Adacchin’s Neighborhood

i just realized today that in addition to the original PV and the dance one, there's also a drama one which is the video without the dance, basically. to be honest i kind of want to take some of the more hilarious scenes in the drama one, mix in some dance scenes, and make my own "it's you" fanvid.
hilarious? isn't this song supposed to be really sad and touching? well, it is, or was, until i watched this video... see for yourself.

okay so in the original video you get maybe the first ten seconds of kibum looking really, really devastated and maybe even a little scared, which i thought was already a little over the top but forgave because he's trying out the whole acting thing these days. but in this video, he literally goes from sad to scared to maniacal and murderous. omg. luckily we have hankyung who looks appropriately sad for a couple seconds...

but then donghae. he seems a little angry, a little shaken at what just happened... then post-anger sexy dance?

i'm going to liveblog the rest with times XD

0:48: you can't see it here but kyuhyun is unbuttoning his blazer...
1:14: ryeowook running up from around the corner with the bouquet of flowers was so adorable (and gay, i couldn't help thinking), especially when he turned around and sniffed them
1:31: see? kyuhyun's blazer unbuttoned...
1:42: it was only here that i noticed eunhyuk was spraypainting "it's you" "only 4 you" X__X I'M SO SLOW
2:01: sungmin the depressed poet. also sungmin and kangin look like twins in their matching outfits.
2:34: yesung getting drugs from eunhyuk in the back alley...
2:52: kyuhyun rebuttoning his blazer
2:58: notice the strange light coming from above and then a divine helmet descends upon heechul... also siwon appropriately in the background (it's a "miracle"!)
3:32: donghae breathing through his mouth and then looking like he just kissed a fish
3:49: heechul removes a piece of hair from his mouth?

I'm still watching the Taiwanese version of H&C and overall I like it much better than the Japanese drama adaption. HOWEVER, some actors seem to shine brighter than others, SO here's a comparison of the two.

1) Hagu
Narumi Riko vs Ito Chiaki
So here's the deal. Hagu is a hard character to get right. Even in the anime, which stayed as true to the manga as possible, she was still annoying at first. With that said, I think that Ito Chiaki wins here in all categories (physical resemblance as well as personality). Narumi Riko just kept on smiling... and smiling. Her character was not believable, and she plays the bratty younger sister type (see 1 Litre of Tears) much better. However, Chiaki kind of irritated me with how obsessed with Morita they made her seem. But that's more the fault of the writers than anything else.
Winner: Ito Chiaki.

2) Takemoto
Ikuta Toma vs Lego Li
Ahhh this is hard! Well, I'll think it through. Ikuta Toma was, overall, adorable, and at the time, surrounded by other actors who didn't capture the essence of their characters very well, I thought he'd done the best job. However, Lego Li is also adorable XD and, more importantly, YOUNG. Or young-looking. He just comes across the way I imagined Takemoto would--very self-depreciating and unsure of himself. And I get the sense (from interviews, youtube videos) that the actor isn't like that at all, which makes his performance all the more impressive. Also, with the Taiwanese show focusing increasingly on the Hagu/Morita romance (which makes me puke a little in my mouth), I really looked forward to Takemoto's journey and his turn in the limelight (god, FINALLY. And he's supposed to be the main character!). It hasn't disappointed so far.
Tie

3) Yamada
Harada Natsuki vs.  Janine Chang
This is another hard one. Harada Natsuki made me cry (or rather, the scene with her and the other guy, who I'll talk about later), but Janine Chang physically looks more like Yamada. Not to mention those bangs are horrific on Harada. Emotionally, however, I'd say Harada's got it in the bag. While Janine comes off as whiny, I really felt for Harada's Yamada. So I guess...
Winner: Harada Natsuki

4) Mayama
Mukai Osamu vs. none other than the flamboyant Joe Cheng!
Okay, I was looking forward to this series because of Joe, but he has failed to meet my expectations. Mayama's a suave character--he knows his way around women. Joe's portrayal of Mayama, on the other hand, is more like a bumbling metrosexual idiot. Which could be forgiven if it were funny. Which most of the time it is not. :( I know that Mayama has his funny scenes in the manga as well and he's not just this overly serious guy all the time, but those scenes are not supposed to compromise his manliness, and Joe's do. Honestly, I can't see why Rika would go for her (or Yamada for that matter)...
So it seems like the other guy would win by default, right? Um, problem is, I can't remember the Mukai Osamu at all. Besides one scene where he bursts into tears. If I recall correctly, he didn't have as big a role as Joe does (respective proportions). And he seemed to lack a sense of humor completely. So yeah...
Winner: ambiguous but I'm going to say Joe Cheng because at least he's trying to cover Mayama's many colorful sides.

