エラいところに嫁いでしまった!

Spoilers ahead


Ohohoho~ This is one funny dorama~

Makimura Kimiko (Nakama Yukie) is a free-lance journalist based in Tokyo. To continue staying in her luxurious Odaiba dreamhouse with her husband, she accepts all interviews and journalism work thrown to her, be it dealing with Yakuzas or with the former Prime Minister.



She married into the traditional Yamamoto family, and despite having a bad first impression of her mother-in-law, she is not really bothered as she thought that her marriage is with Yamamoto Isojiro, and not the whole Yamamoto family.



However, Yamamoto Shimako (Matsuzaka Keiko), her mother-in-law, actually thinks highly of her, after mistaking Isojiro's mediations for the bad first impression, that Kimiko is actually a traditional Japanese girl with extensive knowledge of the traditional Japanese arts, and so putting her to task to cook/dance/write thank you notes, etc, on her wedding ceremony in the Yamamoto house.



From then on begins her busy life of struggling to fit into Shimako's jump-into-conclusions-expectations of her/running away from the family while dealing with the useless Isojiro who tends to volunteer helping people without realising his own limits and the weirdos from the rest of the family, on top of the magazine editor who keeps pushing difficult tasks to her and chasing her for scripts.



Funny aside, the show actually covers the often tensed relationships between the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, including the rest of a big family with loads of traditions and customs unthinkable to the modern city dwellers.



Kimiko's antics..


Staring at Isojiro after he created more trouble for her again.


Getting a massage from the obasans on Onnanoko Getsu, where the ladies are given a break and the guys will do all work to the ladies' bidding.


Encouraging herself after missing the 3 times daily bus to the onsen for the 2nd time.


=.= expression for being unable to resist the temptation of sushi and returning to the Yamamoto house to help out in the elections.


Fell asleep on the laptop after rushing a script, to be woken up by Shimako to go shopping for breakfast.

WAHAHHAHA~

大奥 劇場版 2006

Spoilers ahead


I got desperate.

Yes. After finishing Nobuta wo Produce and left with half a Sunday yet not being able to find good links for Mei-chan, Maid Deka & Erai..

I got desperate with withdrawal symptoms.

So much so that I scrolled through Yukie's featured films and came upon this which had a working link that was easy enough to find.

大奥 is a historical dorama spanning 5 seasons that made its debut in 1968, with a total of 103 full episodes for the 1st 2 seasons. The series was picked up again in 2003 and ran for another 3 seasons. The focus is set on the women in the courts, from the wives to the concubines to the maids, their struggle for power, love & hatred, and the internal clashes among the houses.

大奥 劇場版 was released in 2006, depicting only the Ejima-Ikushima affair.

In the movie, Ejima is the intelligent and talented head matron of the Inner Palace, while Gekko-in, is the paternal mum of the ruling Shogun, a young 5 year old kid, who is placed in power with the death of his dad.

Ten'ei-in, the first wife of the late shogun who was unable to carry on his lineage, was extremely infuriated by the fact that the shogun title and power had been passed to the Gekko-in courts, and is always making trouble for Gekko-in and Ejima. Ejima, being fiercely protective of Gekko-in, who took her in when she was young, stepped on many of the others tails, Ten'ei-in inclusive, with her guts and wits.

There was rumours that Gekko-in had an affair with Akifusa Manabe, the advisor to the kid Shogun, which leads to Ten'ei-in plotting a conspiracy together with the anti-Gekko-in group, i.e. disgruntled councilors jealous of Akifusa's position and the other wives, recruiting the charasmatic Kabuki actor Ikushima Shingoro to seduce the headstrong Ejima so as to force her to betray Gekko-in.

Ejima was aware of Ikushima's initial intentions and was rather wary of him, but her defence crumbled when he saved her from the burning Kabuki theater which Ten'ei-in set fire on and separated her from the rest of the courtesans amidst the chaos. He brought Ejima through the party of people celebrating Harvest Festival, where she had a fun experience and boarded a boat house at the river, admiring the fireworks and making love.

Back at the Palace, both Ikushima and Ejima were summoned and accused of having an illicit relationship that night. Most of the courtesans that was present at the Kabuki theater were named and punished, which were mainly from the Gekko-in courts.

