usagisaiko

A lot (I mean a LOT) of Chinese actresses, especially young, get plastic surgery as a given now. The double-lid procedure (for quite some time) and now the eye-widening procedure is something sooooooo many actresses (and girls with lots of money) get. These days I feel like all the non-runway/Int'l models have even more gigantic unbalanced (to me at least) eyes that a less expensive surgeon did.

While male actors in China, Korea, and Japan tend to leave their eyes alone, nose jobs are getting to be more and more popular for both genders, although much more for women. Notice how many women have virtually the same thin European nose? Although I should say hers looks like it could be the original as it isn't so skinny although I haven't looked at lots of pics.

I won't get into shaved jaws and the heavier stuff. It's such a sad/dangerous beauty standard to me, to diminish that a different more Asian nose isn't as good, or that smaller, less wide eyes are not beautiful. It's a standard that most girls/women can't live up to when it's not naturally attainable, and "pretty" or "beautiful" means something so different. It's weird/sad to me that it's like your real face isn't good enough anymore if you want bigger roles.

Okay, I have to thank you for mentioning how good the 2007 HanaKimi was. Didn't see the remake and I guess I forgot about this one! Totally hilarious!! I might just have to put it up there with My Boss My Hero for having all the right special ingredients for this type of school comedy, if you know what I mean!

Ikuta Toma is amazing at comedy for sure, and I loved the secondary characters too. I think I laughed so loud through the whole thing, I probably woke my neighbor up! (Just as he was leaving for work during the dance party scene...especially when Oscar and Hibari do their amazing Shall We Dance? movie impression, I cackled soooo hard he probably thought I was having a fit! lolz!

Last four...great choices.

With a crew and cast like this, it *has* to be super amazing...I was thinking of just waiting till it's finished because I normally wouldn't watch taiga weekly...but I'm really tempted to! Is anyone watching who can give their thoughts so far?

Oh wow, *great* Hollywood actor comparison!! Don't know why I never thought of that. The only other really strong one that's stood out to me is Yoo Ah In...it finally struck me when I saw him in Veteran that he has such a similar charisma, emotive power, and versatility as Leonardo DiCaprio.

Then, seeing the kind of role he was going to play in Burning, it struck me how he has that kind of appeal and interest in both mainstream and art movies similarly too. It was kind of on the edge of my mind when I saw his amazing performance in Six Flying Dragons a few years ago, but it didn't quite strike me since I'm actually not very well-versed in Hollywood!

Anyway, love Jang Hyuk and Johnny Depp and totally see how they have a lot in common as actors. Great call! Forrest Gump is also an interesting idea...I would never have thought of it since it's so tied to specific aspects of American culture, yet I could totally see how the character and the concept, going through the decades, would be awesome. I can't remember the name, but there's a Korean movie with a character who kind of reminds me of the Forrest Gump character.

Totally agree!! I like him in other roles, but after just a few episodes too I just couldn't! lol

Anyone see the original, Kansayaku Nozaki Shūhei? If so, how similar are they? I see this adaptation is going to be like twice as long so I'm curious to know whether they add to the story or change the pace. Thanks!

Yeah, I meant I think of it in my mind as an 80s show because that's when it started being huge, so it was weird to realize how many seasons were Heisei. I'm going to have to look for some of the late-90s and onward seasons!

Great list! Also totally freaky to think that this period/generation is coming to an end. Thanks for translating/posting this... I really like that they included a wide variety of genres. Sometimes I forget what I've seen, and this also reminds me of some I've always meant to watch but also forgot about. I probably need to get to 2007 Hanakimi!

Just being reminded of some favorites is happy... Dragon Zakura, My Boss My Hero, Nobuta o Produce, 35 sai no Koukousei, Samurai High School,...I forget that so many school dramas are so watchable and fun for a wide range of ages...Japan makes such great school dramas that aren't just soaps for a teen audience, but absorbing and/or hilarious and nostalgic for a broad audience too. One thing though, about nostalgia, I think 3 nen B gumi Kinpachi Sensei is a totally Showa drama so it's weird to see a very late season on this list!

I thought the original GTO was definitely more famous! But maybe it no longer is as well-loved as the remake, considering that probably more Japanese watchers who voted are of the Heisei generation anyway and would thus more relate to the 2012 one.

In case you want to know more about the story, I edited the summary a bit and added a review with a little more background in case anyone is curious about that. But if you know nothing about the story and like suspense dramas, I would say jump right in without knowing about it, and I think you'll likely find the main character compelling!

I should add that even after his character change, it's not all black and white... he does develop between the beginning of the current-day timeline to the end of the story, and to me, never failed to be fascinating!

