blindness

i feel like in asian dramas, going blind is a big archetype, and usually it is caused by an accident like falling. is it that easy to go blind from falling? hopefully we learn this in medical school...

new project

i have been working on my jclub presentation the last two days, so even though i finished sweet relationship this weekend, i haven't found a new drama to watch yet. finally i finished the ppt tonight, and now i have also decided on my new project: bump off lover. actually i have been meaning to watch this for quite some time. but when i first wanted to, i couldn't find the episodes. tonight i realized that trusty mysoju.com has just finished posting all the episodes!

i know there are horror dramas, which i can't imagine being scared for like 14 episodes on end...would i just live in fear for 2 weeks? anyway, i'm not sure if this drama is actually supposed to be scary, but it'll definitely be a change from the normal romantic comedy idol dramas i like so much. i'll probably start watching tomorrow night.

tonight i was browsing dramawiki. they have a page for listing tw 2006 dramas, a page for 2007 dramas, and a page for 2008 dramas. so i was looking to see what dramas i haven't seen that are worth watching. this is how i decided to watch bump off lover. there is also a page for upcoming tw dramas. turns out, there is an upcoming drama called 劍道．愛("jian dao. ai" or "kendo. love"). there isn't a synopsis page yet, but all i can say is...THEY TOTALLY COPIED ME! i wrote a drama called 跆拳道﹐ 愛到 ("tai quan dao, ai dao" or "taekwondo, love came"). check out my drama!

another sweet relationship update

i just finished sweet relationship.

here are some final thoughts:

first, i take what i said about megan lai back. her character becomes progressively annoying. i still like her as an auxiliary actress though.

second, it seems like every drama always likes to throw in a new character during the last quarter of the show. the character is not really a main character because he/she is not in most of the drama, but he/she has a lot of air time during at least a few episodes. many dramas follow this general storyline: first quarter only the audience knows the two lead characters are meant to be, in the second quarter one lead falls for the other, at the end of the third quarter the other lead finally starts to show hints of reciprocating, at which point this random last quarter character comes in to drag the drama through the last quarter and into the last episode. sweet relationship is no exception. the last quarter character is played by gu xuan chun, a japanese guy whose chinese is really hard to understand and who is really gross and who eats especially gross. i think his character is actually supposed to be attractive, i just find him incredibly gross, especially in this drama. he was in both the rose and they kiss again, so i guess qu you ning really likes him.

third, qu you ning really likes to have cute chubby little boys in this dramas!

fourth, still not a huge patty hou fan, but again, i loved vic's acting in this.

fifth, the storyline wasn't that exciting, but the drama was very well made. many really good and/or really cute scenes.

finally, the dramas always have previews for the next episode at the end of each episode. i always hate watching the previews because they give entirely too much away. yet, i still watch them because i can't stand not watching every second of the videos; it would feel incomplete; what if i missed something? however, even with the extensive previewing, the ending (of the last episode) was sufficiently surprising (well not surprising, but not in the preview) and cute/not a complete let down.

sweet relationship update

i have now finished episode 3 of sweet relationship. doesn't seem very far, but i'm now twice as far as i was since my last post.

i have decided that i LOVE vic in this drama! he's so grumpy all the time, and i have realized he is really good at being angry. and everything about him and how he acts in the drama! which is strange because seeing him being himself in interviews (etc) i feel like since his meteor garden days, he has become more and more like--the only way i can describe it is--monkey+girl. i just feel like he's been castrated and is now working in the Forbidden City, or something. but really, in the drama, he's great. it just shows again how great qu you ning is as a director. i once read this article that asked qu you ning about his casting cai yi zhen (wu xiong) in they kiss again, since she was not well received in her previous drama, summer x summer (i didn't think it was so bad; i actually quite enjoyed that drama and didn't mind her character.). qu you ning said something like, she just needs good direction. and if no one else can make cai yi zhen shine, qu you ning can! (well i don't know, not enough of they kiss again has aired yet.) but really, qu you ning is so good at making his characters both special and very real. some of his very classic characters: kui (the rose), baihe (the rose), zhishu (iswak), xiangqin (iswak), and even zhishu's mom (i LOVE her!). they are totally ridiculous, but so real to me. in qu you ning's dramas, each character, each drama is special. think about it, kui is nothing like zhishu, both played by joe cheng. (but think about mike he's dramas...i feel like he always plays the same character. that's what most idol dramas are like, which is fine, people are soooo typecast.) and vic in sweet relationship is totally different from his real life monkey+girl aura (thank god). i really can't describe it, he's great. of course not all credit goes to the director. i feel like vic is generally pretty good at playing a character that is not monkey+girl. his acting is pretty good in this, which contrasts patty hou's acting. it's her first drama, and i wouldn't say she's bad (it's sufficient for an idol drama), but i feel like vic can act way better than her. for instance, in this last episode, they were both sick, but vic's sneezes were way more convincing.