However, contrary to Ten'ei-in's plans, Ikushima denied their relationship and was tortured and eventually placed on death row with his minder. Ejima on the other hand, was coerced by Ten'ei-in & gang to betray Gekko-in and admit the relationship between Gekko-in & Akifusa or have punishment served to both her and Ikushima. She refused to betray Gekko-in but was pardoned of the death sentence by the young shogun and instead banished to Miyakejima.



Oh man! Yukie looks absolutely beautiful decked in full traditional costume. She is like, so versatile, able to do both modern and yet look good in period shows! But then, her characteristic heave-shoulders-seething-breath is still visible, which I notice in almost every show, and at some points, she actually look more modern than the rest of the people.

The kimonos were extraordinary, the sets were scenic, esp the riverbank, but, the budget was big as well.

The show was terribly boring in the first half, very slow plot progress and I would have wanted to turn it off 20 min into the show with all the court jealousy and fights. The story improved slightly when Ejima met Ikushima at the shrine where she was praying for Gekko-in and Akifusa under the instructions of Gekko-in and later on climaxed at the fire of the theater.

Errmm.. I shall try not to watch any more period dramas to avoid falling asleep at the slow plot or laffing at the cheesy hairstyles, although the next 大奥 movie to be screened in Oct 2010 will feature Maki-chan..

野ブタ。をプロデュース

Spoilers ahead! As usual..





Kiritani Shuji (か君) is extremely conscious of how the world looks at him, thus he manages his image to be the popular guy in school, caring and all, and hides his true self within him, thinking that relationships and the world are but, a game. He gets along with practically everyone in school and has the school's most popular girl, Uehara Mariko, making lunches for him.

Kusano Akira (Yamashita Tomohisa) is the total opposite. Irritating Shuji to the max, he is the only person Shuji does not want to associate with. Although Akira is the son of the president of a huge company which his dad would like him to succeed, his free-spirited nature prefers to be "a dime in the streets". He develops feelings for Nobuta in the middle of the show, but steps back seeing that Nobuta is more concerned about Shuji.

Nobuko Kotani (Maki-chan) is a transfer student that has a rather dark character. She is too shy to socialise with humans and thinks that she is a reject from the world. Her shyness started from the rejection from her step-father, who did not acknowledge her after she summoned all her courage to call him dad. Due to her inability to interact with others, she is bullied by Bando and gang and is the victim to her first "friend", Aoi Kasumi's mean-ness.


Shuji and Akira in weird clothes, after a dare by Nobuko

Despite their contrasting characters, Shuji and Akira teamed up to produce Nobuko, as it would be a fun thing to do in their limited youth years. Nobuko was nicknamed Nobuta (野猪) from a patch that Shuji had sewn onto her tie which tore after she was bullied by Bando. Slowly, Nobuta was able to open up to others and an indestructible bond of friendship blossomed, even though Aoi tries to break them up.


Nobuta Power, a joke played by Akira which Nobuta took seriously

Nobuta became popular with her lunch time show after she joined the school's production group, which had the naturally her going around school targetting on teachers' and students' lunch boxes; grading them with her funny expressions.

However, Shuji's popularity went down the rocks after being exposed of his lie of having lunch with Mariko after he confessed to Mariko that he did not have feelings for her, and for not helping a fellow classmate who was bullied outside school for fear of implications to himself. Thankfully with the help of Akira, who puts friendship above his feelings for Nobuta, and Nobuta, Shuji is able to climb out of the dumps and get back his classmates' trust again.


Kon Kon

A very nice show, which has a rather unique storyline and strong plot, it garnered:
47th annual Japanese Television Academy Awards
Best Drama
Best Actor: Kamenashi Kazuya
Best Supporting Actress: Horikita Maki
Best Director
Best Script
Best Music
2006 10th Nikkan Sports Drama Awards
Best Actor : Yamashita Tomohisa

Tomohisa did a fantastic job doing Akira, with the couldn't-care-if-the-world-falls-today attitude and almost gayish manner that he treats か君. Maki-chan is still as cute even though her head is drooped so low, her hair so messy that for 3 quarters of the show her face was not seen.

As for か君.. IS THAT EYESHADOW ON HIM!?!??!??!?! No no no, he actually looks a bit queer here if that is really eyeshadow..