If you're familiar with the original story, Alexandre Dumas' classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo, they try to follow the same storyline, character, and relationship dynamics even though they're in different settings. If you don't already know the story, basically the main character undergoes a drastic change due to life circumstances, from a good-natured, easygoing, optimistic young man (prologue timeline, eps 1-2) to basically the opposite personality in the current-day timeline, but you will understand why he's changed so much pretty quickly! Hope that helps.

So thoughtfully written, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge! Great recommendations, too! It's refreshing to see an article here on HK films, something I haven't gotten into enough even though I was super aware of them growing up.

These ladies were awesome...(in sharp contrast to so many current actresses (albeit good actresses) whose characters are supposed to be amazing fighters, yet have less than zero arm muscles...not to mention perfect makeup during fight scenes?!) It's clear they had so much dedication...like Michelle Yeoh wanting to do all her own stunts, and I love hearing that Oshima Yukari got her dream after being inspired by The Young Master! Hope you write more!

Actually...Hollywood employs international actors all the time who don't speak fluent English but memorize their lines phonetically! (Example...in Memoirs of a Geisha, Gong Li (awful movie, great actress!) pulled off all that English dialog with feeling, without being fluent in English. Hollywood these days likes to cast popular international Asian actors for pigeonholed roles so that it doesn't matter how fluent their English is, but rarely casts Asians as characters who are native speakers, sadly enough for Asian American actors.

While this isn't Hollywood and the audience might not care too much, accent/fluency would matter if there are Nissei (second generation American) characters, born and schooled in the US, because during that time period they would've sounded like any of their American peers, with no significant Japanese accent.

But I could see it not being a big issue for Shun at least to not to have an American native-speaker accent, because his character is apparently one of the many kids who were sent to Japan to live with a relative for schooling during the Great Depression before the war...a lot of those kids either gradually or purposely lost their American accents while assimilating into Japanese school so as to not be discriminated. On the other hand, for the ones who were able to return to the US, they did pick back up their American accents...so I wonder how that will work in that part of the story. Anyone seen it yet??

One way or another, I'm really hoping this will be realistic from a Japanese American perspective, because sometimes the portrayal is weird or not accurate to the time period, of how Japanese Americans of various generations saw/see themselves. Yet I think it's cool that Japan is interested in nikkei in America during that time period. Looking forward to it!

I'm guessing Shoplifters with Eng subs will probably be widely available within the next week since it's being released in the US on DVD and streaming. (Also it seems like Koreeda is one of the few Japanese directors the establishment is very familiar with, which has helped it toward the biggest US nominations.)

I don't think you can really call him an idol actor just because he's a musician (note: different from someone in a boy band!) and actor. Maybe where people got that idea, though, is because he started his career as a teenager and apparently did enter some talent agency competitions before getting his first roles. But to my knowledge he doesn't fit the mold as he didn't go through the whole process behind the agency creation of idols. Nor did he get promoted in the way of that culture.

I think it can also be confusing perhaps also because there are plenty of serious actors who may now be known more for their excellent craft than their image/popularity, but got their start as idols (and thus will inadvertently forever be connected to that history, no matter how old they are now!)

It's true, the portrayal is usually ridiculous and inaccurate! I've noticed this too, and I wonder where people get their ideas; I grew up in Japan and knew quite a few Indian families, and have never seen the portrayals I've seen on TV. Then again, minorities are often portrayed in an ignorant way in most countries. I think it comes from the lack of diversity/experience in the industry, where one or two people make these decisions.

Well, I totally love Kingdom (albeit the anime, so I'm not up on the current story arcs), but nevertheless I know it's really historical fantasy! In fact it's playing with just one idea of who the historical characters might be in the backdrop of uniting the kingdoms.

Just consider the king, who in real life was known to be generally cruel and obsessive (while being brilliant in other ways), but has a totally different personality we love in Kingdom...or how Liu Bei is shown as a manipulative bad guy but is portrayed as a benevolent hero in other accounts/stories. I like that there are different portrayals of historical people, because it gives different perspectives of the relationships and what happened around them in a big picture!

So he filmed all his parts? Did this ever air?

Ohhhh disappointing to hear. I had trouble getting into it at first, then decided to wait...then I heard all kinds of excitement, and hoped for the best...but this doesn't sound promising. T_T

However, I wonder if it just depends on taste, b/c I'm seeing ppl comparing it to an older drama by this screenwriter that they felt was masterpiecey, but which I wasn't impressed with for all its plot holes (and unconvincing romance). But maybe the last two eps will make the problems worthwhile? I hope so!