I'm so glad there's a Singaporean holiday tomorrow.

We need more of these random mid-week holidays. I love having them on a Wednesday - they break up the week so nicely, and just make life so much better. Whatever tomorrow is, it should be celebrated everywhere!!!

Goong

I decided to take a break from the t-dramas to watch a korean drama starring Yoon Eun Hye (YEH) and Joo Ji Hoon (JJH). YEH is my favourite korean actress - really, the only one that I remember the name of! - because of her amazing performance in "The Coffee Prince". Prior to that, she starred in another popular k-drama, entitled "Goong" (Palace) in korean, and "Princess Hours" in english.

"Goong" is set in a fictional 2006, when Korea is ruled by a constitutional monarchy. Everything else seems to be the same. The monarchy is starting to lose popularity, and so its members struggle to thing of a way to regain the people's trust and interest. The King, Queen, and Great Queen (dowager queen) remember a promise that the old King made to his old commoner friend - that the Crown Prince would be betrothed to the commoner's granddaughter. They seize upon this method to regain their popularity.

Now it just so happens (of course) that both the Crown Prince and his wife-to-be go to the same arts high school in Seoul. The Crown Prince Lee Shin (JJH) is a cold, proud creature, very reserved. Unbeknownst to his parents, he has a girlfriend, a dedicated ballet dancer, Min Hyo-rin (Song Ji Hyo), whom he has proposed to. However, she rejects him in order to pursue her dreams of being a top ballerina. The whole scene is overheard by Chae-kyung, the granddaughter of that commoner mentioned above.

Now Chae-kyung (YEH) is a silly but warm teenager in the arts department (Shin
is a film student). She's loved by all, especially her three best girl friends. After receiving the proposal from the royals, she reluctantly agrees, as her family is on hard times. You'd think that everyone would want to be Crown Princess - but that's not the case, because the royal family have to spend their life in the royal palace...they only leave for special functions and trips. Within the palace they have to follow the traditional ways of doing everything, such as wearing the han-bok (traditional costume) and putting their hair up in extravagant detail.

After being rejected, Shin agrees to marry Chae-kyung, and the two begin their life together. It's painful - she tries so hard to fit in and learn everything she needs to, while he mocks her at almost every opportunity. Every now and then he'll do something nice for her (something meaningful), revealing his kind spirit, but within seconds of being revealed, Shin will switch back to his reserved self. At this juncture, Lee Yul returns to the royal family after spending his childhood abroad. Yul was originally the Crown Prince (his father was the current King's older brother), but after his dad died, he and his mother were chased out of the palace. He has returned at the family's behest. Yul and Chae-kyung are in the same class, and quickly strike up a friendship, being the two "newbies" in the palace. Yul falls in love with Chae-kyung and decides to fight to reclaim his Crown Prince title so he can marry her (remember? Chae-kyung is supposed to marry the Crown Prince, whoever he is). Chae-kyung confides all her loneliness and her struggles of living in the palace to Yul, and he eventually tells her that he can't stand to see her like this, that it would be better for her to leave and be free than to stay and be the Crown Princess.

Meanwhile, for the sake of his marriage, Shin begins to break it off with Hyo-rin...though he slips a couple of times to be by her side. Unfortunately, in almost every instance, the two are caught by photographers. Some of these pictures make the local papers - the more dangerous ones fall into the hands of Yul's mother, who will do anything to see her child as Crown Prince. Chae-kyung, who rapidly became attached to Shin since they were spending every free moment together as part of their duties as the Crown couple, and Hyo-rin face off a couple of times, but Chae-kyung eventually lets go of Shin, knowing that he proposed to Hyo-rin first.

But eventually, Shin is captivated by Chae-kyung's warm nature (and is utterly jealous of Chae-kyung's close friendship with Yul), and breaks it off permanently with Hyo-rin. Hyo-rin attempts suicide, and after being rescued, realizes that it is her turn to let go of the Prince.