トリック I, II, 劇場版, III, 新作スペシャル , 劇場版2

Spoilers ahead!



トリック I - 10 EP (2000)
トリック II - 12 EP (2002)
トリック 劇場版 (2002)
トリック III - 10 EP (2003)
トリック新作スペシャル (2005)
トリック 劇場版 2 (2006)

In celebration of the 10th anniversary since the debut of トリック, the production team is bringing us..
劇場版TRICK 霊能力者バトルロイヤル (May 2010)
トリック新作スペシャル2 (May 2010)

But sad to say, NOT TO SG THEATRES!! BOO HOOO~~~~



Trick is all about the combi duo of an intelligent but luck-forsaken magician and an incompetent university physics professor who goes about uncovering the tricks and scams behind the so-called psychics with "supernatural" powers or cults. (Read: Investigative Show)

Yes, its the typical guy+gal pairing of suspense shows, like Kurama-Muto of 33 Pun Tantei, Yukawa-Utsumi of Galileo, Tsukumo-Yuri of MR. BRAIN, Kindaichi-Nanase of Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo, Kudo-Mori of Meitantei Conan, etc etc. Or maybe most JDoramas.

The flow of each episode follows a template, i.e. Yamada gets fired from her job, reaches her rented apartment while trying to avoid the landlady whom she deferred a couple of months of rent from, opens the door to find Ueda in the room, Ueda starts narrating the client's story and tries to persuade her to help him but ends up extorting/forcing her, and off they go to wherever the case is based on.

In Season I, the story focuses on the circumstances behind Yamada's father's death. Senior Yamada, a well-known magician during his times, believes that there are no supernatural powers in the world and had attracted hatred from psychics he exposed and put to shame in TV shows. He entertained young Naoko with magic tricks which she would solve with her naturally sharp observation and thus honing her skills. Sadly, Senior Yamada died when Naoko was young and his last words were, "I was wrong, there are supernatural powers in this world"..

Seasons II & III do not really have an underlying story behind the cases, and so far, the love-hate relationship between Yamada and Ueda did not progress much,'cept during the SP and movie. Sad, to say, for the lack of romance but its rather interesting watching them quibble and haul insults at each other, which is probably the main factor of the show.

Animations were injected in Season III, making the show less serious. I mean, the lightbulbs are quite cute, but the human faced talking bugs? Yucks!


Yamada does a "Pika!" moment and ends up wondering why there's lightbulbs.

Also, whenever there's censored materials (e.g. Ueda's huge "down-under", Yabe's under-the-wig, miscellaneous asses and some mysterious objects), it was scribbled out so its always a scribble floating around substituting a mosiac mask and making the viewers curious over wats behind the scribble. OK at least I'm curious, at wat's under the wig!


Introducing the leads...

THE MAGICIAN



Nakama Yukie (yes. YET AGAIN!) plays Yamada Naoko, a flat-chested, skilled magician who bores the audience to sleep and thus is always hopping from troupes to troupes. As she is constantly out of job, she has to hide from her landlady all the time as she could not pay the dued rents for her rented apartment in a worn-down building.

Through the 6 years of Season I to トリック劇場版2, we can see the improvements in Nakama's acting. From the characteristic "TEHEHHEHEHE" laughter in Season I as Naoko does not really know how to protray her happiness; to her "NYA!!~" (in super act cute pattern) in Season III, which garnered her the Best Actress Award. (The "TEHEHHEHEHE" mostly disappeared, short of one or two guest appearances and was not as boisterous as before).


Kindaichi moment which started from Season II onwards

Season II onwards had Yamada stepping up to the front and solving most, if not all the cases, treating them all like a Kindaichi/Conan episode with her tagline.

Fashion-sensically she did not change much, with her cardigan/winter clothes, long dress and covered shoes + all her performance cheongsums and straight long hair, short of one episode in Season I where she actually wore pants.

トリック started off Nakama Yukie's career in comedies, carrying on to ごくせん and others. Despite her demure/strong outlook, she does not mind letting go of her image and be really funny at times.