5) Morita
Narimiya Hiroki vs. Eddie Peng
I don't know where to start with the things that were wrong with Narimiya as Morita. Maybe with this: WTF?? First of all, Morita's a genius, so by definition he is not NORMAL. He is an eclectic guy with eclectic habits. Girls look at him like a panda in the zoo. Or a flamingo or something. Narimiya must've gotten a diffferent message from the writers, because he was just playing, well, a normal guy. And it was boring and annoying. Eddie Peng, on the other hand, has got the weird factor DOWN. I love that about him--he's the only actor so far who pulled it off in that respect. I can almost believe that he is Morita--except for one little thing. His romance with Hagu. That's not his fault, but Morita is not the type to be all lovey-dovey. That's just weird. And not in the Morita way.
Winner: Eddie Peng.

6) Kashiwabara Takashi vs David  Chen
Let me just say that I LOVED Kashiwabara (nickname Kassy? Or did I read that wrong?). Nomiya's the guy that you're not supposed to root for but do anyway, and I definitely was pulling for him to win Ayu/Yamada's heart. He was just so charming and heartbreaking in the older-man-way. On the Taiwan side, I am not rooting for David Chen. He's annoying, and those glasses (you can't see them here) are ugly on him. There is no emotional depth to his character. Kashiwabara MADE Nomiya deeper than I'd thought.
Winner: Kashiwabara Takashi.

So it looks like Taiwan wins. The problem remains, however, in the amateur quality of the production, like most Taiwanese productions. Still, it captures the spirit of the manga much better than the Japanese one did, I think. Or at least the funny, over-the-top side. The Japanese might have done better with the serious stuff. Oh, I don't know. I also skipped a lot of minor characters (and Shu-chan) because I got bored. 

*liveblogs*
poor takeru. i am loving eita more and more with this show.
go michiru! she finally broke up with sousuke.
i hate to say this, and i don't think it will happen, but i'm worried that sousuke's going to abuse that little kid. oh, ryo. there is still hope! .... er he just killed it with that last line: "i'm not lonely. because she's going to come back." no, she's not, you bastard... it pissed me off to read on LJ entries that we should understand sousuke and forgive him for what he's done (aka fans attempting to defend ryo by telling us not to confuse the character with the actor but in effect doing so themselves--violence is NOT forgivable. especially repeated acts of violence.).
... ruka just yelled at takeru. i feel so bad for the guy. but i'm also confused. he basically suggested (or did he?) to emi (um i might've gotten her name wrong--brain fart) that he was gay when she hit on him. but he also clearly likes ruka. hm...?
thought: people in this show are so fragile.
oops, her name was eri.
i'm going to be so sad not being able to watch this show for the next six weeks. x__x because i'm going to china...
WHY DO THE JAPANESE GIRLS IN THIS SHOW HAVE NO GADAR??
at least touching michiru isn't freaking takeru out.
i'm starting to feel like eri is the most underrated character on this show :( at least this episode makes it seem like she might get fleshed out soon.
AAAGGGGHHHH why must it get so good just as i'm about to leave? ;__________;

why can't relationships be as simple as i want them to? i started watching this series, which has been airing on the chinese channel at 8pm every night for the past month, from the middle because finally there was potential for a girl and a guy my age to get together, a really cute would-be couple, except the girl decides to go after his best friend who looks way older than he is and happens to be a jerk while we're at it. the guy that i wanted her to get with is the selfless, brooding type, so naturally he didn't do anything and let his best friend have her. jfdslkfjsalkjflekjrlEFJAEWKRJEWARLK. finally she walks in on them having a conversation about the truth (aka HE was the one who saved her life, not the best friend. HE did NOT post her photos on the internet, that WAS the BEST FRIEND.) and OF COURSE she has to barge in, push the best friend around asking what the hell they meant, all the meanwhile standing dangerously close to a rickety shelf on which is placed some sort of clear liquid that will cause you to lose your vision if it gets in your eyes. yeah, so now she's going to be BLIND for the rest of her life.
=______________=
by the way, tudou is the crappiest piece of crap ever. two seconds take five minutes to load, one episode is forty minutes, do the math.