Yul feels no such thing, and reveals his love to Chae-kyung. She tells him that if she had met Yul first, she could have liked him, but that her heart belongs to Shin now. Shin, still jealous of Yul, crushes that little heart with his icy demeanor - well, actually, he sends very mixed signals. He's really tender to her at some moments, especially when she falls asleep beside him (usually they have separate bedrooms), but at other times...he's a complete bastard...and royal politics makes another foray into the drama. Yul's mother does some pretty heinous things, from blackmail to arson (and then blaming that arson on Shin), in order to get at that throne. Shin's older sister returns to the Palace after a trip to Africa and lends some sense to the crazy situation. In short, lots of bad stuff happens, and the royal situation is even worse than before Chae-kyung married Shin...

...and so the royal family decides to send Chae-kyung abroad to weather the storm. She agrees in order to save Shin's reputation. The most touching scene in the entire drama comes right about now...Chae-kyung declares her love for Shin and tells him that all he has to do is ask her to stay. She's shown that she loves him before, but never as explicitly as this. He freezes, and she begins to walk away, tears forming in the corners of her eyes...but he forces the words out of his lips..."stay with me. don't leave me alone." FINALLY the two kiss, and all is right with the world once more.

Chae-kyung goes to Macau, and has a great life out of the palace. After much debate, Yul and Shin both relinquish the heir position, and it is given to Shin's older sister instead (a better decision was never made - that girl is smart, sensible, modern, and filial. if anyone could turn around the royal mess, it'd be her). Shin goes to Macau and sees Chae-kyung truly happy for the first time...and begins to fear that she will say no when he asks her to really marry him and return to the palace. But after asking for an extension of time to think about it, she agrees, and the two are married in a gorgeous little ceremony.

This was really an addictive drama, and all the main leads were all pretty (though YEH's photo above isn't that nice). YEH was definitely a young young actress at the time - her performance is not nearly as strong as that in the "Coffee Prince", but she still held her own. Now, JJH - he was a new actor too, then, but he manages to portray nuances really well - you can see him struggling between his feelings for chae-kyung with just the tilt of his head (in an early episode at his birthday party when yul and chae-kyung share a plate together). And he's the master of "the look". The drama was also really enhanced by some of the more tender scenes between the two, though I was a little put off by the "cinderella" scene at the party...that was kinda obvious no? but all in all, a very good drama!! Especially for new actors. On my fav drama list, for sure.

Hidden Treasures

I was in the middle of this very sweet chick lit book the other day, when I came across the cutest message handwritten onto the page. It was right after a potentially crazy chapter signaling that obstacles were about to befall the heroine of the novel. I took a picture of it -

Mwahaha ** Yea shes doomed! Don't stop reading now! Ur 1/2 way there :D

I'm usually the kind of girl that hates it when people write in their books or crease the spines, and I'm not fond of the abbreviation "Ur", but I have to admit that I loved this little message - it was so adorable! A welcome surprise :) And it definitely made me want to continue on reading - perhaps even more than the plot of the book itself. You can tell it's written by a girl - the handwriting is round and pretty, and spaced evenly enough that it looks girly. And even without the handwriting - the smilie face tells it all.

To whoever who wrote this - I'll never know who you are, but I love that you cared enough about this book and its future readers to encourage them to keep on with the book. Thanks - your message definitely helped.

Magicians of Love

I'm exhausted, so this is a quickie post about my latest drama, Magicians of Love.
"Magicians of Love" is the cutest drama! It stars Ming Dao, Sam Wang, and Jacky Zhu of the 183 Club (some boyband - though it feels weird calling them a boy band since they're all in their late 20's/early 30's :P) and Joanne Zeng. Bei Ruo Yi (Joanne Zeng) is a fledgling hairstylist with great talent but no technique, and is rudely criticized by Du Ya Si (Ming Dao) and his fellow hairstylists Lin Er Qi (Sam Wang) and Fernando (Jacky Zhu) one day at a competition. The trio of male hairstylists are the top hairdressers in Taiwan, and are called 'magicians of love', for their abilities to transform a woman's appearance and image. Fast friends, the trio opened their own hair salon, Neo-Image, which runs almost as a family. Ruo Yi and Ya Si run into each other again at an old folk's home (Ruo Yi visits there for fun and Ya Si is visiting his grandmother), and he realizes that Ruo Yi has a lot of talent. He brings her into his salon (after lots of drama of course), and she makes friends with the trio, especially Er Qi. One day, after Ya Si and Ruo Yi have a huge argument, she runs out into the street, and is almost knocked over by a car - a man wearing a certain brown jacket saves her. After Ruo Yi's recovery, she sees Er Qi put on the jacket, and begins to fall for him.