THE PHYSICIST


Wolverine Ueda

Ueda Jiro (Abe Hiroshi) started off as an assistant professor in the university, with a cramped, messy, full of his photos office. He being a non-believer in anything that cannot be explained by scientific means, posted a challenge to psychics to make him believe that supernatural powers exists. Yamada, needing the money after being fired yet again from her job, signed up for the challenge and managed to impress Ueda with her simple magic tricks. And so even though Yamada tries to break the relationship with Ueda after every case, Ueda would appear at her apartment whenever he needs help.



Although Ueda is rather incompetent when placed with Yamada, he makes up for it with his learnt-from-kung-fu-movies kung fu to escape (even though at times he'll jus faint or throw Yamada to the wolves). He refers to Yamada as "YOU!", tends to faint whenever he was scared and often claims credit for Yamada's trick bustings.

There's a running gag about his huge anatomy from Season I. Every now and then, he would be featured pissing while impressing male on-lookers or being "excited" when he saw beautiful ladies. It is also one of the insults that Yamada would use to irritate him, which he would retort with "flat chest".

Through the seasons, he has written 4 books (どんと来い、超常現象 series & なぜベストを尽くさないのか) which he boasts of the 2,000 book sales nationwide and was promoted to a professor in Season II.

Season III onwards, there's another gag about him and the car door of his Mini, which would drop off when he alights and he would be lugging it around for fear of it being stolen (which I think the car would be so much easier to steal).


THE CALLIGRAPHER



Yamada's mum, Yamada Satomi (Nogiwa Yoko), is an established caligrapher who ran away from her mysterious island village (黒門島, more emphasis in Season I) and with Yamada, is said to inherit some mythical powers. Whether they really have supernatural powers or not, is yet to be proven.

Both of them possesses a kind of telepathy where they can feel how the other is feeling or have an omen, be it sick, scared, or happy, as can be seen from the nightmares and bad feelings that her mum gets when Yamada is in danger.


The mum taking command after her so-called Power of Words fell flat on the villagers.

Her mum is another funny character which brings life to the show especially from Season II. She has much better financial luck than Yamada, selling her charms "imbued" with "Power of Words" online and at the calligraphy school, which is probably a scam but nevertheless, attracted buyers nation-wide.


THE DETECTIVE



The useless tantei from the state police who always skips work to be relaxing at some onsen or resort, Yabe Kenzo (Namase Katsuhisa), is another important element in the series.

Being ultra-sensitive about his hair/wig, he often misunderstood words which sounds like or the same as hair/wig, e.g. kami for God and kami for hair, or getting questions about the origins of the wig; after which he would be protecting his crown with his hands, claiming that it grows from the head.


Yabe & otaku assistant

Yabe is always accompanied by an assistant, which he abuses with his fists for no reason. Season I & II had a blonde-dyed, gangster-like assistant who follows everything that Yabe says without questions but is equally incompetent. Season III had a guy from Tokyo University who is proud of his education, speaks non-stop and later on promoted to be Yabe's supervisor, thus passing the baton to an otaku guy who moes at Yamada whenever he sees her.

The production team created a spin-off DVD (広報人矢部謙三トリック劇場版２公開記念講演会) for Yabe to promote トリック 劇場版 2. In 2010, the 10th anniversary year, 警部補 矢部謙三, a spin-off drama, was aired, signifying トリック and Yabe's popularity.

The chemistry between Namase-san and Yukie is absolutely fantastic! From トリック to ごくせん and I believe there's others, they seem to be paired the most in JDoramas, even though not romantically. HAHA! Its a bit hard to imagine anyway.


新作スペシャル & トリック 劇場版

The SP and the movies follows typically the same format as the dorama, with a cult case awaiting Yamada & Ueda to solve.



Hiroki-kun was featured in an episode of トリックIII, which I actually din recognise with his longish hair.


Special mention: トリック 劇場版 2 (2006)



Oh! A collaberation from 2 favorite JDorama actresses! I'm ranking this as my favorite so far, due to my biasness!! HAHAHA~

Maki-chan plays a girl who disappeared mysteriously for 10 years while playing hide-and-seek with her childhood friend. The friend, upon receiving a message from his friend that was sent to repair some stuff on the island owned by Sachiko Kobako, who can access the other world via boxes, enlisted the help of Ueda to find her.

Nakama is probably the funniest in this movie, with her NYA!-ing and comical antics like: -


Stealing Maki-chan's food


Wearing a samurai armor while performing magic to fool Sachiko and gang.