i changed my mind. there is hope for this movie after all.
one more thing: this guy can really act. he's played a badass in gokusen2 and a flaming gay timpani player (timpanist) in nodame and now this preppy guy here, and i totally believe him every time.

wow. is japan's population growth so bad that they're making pro-life movies?
well, we all know it is. :\
that aside, the first half is not over yet so i can't draw any conclusions about the movie's message. it's funny, just yesterday or today i was thinking having a baby might physically kill me... err /tangent

about the actual movie. the problem is not just the story moving too fast but the acting is not believable. hiro's actor looks too young and immature to be playing his role. even aragaki yui looks older. it's entirely impossible to buy into the scenes where he's beating guys up or yelling at the classmate; it's like watching a chihuahua try to be a doberman, as simon cowell might say. he reminds me of the tenimyu kids, especially the newer generations--who knows? he might've been in it at some point. now that i think about it, there was some kid who was supposed to play a role but quit because he got offered TV instead... or something... sorry for this very jumbled-up entry, i'm liveblogging... the sappiness tsujitenai.
anyway, the baby died, so maybe it's not pro-life after all. or it's pro-life but also saying PREGNANT GIRLS SHOULDN'T HANG OUT WITH DELINQUENTS.
probably not to be continued, as i'm (obviously) not very impressed...

Osen 01-03
Uchi is back! Well, I'm sure he has been for a while, but this is the first show I've seen with him in it since... Ganbatte Ikimasshoi. Yeeeah. Aoi Yuu is also as cute as ever, so there's eye candy for everyone. I'm not positive as to where the show is headed but so far it's been light-hearted fun and the occasional sappy one-liner. It's also a show about food so don't watch this right before going to bed. Which is what I've been doing... *stomach growl.* And... I don't think I've ever had food this good in my life.

Zettai Kareshi 01-04
I was skeptical about this series because I'm not a fan of the main actress or actor (both of whose names I can never remember... haha) but the girl was in Utahime recently (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) and I recall them both being in Regatta, which was a flop, right? Well, whatever. In any case, it's nice to know that the main actors have worked together before, so if they're doing it again, something must've clicked the first time. Unfortunately, the guy doesn't have to do much acting because... his character is a robot! :| And the girl is kind of annoying in the way she treats him. This sounds like I am not enjoying the show, but it's only because I've gotten way too emotionally involved that this kind of stuff would bother me. Also the drama differs in a lot of ways from the manga, in which Night is a lot more human and doesn't jerk his body limbs around as awkwardly as, er, Hayami Mokomichi. I know you can't see manga!Night move but there are ways to make him robotic and the artist clearly didn't want him to be--that was the point. Also, whereas manga!Riiko was desperate for a boyfriend, drama!Riiko sort of happens across Night (to make a long story short) and doesn't really want him around, period. It's sad. Four episodes and she's still clueless. WHHHHYYY. HE LOVES YOU. "Aishiteru yo, Riiiiiiiiko."

LIFE
A drama series about bullying. Sounds kind of preachy, right? And it is, but it's also eleven episodes of gut-and-heart-wrenching AMAZING. Some of the actors (well, one) overdo it, but the main actresses are right on. It's hard to hate someone through and through. The soundtrack made the show much more effective. Watch this in one night.

Last Friends 01-05
I am watching this for the actors and Utada's opening song. So far they still haven't explained Sousuke's issues, and watching him hit the main character again and again is getting kind of old/unbearable.