one complaint: even though this whole drama is supposed to be about food, i don't feel like my senses are overloaded with lots of food. unlike nodame cantabile, in which i got to hear lots of good music every episode, here i don't feel like there is an abundance of good food. (soups are pretty boring.)

sweet relationship

i have watched 1.5 episodes of sweet relationship, but i am going to prematurely give some of my thoughts on the drama. this is not binding, since, keep in mind, i have only seen 1.5 episodes.

the drama starts at this really nice french restaurant, where this rich/important old guy is cooking dinner for his daughter's graduation/birthday (i couldn't tell which). you first meet vic as he is storming into the restaurant. you learn that vic is the head chef, and vic is mad that someone else is making subpar food in his kitchen. vic sees this pot of soup that the old guy had made and immediately dumps the whole thing down the drain, despite many protests and people trying to restrain him. at that moment, when the soup was going down the drain, i knew i was going to continue watching this drama (within the first 20 minutes of the first episode!).

vic's character is so classic idol drama: talented guy who will not tolerate other people's mediocrity and is always yelling at people. hey, a lot like chiaki from nodame cantabile!! he is (rightfully) elitist like zhi shu in iswak. and i like his personality, the way he thinks, and what he believes is wrong and right. and he is always so right. i won't say that vic is the most attractive guy, especially in this drama, but i do think his look fits well with the character. his attractiveness comes from his mad elitist cooking skills, and not from the strange elf ears that stick out from his chef's hat...

i don't know how i feel about patty hou (the daughter, who will obviously become the heroine). this is her first idol drama, and first acting experience? (i think.) she's totally cute/pretty, but a little generic. i feel like she doesn't have her own look. like ariel, ella, even rainie, they are not objectively the most beautiful, but they are not generic and they totally win you over. (see, this is also why i think vic as the chef works well. and why we all love joe cheng!)

usually i don't care that much about the auxillary characters, but for some reason i have always liked megan lai. at first i thought her character would be the evil/jealous type, but so far (1.5 episodes) she seems cool, and even cute sometimes. i hate when there is an auxillary character that is evil/jealous. it's just an easy way for the drama to cause problems between the leads. and then i am constantly nervous about what that evil/jealous character is going to do next. i'd rather the problems be more spontaneous so that i'm not biting my nails the whole time.

finally, i found out that the director for sweet relationship (qu you ning) also directed iswak! now that i know, i can't believe i didn't realize it earlier. one thing that i noticed about qu you ning's dramas is that every so often he likes to film a scene where the camera is moving around a bit (hard to describe, hope you get it), which seems unusual for the average idol drama. the camera moves around as if the scene has ghost/ufo music to it! and there has already been at least one scene like this in sweet relationship. qu you ning's dramas are always just ever so slightly more raw, so that, every once in a while, i feel like i've actually walked in on some real live (awkward) situation. he has a mix of sugary packaged drama idol scenes and real people doing real things scenes. qu you ning has directed: the rose, it started with a kiss, sweet relationship, and they kiss again. the rose and iswak are two of my favorite dramas, and i am currently watching sweet relationship and they kiss again. qu you ning's dramas are always very well cast (so i have faith in vic, even though he wasn't my favorite male lead before.) and the dramas always have very good characters--characters that make you OBSESSED about the drama. the rose, for example, has an auxillary character, kui. he has long hair, wears frilly girl bath robes, and is in love with his sister. BUT, no one who has watched the rose can help but fall hopelessly in love with kui. when watching these dramas, i get the feeling that qu you ning loves making dramas. this is an art to him and he takes care to make each one special. [on the other hand, dramas directed by lin he long (devil beside you, corner with love, why why love, romantic princess, etc.) are thoroughly entertaining, but very predictable and generic. i like his dramas too. they are sure to be good quality idol dramas, but that is all they are: idol dramas.]

o yeah, and the drama is basically about eating.

so, i am very much looking forward to watching the rest of sweet relationship, and have high hopes for it (definitely a bad idea; i am setting myself up for a let down...). so far the drama is setting up to be a pretty generic idol drama, but i believe in qu you ning! i'll let you know when i finish!

string players are so cool!