Also, they added in some ridiculous animations with reference to One Piece..


Ueda does a gomu gomu, and obviously won with his longer limbs.

& Ring, which Nakama Yukie stars in for Ring Zero..


Yamada with her bad bed habits, crawls back to her blanket after being disturbed by Ueda.

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If you're not into investigative/psychic stuff and is not a super big fan of Nakama/Abe, watching トリック 劇場版 2 will probably be enough.

G@me

Spoilers ahead!



I love plots that outsmart me.

G@me did not only that, it had enuff twists to sprain all sprainable parts on my body! Freaking cool plot!

Sakuma Shunsuke (Fujiki Naohito), an elite advertising executive, was handling a huge marketing campaign for Mikado Beer with a 3 billion yen budget before it was cancelled overnight by the incoming President, Katsuragi Katsutoshi (Ishibashi Ryo), a market veteran and son of the founder.



He spotted Juri (Nakama Yukie) climbing suspiciously out from the Katsuragi mansion while he was passing by hoping for a chance to talk to Katsuragi. Receiving refuge for the night from Sakuma after learning that Juri had escaped from the house in a fury, Juri suggested that Sakuma faked a kidnapping to get back at Katsuragi.



As Sakuma wanted to put down Katsuragi's arrogance, he accepted the proposal and plotted the kidnapping scheme, knowing that Katsuragi will pay up the ransom so as not to feed the media with Juri the illegimate child news.



Juri follows Sakuma's instructions and in the middle of the plot, they had a one night stand, from which their love for each other blossomed, though Sakuma had to keep his feelings under check if he wants to win the game with Katsuragi.



Katsuragi gathered the ransom money and Sakuma strategised the collection utilising Katsuragi's staff. Upon splitting the money, Sakuma releases Juri though Juri was reluctant to leave.

A few days after going their separate ways, Sakuma was shocked to come across a news report that Juri was missing and that the photo of Juri was not the Juri he had worked with. Later, Juri's body was found dead and the police are treating the case as a murder.

In actual fact, the Juri he had worked with is Chiharu, the legitimate child of Katsuragi, who accidentally killed Juri who was doing drugs in the house. After running from the crime scene and met Sakuma, Chiharu phoned Katsuragi, who had plotted out a bigger scheme to let Sakuma take the blame for the death of Juri.

In the end, Chiharu could not let go of her love towards Sakuma and intends to elope with him. However, Sakuma made use of her to shift the blame for the murder to Juri's boyfriend, the culprit who changed Juri's life by introducing her to drugs. Chiharu misunderstood that Sakuma was toying with her until she saw the Sydney tickets delivered by the chambermaid. Katsuragi admitted his loss but Chiharu left Sakuma to atone for her crime..



Yukie looks fabulous in this show with her curls and OL look. Big contrast to the dorky Yankumi or the long-dressed Naoko. Naohito has also climbed into my list of Jap guys to look out for. ~Swoons~

アニキャラヒーローズ ワンピースVol.2 ～アラバスタ激闘編～

I'm actually wondering why I din post this earlier.

Anyway this set arrived way back in Jan(/Feb?) Well its the 1st set of Anichara Heroes that I got, no assembly needed, and no ramune to stuff somewhere hoping one day I'll suck on them.

This set covers the Arabasta arc, with a Marine ship as the 3 part special. Most of the top Baroque Works are featured, as well as Vivi and the royal family. Sanji looks good in his "prince" "disguise" and they actually included a Den Den Mushi in the lineup!

Pretty good quality which prompted me to buy the subsequent sets thou Vol 1 was quite a let-down being that they don't look really like their anime counterparts.

Vol. 4 to come...

One Piece Kumitate Shiki Mugiwara Theater Figure ～仁義ないTIME ～ ドン・ルフィオーネ X ドン・ゾロシア

ドン・ルフィオーネ & ドン・ゾロシア

Din buy the full set for this series since I only fancy Don Luffione, Don Zoroscia & Don Sanjino for this and its rather expensive (SGD 25 each). Also, I have freaking no space!

