched the first Paranormal Activity movie at the cinema with a friend of mine when I was at Uni in the UK. After the film, he went home to his dorm & I went home to mine and I had to sleep with all the lights on! haha. Even then I still felt scared. Yesterday I watched Chenobyl Diaries. I was alone but thankfully it wasn't all that scary. I slept really well afterwards. Are there any good romance J-dramas you could recommend? Have already seen all the classics: Pride, Buzzer Beat etc. I was just telling Winnie that I'm starting to like J-dramas more than K-dramas, but K-movies more than J-movies.