Now, Er Qi has his own really really really confusing past, involving Hong Kong gangsters, the mob, violence, etc. He is actually escaping from his godfather, the leader of the HK gang, and expects to die at any time. But as Ruo Yi and Er Qi get closer, he realizes that he wants to have "tomorrow", if only to spend it with Ruo Yi. They go through some pretty harrowing episodes actually, some life-and-death stuff. As feelings deepen, Ruo Yi confesses her feelings for Er Qi to Ya Si, who becomes a little jealous (and confused). Ya Si and Ruo Yi are also spending lots of time together visiting Ya Si's grandmother, who thinks that they are a couple.

Ruo Yi finally gets up the courage to tell Er Qi of her feelings that stem from the day of the accident. He, in turn, tells her that he cares for her too, but that she should know that Ya Si is the one who saved her - Er Qi was only borrowing the jacket. Er Qi tells Ruo Yi that he will stand by whatever decision she makes - she can choose Ya Si or Er Qi, and he will be okay with it. Right then, Ya Si walks in. Dum da da!!!! But Ruo Yi chooses Er Qi (due to their crazy experiences together), and Ya Si walks away broken hearted...but no! more drama ensues! Er Qi faces his godfather for Ruo Yi, and wins the right to walk away from the HK gang. The two get engaged...right at the time that Ya Si decides to tell Ruo Yi about his feelings. Ya Si misses his chance, unfortunately, and decides to shoulder bravely on. His ex-girlfriend returns, and he tries to make a pairing of it. Also at this time, Er Qi finds out that he has a son by his first ever girlfriend, who just died of illness. Ruo Yi's dad freaks out, and breaks the engagement. Ruo Yi and Er Qi decide to stay together anyway, but Er Qi's son disapproves - he wants his father to marry this other lady (who loves Er Qi and his son btw). The whole thing breaks Ruo Yi's heart, and Er Qi decides that for Ruo Yi's sake, he has to break up with her. Fortunately, the lady that his son favors used to be the girl that Er Qi liked before he met Xiao Bei (Ruo Yi's nickname)...so that little family works out well.

Ya Si is about to leave for England with his ex-gf (lot of drama here as well), but at the last minute, he misses the flight to run to his grandmother's bedside - she's really ill. He overhears Ruo Yi telling his grandmother about the broken engagement...and about the fact that she's upset, but also a little relieved, because she has realized that she actually loves Ya Si...eventually, the two of them get together as well. They are the cutest couple - Ming Dao has this great way of acting a little childish when he's with her, and it's very very sweet.

More drama ensues - the ex-gf joins a rival hair salon company in order to get revenge, but Ruo Yi's sweetness of character ultimately triumphs, loose ends regarding Ruo Yi's family history are all neatly sorted, as are the knots regarding Ya Si's family drama. All in all, a really catchy show! A little dramatic, but once you watch the first episode, you can't help but want to watch the rest of it :P

Bull Fighting

So over the weekend I decided I wanted to watch a newer drama (since I'll probably be catching up on some of the older dramas in the next few weeks thanks to my aunt), and picked up "Bull Fighting", the new drama starring Mike He (Love Contract, Devil Beside You, Why Why Love), Hebe Tian (of my favourite female T-pop group S.H.E.!), and Lee Wei (whom I'd not known before but love now).
Hebe plays Yi ShengXue, a fierce, physically weak, but determined heiress to the Yi family. Since young, she has been protected by Jin ZiCong (Lee Wei), who was adopted into their family after the death of his father. ZiCong pretty much is her everything - he's her bodyguard, her best friend, her family - and he in turn treasures their relationship (and her) above everything else in the world. He'll carry her places, fight for her - he even takes her punishments for her when her dad is upset. As ShengXue's adorable stepmom (played by Ariel's mom in ISWAK!) says, "whenever he finds something good, he shares it with [her], when he sees [her] cry, he'll do anything to stop it. if he knows something will hurt [her], he'll bear the pain." Example - when they were little, she was playing with this sharp flip knife. ZiCong told her to stop, but ShengXue, being the stubborn idiot she is, kept throwing the knife up and down until she accidentally drops the knife. The knife looks like it'll cut her foot, so ZiCong grabs the knife with his bare hands, cutting himself deeply in the process, just to save her.