The costumes' from one of the omakes, which the Mugiwara crew were gang leaders on an island who sparked off a fight killing everyone in the process. Full story here

Got to wait till June for Don Sanjino.. Till then~

アニキャラヒーローズ ワンピースVol.1 ～グランドライン突入編～

A reissue set, perhaps due to the popularity of the subsequent sets prompted collectors asking for the earlier sets. This set consists of miscellaneous characters (and I do mean MISCELLANEOUS) from the start of One Piece till Arabasta arc.

I had a hard time trying to group and arrange them in the pic above, cos although I do have some lingering memories on the characters, I was trying to put Luffy's team in front and the corresponding characters behind.



The 3 piece ship features Going Merry, the first Mugiwara ship gifted by Kaya, crafted by Merry.



Luffy and Shanks, the undying friendship.



Sanji and Zeff, Disciple and mentor that's more than son and dad.



Mihawk and Zoro, the swordsmen.



Tashigi and Zoro. Cant resist not putting them together. HAHA! Tashigi doesnt look really good in this. I'm really hoping they do a Locations-type of figure for her.

That said, my gachapons lives in Singapore..


Densely populated!

アットホーム・ダッド (At Home Dad) vs 企鹅爸爸 (Daddy At Home)

アットホーム・ダッド Synopsis



Kazuyuki Yamamura works at a major advertising agency, and is the breadwinner of his family, which consists of himself, wife Miki, and daughter Rie. He purchases a house, and is proud of being at the pinnacle of his career.

Kazuyuki's neighbor, Yusuke Sugio, however, leads a completely different life. The breadwinner of his family is his wife Shoko, who runs her own company. Yusuke is a so-called "at-home dad", and because of this, Kazuyuki considers him miserable and helpless.

Suddenly one day, Kazuyuki is forced to quit his company. At the same time, his wife receives a call from her former employer saying he wants her to come back to work. Consequently, Kazuyuki has no other choice but to stay at home while Miki works. Kazuyuki reluctantly starts his new life as a household husband—the last thing he wanted to do. Fuji TV



企鹅爸爸 Synopsis



Liu Bang (Li Nanxing) works for a bank as the senior Vice-President. His wife, Yang Xinbei (Ann Kok), is a full-time housewife who stays at home to look after the household and their daughter. Their daughter, Liu Si’en, is a bright and sensible little girl. Liu Bang has it all in both his career and family life. He is especially glad that he is able to hold his head up high in front of his father-in-law and mother-in-law, proving that they were wrong about him in the past.

His daughter, Si’en, is about to enroll in a primary school. In order to get her into a prestigious primary school, Liu Bang decides to move his family into a condominium within 1km of the chosen school. Ye Zhengkang’s (Chen Hanwei) family thus becomes their next-door neighbour.

Zhengkang is a “house-husband”, in charge of household chores and the care of the two children. His wife, Chen Meihui (Cynthia Koh), is the boss of a beauty salon. She works to bring money to the family. This arrangement brings about many strange looks from others, naturally. But Zhengkang is not affected by this and takes pride in his role.

Liu Bang, like others, does not approve of the arrangement in Zhengkang’s household. He feels that a man’s pride should lie in his career, and that a man who stays at home would not accomplish great things. However, he’d never have expected that he would soon join Zhengkang’s ranks as well.

The economic crisis had a great impact on the financial market. Liu Bang’s bank is affected as well, and needs to retrench a large number of employees. Liu Bang, who had once offended his superior, is one of those targeted of course.

After being retrenched, Liu Bang remains optimistic that he could find a similar job with similar benefits. However, all the companies are cutting costs and none of them wants to employ him at his desired salary. Neither would the egoistic Liu Bang lower himself to consider a lower position with a less attractive salary. This throws the family into financial difficulty.

After being a housewife for several years, Xinbei is suddenly recruited as an assistant editor for a magazine in her ex-colleague’s company. Initially, Liu Bang disapproves of Xinbei going out to work, but due to investments losing money as well as countless bills to be paid, he has no choice but to let her work for the time being, until he finds a suitable job. On the other hand, Xinbei is worried that Liu Bang would not be able to handle the household chores. Liu Bang thinks nothing of it and proclaims confidently that he would have no problems.

On his first day as a “house-husband”, Liu Bang runs into endless problems. Not only does he mess up the chores, he even forgets to fetch Si’en home from the kindergarten. Thankfully, Zhengkang lends him a hand and they manage to resolve everything. Liu Bang is grateful to Zhengkang for his help, and gains a different perspective of him. The two men resolve their past differences and eventually become good friends.

