amrita828

Ok, I'll make you laugh then. I went into town on foot with my i-pod, listening to you surely know what. So I entered this shop, took out the earphones and greeted the lady with a clear: Anyohaseyo!, followed by a bow!!!
The best part is that she looked at me as if I had suddenly grown two heads, but I didn't understand why and thought SHE was behaving very strangely.
I realized what happened only after getting out of the shop and having walked almost a kilometre. LOL

First of all, forgive me for disappearing this morning: it was 5 in the morning here and I truly had to go to sleep, lol.
Why the Russian fairy-tales... It's actually one of those mental connection one does without a very clear reason. Misha (with M) is a recurrent name in traditional Russian stories, and when I was a kid I used to think it was all so wonderfully exotic, the names, the places, the enchantment.
I think your profile picture helped conjuring up this image, in between memory and dream.
While I think Nurjahan sounds beautiful too (and so is its meaning), I'll keep on calling you Nisha if you don't mind. :) It will be easier for me to remember.
Where are you from, by the way? :)

I got my new translation just the other day, so on a mere rational level I have plenty to do and distract me with, but I can't seem to be able to focus on anything.
On the other hand, when the end of something loved approaches, I try to enjoy the wait too, because I know that when it's over, I'll feel completely empty. :(

Hahaha <- evil laugh. It's very satisfying to be able to win over the regulations. ;)

I love it that yours are emotional. I believe good reviews are those which convey a feeling. One can go on and on about how well done a thing is, but what makes others want to watch the show is to know how people reacted to it emotionally.
So, as usual: good job! :D

I've spent the whole morning rummaging through paperwork for the incomes declaration (I hate this time of the year), and just took a couple of breaths to come here. But now that you tell me, writing one could be a good change for my frustration, lol.
Have you written yours already? I go check. :D

Again, it's not easy to explain what I like. In general though, I need for a movie to make me think, either because the characters are well depicted, or because the images are very evocative, or again because the issue raised provoke me ethically or personally. Like the Decalogue, as you say. It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy a good comedy, or a rom-com, or a good thriller, but there must be that little substance which touches me somehow. If I can't relate to the characters, there's no quality: I won't like it.
I don't like the latest mainstream american dramas because of this: they create characters I can't connect to: rich housewives, corrupted policemen, drug dealers. It's a world I don't understand, nor do I want to.
I fear I'm blubbering now. It's 5 in the morning here... I should finally go to sleep, lol.
Thanks for the very pleasant chat!! :D

I haven't got only one, this is going to be hard. On my top ten I'd put The Legend of 1900 (it's an Italian/USA co-production, the main lead is Tim Roth); Baghdad Café; Mediterraneo (another italian one); The red, white and blue trilogy by Kieslowski; Dangerous Liasons; The painted Veil; The Killing Fields (which takes place in Cambodia); The Last Emperor (which takes place in China, but is by Bertolucci).
There are many others, of course, but these are the first ones that come to my mind, so many times I've watched each of them.

How about you?

Amrita has indeed a meaning: immortal. It's an old sanskrit name, but it's not mine. My real name's Rita, which on the other hand comes from the Greek and means "pearl".
I don't feel so much like a jewel, nor am I immortal, but I like the fact that it is short and not too common.
Nisha makes me think of those beautiful Russian fairy-tales I used to read when I was little. I had a big book of russian fables with wonderful illustrations, and I remember them still. :)

I remember that conversation, I kept on calling you pretty because I found it was sweet and not at all vain. But Nisha is beautiful! So, if I have to choose, I obviously choose beauty over prettiness. ;);)

Thank you for the encouragement, pretty. I think I'll put it in my watch list, after all. Who knows, I may even appreciate the fact that I can fantasize about the ending, instead of having one made up by the author... :P
(I truly always see the glass as half full, lol)

LOL, I don't want that responsibility! ;)
At the end of the day, many of the criteria we use when judging a drama seem so rational and well-thought, but there isn't always a reason for loving something. I find myself falling in love with things others view as boring, or dropping what many consider a great drama. Also, I think we all need different things in different moments of our life. For a drama, a book, a movie, even a painting to "speak" to us, it must have that something which we can relate to our own experience; without empathy there's no art, in whatever form.
I guess I'm in the mood for mature dramas - as you rightly describe K2H - while I'm not at all for very young ones. I may change again... and again. ;)
However, if you start K2H, please let me know what you think. If you hate it, please be gentle with me. :D

And the obstacles the main couple has to go through has nothing to do with some "noble idiocy": they truly grow throughout the drama, and the viewer has the chance to witness it all. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, and real. Not cute at all, mind you. There's nothing fluffy about it, not even a minute (another aspect I appreciate about it: I hate fluff).

You are right about the rate not being the same of every drama genre. I can't possibly rate Hana Kimi with the same measure I use for, say, Scent of a Woman. And I get truly pissed when I read someone declaring a heartbreaking drama is "entertaining"... but this is my bad temper speaking now, lol.
Bear with me. ;)

I've had Can You Hear my Heart on hold for almost 1 year now: while there were some aspects which I found wonderful (the first scene with mother and son on a bicycle is the kind of thing that I like), but I got deterred when the grandfather died and I could envision all sorts of misfortunes befalling that family, with the corrupt dad and the meddling friend. For some reason, I had the feeling they would drag untold secrets for the whole length of the drama, which frustrates me no end.
King 2 Hearts is exactly the kind of drama I love: no love triangles (hurrah), the family is just WONDERFUL, each single character is lovable with the exception of the evil man, who's so evil he could come out of Apocalipse Now. But you see, he's clear cut, well defined, an external criminal force who can't be either pardoned nor empathized with.

OK, I'm in!
Now I'm curious what you would pick up for me in case you won (a possibility I don't even want to take into consideration, since it would mean that Shi Kyung dies, AHHHHHHHH). However, I'm curious nonetheless, lol

Buona notte a te, mia cara! :D
Sweet dreams! ;)

LOL, yes, I watched episode... 9. I didn't watch it yesterday because, as you know, I'm a monogamist, lol.
Now that heaven's ending makes me want to go watch episode 10 like... right now. :D

I won't go as far as to say I regret watching it: in fact, it gave me a clear idea what I DON'T want from a drama: makjang. Evil relatives, birth secrets, martyr heroine who accept everything for the sake of being good, love triangles, everyone keeping secrets that won't be revealed until the end.
In this sense, Secret Garden was and still is in my opinion, very refreshing, since the focus is truly on something else, i.e. the growth of the characters via self reflection.
But enough with SG.
Watch K2H if you have the time: if you're ready for some major heart attack, you won't regret it. :D

First of all, never apologize to me for writing long messages: I love them. :)
This said, I never considered the focus of SG to be the meddling mother, nor is she the one who actually constituted an obstacle between them. The mother's purpose in Secret Garden is to show what Kim Joo Won would have become if he hadn't met Ra Im and lived in her body. To me, she's just a modern Lady Catherine de Bourg (fomr Pride and Prejudice), an embittered, prejudiced lady who earned the loneliness she's condemned to in the end.
This said, I agree with you the materialistic aspect is getting on my nerves too, when it's the stress of the drama. Because I have a crush on Lee Seung Gi thanks to King 2 Hearts, I too watched an older drama with him, one I had always pushed aside: Shining Inheritance.

Oh dear, the poor thing wakes up to find herself in a completely different reality, with mixed memories, no less!
It's going to be interesting how Boong Do finds his way back to the future now.
And possibly because I truly needed to laugh, I did loudly at the old man's hair in prison, lol! He looked as if he had a haystack on his head.