Aside from ZiCong and her family, ShengXue is also passionate about 13th Street, which is a strip of valuable land that her family owns and maintains for the sake of a community there. Her second home, let's say. On this land is a basketball court, that two rival school teams battle on annually - whoever wins that year gets to use the court until the next "bull fighting" match. Shen RuoHe (Mike He) is the star player on the team that ShengXue favors. After an accidental confrontation between ShengXue (plus henchmen) and RuoHe the day of the match, he ends up costing his team the match. ShengXue is infuriated and switches to his college in order to get the court back. RuoHe and ShengXue butt heads as they fight to regain the court, and RuoHe begins to appreciate her honest and determined nature; she in turn falls for his sweet but proud tendencies. Things come to a head when RuoHe's father asks him to get the 13th Street land from ShengXue as part of a deal they need. RuoHe ultimately refuses (after he practically kidnaps ShengXue and harms her), costing his father the company. While this is all happening, ZiCong struggles with his feelings for ShengXue and protects her from evil - oh man, he's the epitome of loyalty and sacrifice. After the first episode, ZiCong became the reason that I watched this drama - he is an amazing combination of devotion - but in a really really tough and manly (hot) way. When ZiCong realizes that ShengXue is in love with RuoHe, ZiCong swallows his love for her and asks RuoHe to take ShengXue seriously...RuoHe realizes what this costs ZiCong, and agrees initially...

But RuoHe is told that he has a chance to save his father's company - if he dates and marries the child of his father's banker, QianNa. Despite his feelings for ShengXue, he agrees, and proceeds to hurt everyone in the process - except for QianNa, who makes him promise that if either of them fall in true love before they actually get married, the other party will agree to relinquish the marriage. Now, I was all ready to hate QianNa at this point - the second female lead is usually not that likable! - but I couldn't do it. QianNa is poised, intelligent, spunky, proud, feminine, and determined. You can't help but like her. And she's agreeing to the engagement for all the right reasons - and wants RuoHe to do the same.

ZiCong moves out of the Yi Family (due to family history drama), and slowly, he and ShengXue learn not to be so dependent on each other - she learns to do things without him (though secretly he's still there smoothing the way), and he takes the time to change his feelings for her from that of a lover to that of an older brother. ShengXue and RuoHe have this whole convoluted plot - but ultimately get together. Meanwhile, QianNa sees ZiCong's strength of character, and falls for him, breaking off her engagement to RuoHe (go QianNa for being strong enough to do the right thing!). Everyone's happy, 13th Street (and RuoHe's father's company) is saved, and ZiCong begins to realize that QianNa is more suited to him than ShengXue is.

I really liked this drama - I think it strayed away from the traditional T-drama stereotypes, which is a welcome change from the "silly naive innocent girl falls for stubborn cold intelligent popular boy" or "strong manly guy falls for the bratty but unique girl". Few of the main leads fit the stereotypical mold - the girls are strong independent characters with minds of their own without being annoying or overbearing to their male counterparts. To be completely honest, ShengXue does lean a little towards the overbearing side, but Hebe manages to portray a sweetness of character that indicates that that's really from being pampered rather than being an inbred character trait. QianNa - now she's a model for what a girl should be! The male characters are still a little on the traditional side, but Mike He and Lee Wei are good enough actors to add a depth and a freshness to their characters. Especially Lee Wei - I definitely am going to look up some of his old dramas. This was also one of the few times that I was more interested in the "secondary couple" instead of the "lead couple" in a series. While Hebe and Mike were adorable together, and would have captured my attention in any other serial, the acting from Lee Wei and QianNa overshadowed them. And it wasn't just in couple format as well - I was sometimes more moved by scenes between Lee Wei and Hebe, and between QianNa and Mike, than in scenes with the two leads.