Xinbei is doing very well at work and earns praise from her superior, Wyman. She experiences a sense of self-worth for the first time, and shares her joy with Liu Bang. However, Liu Bang behaves like a wet blanket due to his ego being hurt. Xinbei is disappointed with his response. The couple starts to drift further apart from each other.

On the other hand, Shuyong and Aijuan are abandoned by their other children and come to Liu Bang’s place to seek refuge. To avoid embarrassment, Liu Bang hides the truth about his retrenchment from them, and lies that he is on long vacation. He even gets Xinbei and Si’en to play along and keep up the act with him. Shuyong and Aijuan are temporarily fooled.

Liu Bang is worried that the truth would be revealed somehow. Thus, he tries his best to get his in-laws sent back to Xinbei’s siblings. Shuyong misunderstands that Liu Bang is trying to get rid of them the way his other children did. He gets angry and runs away from home with his wife. They even spend the night sleeping in a park. Aijuan falls sick as a result. Liu Bang and Xinbei are reprimanded by the police for being unfilial. It is only then that Liu Bang admits the truth about his retrenchment.

During his time as a “house-husband”, Liu Bang learns that a relationship with his daughter isn’t built on just buying toys for her. What’s more important is to understand her feelings. Hence, the relationship between father and daughter gets better than before. At the same time, under the influence of Zhengkang, Liu Bang picks up various tips and tricks on being a smart “house-husband” (For example, how to save money in different ways and to put aside what is saved as his personal savings). He gains an understanding of how difficult it is to run a household, and can put himself in Xinbei’s shoes to understand her previous woes as a housewife.

After gradually accepting his role as a “house-husband”, Liu Bang begins to enjoy his new life. However, when he hears people talking behind his back about how he is useless for depending on his wife for money, his ego suffers a beating. On top of that, rumours from others lead him to believe that Xinbei is having an affair with Wyman. This leads to a big fight with Xinbei.

Liu Bang finds out after investigating that he has misunderstood Xinbei. He decides to change his attitude and be a good “house-husband”, who supports his wife hundred percent in her career. However, a rare opportunity comes knocking on the door at this point. An investment company is asking him to manage their operations in China for at least three years. Liu Bang is anxious to share the good news with his family. But when he sees Si’en playing happily with her friend, and how happy Xinbei is when her article nominated for a prize, he hesitates…


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Coincidence or re-adaptation or simply copy and paste?

Btw アットホーム・ダッド was aired in 2004..

１ポンドの福音

か君が可愛いです!!

か君plays Hatanaka Kosaku, a talented boxer who has humongous appetite and thus is always facing problems keeping his weight qualified for his class. While undergoing a weight loss program from hell (i.e. no food & water + intensified boxing training), he collapsed while jogging only to be awakened by Sister Angela (Kuroki Meisa), a nun in the neighbourhood convent.

After meeting Sister Angela, Kosaku tries every means and ways to get close to her and make her his girlfriend/wife. She also became his source of energy for matches, substituting the thoughts of food. But Sister Angela, being a girl from the convent, destined to serve God, feels confused and struggled to find serenity everytime she sees him, not realising that its love.

The show is good for drooling over the hyper-active, dense, lives in his own world but uber cute か君 (i think they can cast him as Tamaki of Ouran High thou he lacks the height), but plot wise, there leaves a lot to be explained/conclude. Like the Mitaka-Mukoda pairing, or y Sister Milee hate guys so much, or how did Champion get his 700 million yen debt, etc etc.

Kobayashi Satomi (Mukoda Seiko) has some 張艾嘉 feel to her. And Nakamura Kaori (Sister Grace) has the looks and potential for a lead role. Yamada Ryosuke still looks like a doll but I seriously wonder how his cover-ears-hair is tolerated in school..

"A winner has to carry the dreams of the defeated."