last night i finished the japanese drama nodame cantabile. i have had some bad experiences in the past with japanese dramas. i watched itazura na kiss recently, the japanese version of iswak. (well itazura na kiss was made first and iswak was based on the japanese manga itazura na kiss.) my problem with japanese dramas is the amount of screaming (baka! baka!) and a very literal interpretation of the manga. is it really necessary that when the heroine is slapped, she is thrown across the room, or into a tree? there is also an abundance of ridiculous/ugly/gross characters/storylines. and nodame cantabile is no exception. despite being leery of japanese dramas, i decided to watch nodame cantabile because it won best mini series at the the most recent seoul drama awards (a very new, international, but korean award ceremony).

turns out i thoroughly enjoyed the drama! it is basically about two piano students at a music academy. the girl (nodame) is a sloppy player, but very expressive/talented. the guy (chiaki) is a perfectionist and has a dream of being an orchestra conductor. the storyline is nothing more than a very typical asian drama story--sloppy/poor girl likes perfect/rich guy, who eventually also falls for sloppy/poor girl--but executed very well. the standout element of the drama is its score. (nodame cantabile also won best director and best music director!) the music is amazing and refreshing after watching an abundance of dramas with the same old pop music. there is a wide variety of classical pieces: piano, piano duets, orchestral, piano concerto, even an oboe concerto! i have never liked the oboe, but i appreciate it a bit more now. the romance (of course very important) is very convincing. unlike many dramas in which it does not make sense that the awesome guy falls for the weird girl, chiaki is at first moved by nodame's expressive piano playing, if not attracted to the girl herself. it's natural that chiaki, a guy who LOVES music, grows to appreciate nodame, a girl who makes exquisite music. their relationship develops at a very natural and convincing pace, and is a classic example of two very different people learning from each other (popular drama theme). at 11 episodes long, the drama was neither rushed nor did it drag. despite the exaggerated nature of japanese dramas, i grew to love both leading characters. as i was watching a scene where nodame is feeding chiaki a bite of pudding, i suddenly realized, there is a level of cuteness that only japanese people can reach. i don't know how to describe this drama other than enjoyable and it made me smile.

also, there is a really cute violin player in nodame cantabile. string players who carry their instruments on their back like a backpack are so cool!

btw, mysoju.com is one of my favorite sites to stream kr, jp, or tw dramas! they have an extensive library of english subbed dramas. they don't host the videos directly on their site, but gather all the different episodes and parts together for each drama so that you just have to click on their links to watch an entire show. you can watch the videos embedded on their site or go to the hosting site (youtube, veoh, dailymotion, gofish, etc.). they are constantly linking to different sites as different parts of dramas get taken down from sites like youtube and veoh due to copyright issues. props to mysoju!!

first post

when i was volunteering at the salvation army good samaritan medical clinic this monday, a very old, retired nurse asked me, "so how is your job as an emt?"

i was an emt (mit-ems!!) in college, which is how i came to be doing nursing assessments at the local free clinic. now, though, i work as a research technician in a molecular neuroscience lab.

i explained to her that i now work in research, and then almost as an afterthought, i added that i would be going to medical school this fall. she promptly replied, "i have never had a desire to be a doctor." then she explained that doctors were too far removed from the patient. she wanted to take care of patients. i smiled, but inside i was aghast. man, i just want to get away from the lab bench! basic science research--talk about far removed from the patient.

and next year, i will most definitely leave the lab bench! this morning i just mailed a $100 check to university of minnesota medical school. they call it an "acceptance deposit", which must be paid within two weeks of the acceptance letter and is "non-refundable after may 15, 2008." does that mean it IS refundable before then? nowhere does it explain how i can get that money back should i decide to go to another school. (also, nowhere in the packet of materials i recieved with my acceptance letter does it specify the "pay to the order of" for that check.)

confusion aside, with my first (well maybe only) medical school acceptance, i feel i am finally moving in a forward direction post mit graduation. it has been a long year and a half since my undergraduate graduation. this purgatory that is the time between undergrad and grad school has been filled with frustrating biomedical research, living at home with my parents and little brother, and hundreds of hours working on applications in coffee shops. in an email, an MD friend, upon hearing of my acceptance, wrote, "welcome to the game!" after going through a year of the med school application process, i do feel that this career choice is (unfortunately) a game. as i accept my first acceptance, i feel very excited to be going back to school, but i also wonder HOW MANY ASIAN DRAMAS CAN I WATCH BEFORE I BEGIN MED SCHOOL?!

and so for the next six months, i will earnestly watch asian dramas, discover more chinese music i like, write my own dramas based on the lives of my friends, and blog about how i wish i live in taiwan (instead of dreary minnesota). med school here i come!!