I really hope to see more shows like this in the future!

Salad Song

Okay - this is going to sound really strange, but I really like this song! It's not even really a song - it's an ad for this Korean supermarket? I'm not exactly sure, but I think it has something to do with fresh fruit. It's sung by Yoon Eun Hye, who was wonderful in the korean drama "Coffee Prince", and I hear, really good in "Goong" as well, and Lee Dong-gun, who I know nothing about but is really cute in this song.

Photo Paint!

Since I don't have a sticker picture machine of my own, I decided to play on Paint and make my own little random pictures out of the photos that N and I took the day we went sticker-picturing :P They're kind of very elementary, since my command of Paint is rudimentary and I didn't want to devote hours to this :), but here ya go!

Right before we got into the water

Wading!

bffs!
i'm actually kind of proud of the last one :P

Go Cross Campus - IVC!

Next tuesday begins the second annual Ivy League Championships on gocrosscampus, an online risk-type game that pits various factions against each other. When you join a game, you choose a team based on some sort of social affiliation - in this case, it's by what school you attended, but past "fun games" have had themes like relationship status (single, taken, divorced etc) and star sign (virgo!). A current "fun game" is based on a world war ii do-over - it'll be interesting to see how history rewrites itself!

Anyway - once you join a team, you build up "vitals" each day by logging in and energizing. You also get extra vitals for conquering territories, for having x many connected territories etc. Each team elects commanders who are in charge of writing up a plan of attack (or defense, depending on strategy), contacting other teams, and rooting out the spies in the team. It's a ton of fun! I first got into GXC last year during the very first Ivy League Championships - unfortunately, Columbia got fourth (boo!), but i'm hoping this year that we do a little better! Penn's leading right now with a massive recruitment drive led by their administrative team, but hopefully in the next couple of days Columbia will surge ahead (the more ppl you have the better - increased numbers -> increased armies -> kicking ass). Our map this year seems to be a distorted version of new england - which I'm kind of sad about, I've been playing on the Manhattan maps which are awesome!, but Columbia has a decent position, and hopefully decent allies. I'll keep updating as the game goes on - but if any Columbians read this blog - join and play!

Tokyo Juliet

I mentioned that a little while ago, I watched "Tokyo Juliet." I was really excited to watch it - it had both fashion and my favourite Taiwanese actress, Ariel Lin, in it. And it introduced a really cute guy in it - now my favourite actor, Wu Chun. I love both because they give such stirring performances in all the dramas that they're in - when they're on screen, you can feel the chemistry between them and their partner radiating out. This drama is also what started my Fahrenheit craze :) Anyway...to the drama!
"Tokyo Juliet" is about a young girl, Lin Lai Sui, whose goal in life is to become a famous designer - a designer more famous than the leading designer of the time, Chu Xing (Simon Yan). She holds a grudge towards Chu Xing because he stole a design that she had drawn at the tender age of five and turned it into an award-winning collection - a collection that jump-started his career and made him one of the most popular designers world wide. Sui holds particular resentment towards Chu Xing because he wooed her mom away from her dad with this collection, causing an emotionally scarring divorce. In turn, Chu Xing vows to destroy her career in fashion...

One of Sui's physical characteristics is that she has wonderfully straight long black hair that has never been cut. She wears it this way as a tribute to her childhood love, a boy she met at a party right before she drew her design, who comforted her when she couldn't find her mom, and praised her long doll-like shiny hair. This memory is one of Sui's most cherished - everytime she thinks of the boy, she feels warm inside, and realizes that the world isn't a terrible place after all. It's her shield, in a way. At fashion college, which is the starting point of the drama, Sui meets a charismatic upperclassman, Liang (played by Wu Chun <3), who gives her same warm feeling. Of course, being a T-drama, Liang turns out to have been that boy from long ago - he recognizes her instantly, and cultivates a friendship with her. The two become close, and Sui reveals her secret about Chu Xing to Liang. Along the way, she also shares that she's in love with Liang...Liang vows to always protect her from Chu Xing, but says that they can never be together, because he is actually Chu Xing's son. A little family background - Liang hates his father for abandoning his mother and remarrying a female model (Sui's mom) so quickly after his mother's death. Because of this event, he refuses to design for females...until Sui comes along. After some drama, where Liang sacrifices himself to prevent Chu Xing from harming Sui, the two get together, and work hard towards realizing their dreams. There are a couple of love rivals, and a lot of cool fashion shows and exhibitions, but the core of the story centers around the couple's struggle against this powerhouse designer.