初戀紅豆冰

還記得紅豆冰的味道嗎? 在赤道國家炎熱的下午﹐吃進口裡的紅豆冰﹐冰涼清甜﹐甚至把嘴巴凍得有點疼了﹐但是來不及再繼續感受﹐它卻已經融化了﹔還記得初戀的滋味嗎? 甜蜜卻又苦澀﹐把心刺疼了﹐像紅豆冰一樣﹐還來不及再感受﹐就已經融化了﹐只能在記憶裡留下那味道和深刻的刺痛。
- «初戀紅豆冰»文案

«初戀紅豆冰»是一部很純朴﹐很Kampong的電影。沒有絢麗奪目的特效﹐沒有眼花繚亂的武打動作。沒有文糾糾的臺詞﹐也沒有蕩氣迴腸的背景音樂。可是﹐它卻有它的溫馨﹐它的感人﹐他的特色﹐與他的抱負。

他﹐是阿牛。

第一次在戲院外看到«初戀紅豆冰»的大型看板﹐其實是被戴佩妮給吸引說一定要看的。後來卻是讀了戲評們的推薦更想看。

好久沒有一部電影能帶來暖暖的感覺。當大家都在拼特效拼卡士拼大製作時﹐這碗紅豆冰在小小的﹐只有A到F排座位的小戲院﹐當外界票房在進行商業化的戰爭中帶來了一絲安慰。

還是有人為了理想而拍片的。



阿牛的人緣好﹐一通電話就把大馬幫里的李心潔(打架魚/周安琪)﹐曹格(馬麟帆)﹐梁靜茹(馬麗冰)﹐黃品冠(白馬王子)﹐易桀齊(Radio-Botak的哥哥)﹐巫啟賢(打架魚的爸爸)﹐戴佩妮﹐張棟樑﹐等﹐給請了出來﹐而且大多數都是拿友情價或"去玩玩"的。真是能看出大馬幫團結的力量。

其中﹐李心潔﹐品冠更是有毀形象地演出。李心潔的打架魚是個又粗魯又抽煙又凶巴巴的男人婆﹔而品冠則是個自任白馬王子﹐頭髮梳得扁扁﹐整天游手好閑背著吉他唱著歌的自戀﹐潔癖男。很很很滑稽。

梁靜茹在戲里手中總是有包Barley冰,所以馬麗冰就變成Barley冰。整場戲中﹐她只OII了Botak一聲﹐其他時候就是一包Barley冰一直吸啊吸的。她一直對Botak拋明示﹐一直纏著Botak﹐卻招到Botak的不理睬﹐讀著要給打架魚的信時還生氣地把Barley冰丟到牆上﹐把信揉了丟掉然後又撿了起來折紙飛機。

是cute的喔!

電影的開場只聽到阿牛以他重重的聯邦腔述說Botak與打架魚的童年。小Botak﹐是因為和打架魚看打架魚看太靠近時﹐打架魚把kutu傳給了Botak﹐才需要去剪botak的。

然後﹐故事就週旋在Botak喜歡打架魚﹐Barley冰(梁靜茹)喜歡Botak﹐白馬王子喜歡Barley冰﹐Botak的妹妹喜歡白馬王子﹐馬麟帆從小時後的冤家到突然被打架魚電到﹐打架魚和Radio也很合得來。。。

有點亂。有點Rojak。但就會讓人徽心一笑。

識想想﹐我們身邊也有個呆呆沒勇氣把情書給愛人的Botak﹐或讓人想讓她開心的打架魚﹐霸王式愛人的馬麟帆﹐猛打明示追求但又很低調的Barley冰﹐超自戀妄想萬人迷的白馬王子﹐因為樣貌而被排斥的妹妹﹐為夢想離家的Radio。



戴佩妮和張棟樑的客串﹐僅限於電影尾端的幾秒。佩妮至少還有臺詞 (喂! 看什麼? 哦! 趁我沒注意時偷看別的女生喔!)。



微笑王子就真的只是出來微笑一個鏡頭。

結局在人來人往的KL-Bukit Bintang交叉口拍攝。眾夥各自搬出了鄉村﹐失去聯絡。Botak和打架魚在交叉口擦肩而過。

為什麼打架魚會出現? 難道是為了找在KL的Radio?? :p



其他小咖也讓電影多了點趣味。像這對胖瘦組合﹐馬麟帆的"腳仔"。哪裡找來那麼瘦得啊! 排骨王非他莫屬!

還有那個駕摩托一直差一點撞到人又一直以馬來語開罵的印度佬。笑翻全場!

是很好看的。大贊!