maaaan this must be one of the weirdest shows i've ever seen because it simply defies categorization. drama? ish. comedy? sort of. mystery? i guess... etc. starring Kohinata Fumiyo, who's been a supporting actor in so many dramas i can never recall which ones (one of those characters that make you go, "i know him! ... why do i know him?"), "Ashita no Kita Yoshio" follows a man through his last eleven days in life--Kita Yoshio has decided to kill himself on the eleventh anniversary of his friend's death. oh yeah, eleven's his unlucky number, yadda yadda.
this isn't something i'd pick up for fun, so here's where the eye candy comes in: the fantabulous Matsuda Ryuhei (the first NANA's Ren plays Kita Yoshio's savior (or not? you'll see...). he actually has a smaller role in the show than advertised (see banner above), since the cast comprises of five or six supporting characters of roughly equal importance and he's just one of them. i was hoping to see more of him, since what little i have seen has been from NANA and that yakiniku movie on the airplane, and he was pretty great in both of them.
there're a lot of funny moments that seem out of place considering the general serious tone of the story. it's almost as if the creators didn't know how to proceed with this show and just threw in a whole mix of elements hoping that the viewers wouldn't notice. the soundtrack itself ranges from sad piano songs to random-sounding jazz. maybe it'll just take some getting used to, but i'm not there yet.
hmm now one thing i'm REALLY not used to is the pseudo-romance between the twenty-year-old Shinobu and Yoshio. first of all, she's younger than i am by a couple months. Yoshio is, what, forty?
actually, Yoshio isn't unlike Naruto, now that i think about it. both of them are sort of stupid and naive, and while people were always after Naruto, they usually ended up *CHANGED* or having some great epiphany after fighting him (and losing). Yoshio is far from strong but all the people trying to kill him for insurance money seem to be accidentally sympathizing or caring about him because he's just the kind of nice guy that draws people to him.
this scene makes me laugh: Matsuda Ryuhei's character, in a fit of rage, hurls a soda can vaguely in the direction of a trash bin. a kid nearby starts screaming and his mom quickly covers his mouth. Matsuda, seeing the kid's reaction, looks kind of guilty and walks over and throws the can into the trash bin. just a week ago, without having met Yoshio, his character would not be the recycling saint that he is now! :D

Summer x Summer
watching another show in which Joe Cheng plays a sulky teenager that everyone falls in love with despite his horrible personality makes me think he's getting typecast as the bitchy bishonen in all these dramas. but damn does he work that role WELL. i'll never tire of that beautiful pout. anyway, the premise of Summer x Summer is a spirited high school girl falls in love with a male model after he inadvertently helps her out one day and the rest of the show follows the development of their relationship. it started out slow, but Xia Ya (the girl) was likable enough to keep me watching. that and unmitigated boredom. and Joe. <3

They Kiss Again 01
my friend Cristina and i have been waiting so long for the sequel to It Started with a Kiss, and i worried it wouldn't match up to the original, but the first episode was surprisingly enjoyable. i watched the uncut version which was ten minutes of awkward soft-core porn... it was pretty awkward. i'm not exactly dying to see the rest of the series, but it'll be something to look forward to inbetween all the exams.

Bullfight 01-08 (Dou Niu, Yao Bu Yao)
okay, this is the show that's got me crazy this winter break. two words: Lee Wei. he plays Hebe's (from S.H.E) bodyguard. everyone knows he's not going to get the girl, but i hear that Chinese viewers split between him and Mike He had a little spat over Lee Wei's air time. i loved the first few episodes but the middle is starting to drag and Hebe and Mike He need to stop doing that thing where they stare at each other for several seconds while the camera moves around them. that's just bad direction and it doesn't help that Hebe can come off as a little cross-eyed. none of these people are acting buffs, so don't expect to be blown away by their performances. but the soundtrack, namely S.H.E's "how have you been lately," complements the show nicely, and is probably half the reason i like this show so much.

i thought this was a really good final episode. i cried throughout the sequence where everyone said their goodbyes. well, it started with Sekime who is so adorable. this episode didn't leave me wanting more, so it felt like a good way to end a series.
my favorites were Nakatsu and the doctor, of course. although... how is it possible for him to go out with the photographer if he's gay??? that made me go, "okay, Japan, that's messed up." i guess they wanted everyone to have their happy ending, and his is somehow turning more straight? WTF?
i also liked Sekime and psychic-guy. oh yeah, what was with the totally Superbad-esque scene with Nakatsu and psychic-guy?? was i the only one feeling the homoeroticism there? (the one where psychic-guy comes and tells Nakatsu that Mizuki's secret's out, and then Nakatsu finds out that he knew the whole time and says "You're the best!" and psychic-guy's like "You'll find someone better for you than Mizuki" with a big smile. it was so sweet, i really loved this show with moments like these.

thoughts on the series
the minor plot arcs revolving around the three dorms and their various activities came off as kind of trivial, and i would've been tempted to fast-forward if not for my devotion to the show. it was nice that the other dorm kids were there to send Mizuki off at the end and one of them actually asked "Do you know my name?" i was like, no, haha.
Oguri Shun was a disappointment. he had very little charisma as Sano, such a shame! i watched the show for him but ended up liking everyone else better. i couldn't see his emotional transformation from sort of a recluse to the more open guy that we saw at the end of the show. Wu Chun did a better job in the Taiwanese rendition.
Nakatsu's actor... great.