Ultimately, Liang reconciles with his father - right when Sui is given the chance by an anonymous backer to confront Chu Xing in a fashion face off. Liang withdraws his support from Sui, and she, realizing that his love is more important to her than her vow, runs away from her work and friends. After a period of solitary thinking, she decides to fly to Rome and pursue fashion there, but Liang goes after her and persuades her to stay. He inspires her to continue designing, but refuses to leave Chu Xing. So they agree to separate until the contest is over. Chu Xing's designs are elegant and refined, but in the end, Sui's passionate designs win out. This is actually one of the saddest parts of the movie - I had a healthy dislike for Chu Xing throughout the entire show, but in that last fashion show, I felt so sad when Chu Xing realized that he had lost both his son and his career to Sui. The series ends on a happy note - Sui opens her own store, carrying her own designs, and the couple live happily ever after.

I really really enjoyed this drama...I know a lot of people don't like the dramas where the main characters get together near the beginning - they like watching the chase and the struggle, but I love watching couples with that intense bond between them. Nothing can break them up (except in Love Contract, and that was only because she was in a coma). Wu Chun is also amazing :) he's so sweet and has the most communicative eyes. Dreamy.

Sticker photos make life better...really!

I'm in a blogging mood today, so I'm going to write another entry :) Went out today with my best friend N from high school, who's doing a law program in Singapore this year. It's been awesome hanging out with her again, and I love that though we've barely seen each other since high school, we're as close as ever!

Anyway, today was kind of a disaster! N came over to my area, and we took a bus to one of Singapore's largest malls, VivoCity. We walked around a bit, splashed around in this wading pool on the top floor (she has the photos, but as soon as I get them, they'll be up :P), and then decided to go for lunch. Disaster 1: There were bugs in our food!!!! We had ordered a plate of roast chicken and a large hokkien mee to share, and we were barely midway through our food when we noticed a bug on our table. With some unease, we swept the bug off of the table and continued munching away, but within a minute, we saw more bugs crawling on our plate. Being the insect phobic girls we both are, we dropped our chopsticks in horror, grabbed our bags, and left. Without lunch. We were too freaked out to get more food, so we decided to leave Vivocity behind us and take a train to Bugis to do some real shopping.

At Bugis - which is an outdoor street shopping area - we felt a lot better, and wandered around picking out cute tops. I love Bugis - week to week, fashions are different, and it's hard to be bored. This week the theme seemed to be ruffled office shirts and colorful tube top sprinkled with flowers. N found a really preppy but cute pink long button-down top with a collar and grabbed it. She wanted to see how it looked on, and so we ran into the nearest indoor mall and tried on her top...which ended up being much too small in the shoulders for her. Disaster 2. We ran back to the stall, and after some hard talking, managed to get the vendor to agree to an exchange. N picked out a flowery tube top...but remained in a kind of funky mood from the whole encounter.

Walking around, we saw a sticker photo store and decided to make ourselves feel better by taking pictures :) It was a little stressful, actually, because we had to use Japanese machines (where you get to write on the photos after you're done taking them) as opposed to the Thai ones that we're used to. We messed up a lot and couldn't find the erase button, but we felt much better after the scribbling process. Took a few random shots of the pictures at the store.

Yup, there's nothing like sticker photos to make one feel better after a lousy day!

Hana Kimi

So a while back, I was talking to a friend of mine in New York who revealed that he was sneakily watching Japanese dramas to brush up on his language skills. He recommended that I watch this drama called "Hanazakari no Kimitachi". To be completely honest, I didn't really pay that much attention to the recommendation - I am a total T-drama fan and have no time for J-dramas :P

A couple days later, I was looking up dramas that my favourite T-actor, Wu Chun of Farenheit, has been in, and came across a recent drama in the forums called "Hana Kimi". It also starred Jiro Wang of Farenheit, and Ella of S.H.E. - two other people I love, and so I immediately started watching it.
So this drama is based on a manga - as many good dramas are! - and features a fat girl, Ruixi (Ella), who sheds 30 pounds after watching a special feature about a high-jumper in Taiwan whose main characteristics are determination and perseverance. Against her best friend's (Julia) wishes, she returns to Taiwan to enroll in his college so that she can see him high-jump live. The catch? The high-jumper, Jian (Wu Chun), goes to an all-boys athletic college. On her first day at college, Ruixi meets Xiuyi (Jiro Wang), a soccer star and incredibly friendly person, who introduces her about the school and helps her settle in as she tries to fulfil her goal. But Jian has quit high jumping, and looks unlikely to return to it...Meanwhile, within her first week on campus, Ruixi is involved in a small accident; Jian sees her (they're roommates so they're together a lot), and carries her to the doctor's office. He realizes that she's a girl, but decides not to expose her until he figures out her purpose at the school. The doctor realizes the same, and becomes Ruixi's confidant at the school.

As time passes, Xiuyi starts feeling attracted to Ruixi, and struggles with his sexual identity in a hilarious way - is he gay? Jian and Ruixi become close friends, and Ruixi motivates Jian to start high jumping again. Lots of things happen, and we watch how relationships develop. Xiuyi confesses his love for Ruixi (to the doctor's amusement. The doctor is actually gay), and Jian starts becoming extremely protective of Ruixi. Julia comes from the US to stir things up, and in the resulting fallout, Xiuyi falls in love with Julia and Jian admits (to Julia) that he's known Ruixi's true identity since her first week and won't expose her because then the two of them (Jian and Ruixi) will have to separate. After some more drama, Jian and Ruixi decide to reveal their secrets to each other (hers is that she's a girl, his is that he knows and likes her), but in the end, nothing happens. The series ends here. The ending is pretty crappy, but that was because a part 2 was planned and the producers meant to resolve things in the sequel. "Hana Kimi" became one of the most highly rated and watched dramas in Taiwan, and everyone looked forward to the sequel...

But then the Japanese decided to produce their own Hana Kimi - the version that my friend from NYC watched. They strayed from the manga a little more, and ended their Part I with everyone knowing about Ruixi's secret and with Ruixi returning to the US. However, in the last 20 seconds of the drama, they reveal that her all-boys school is coming to California for a field trip, paving the way for Part II. Due to the success of the J-drama and other factors, the copyrights for Part 2 of the manga and script have been denied in Taiwan - resulting in a cancellation of the sequel to the T-drama. NOOOOOOOO! I was absolutely devastated when I found out!!!

So I decided to watch some of the J-drama to see if it was something I could get into - then at least if they made part 2 of only the J-drama, I could still have something to look forward to. But the J-drama is quite different from the T-drama. Storylines are much more condensed, and characters seem barely developed as compared to the T-version. J-dramas are generally much shorter than T-dramas, which is one probable reason for the lack of character development and sub-plots. Character interactions also feel a lot more shallow than in T-dramas and so watchers of J-dramas just don't get to know the characters well. I suppose that if I had started out watching J-dramas, I would feel that T-dramas went into too much detail and had meandering plots, but now I live for the subtleties of T-dramas and am amused by most of the sub-plots. The almost abruptness of J-dramas just don't sit well with me anymore - I am almost more interested in watching the characters live and interact than knowing what happens. Seeing the chemistry of the actors slowly develop heightens the enjoyment in a series, I suppose. And so I am deeply disappointed in the Japanese Hana Kimi, and am extremely upset that there will be no Taiwanese sequel. Even so - Hana Kimi was wonderful to watch, and even faced with no prospect of a sequel, I would watch it again, crappy ending and all :)

飛輪海

Since my addiction to Taiwanese drama serials, I have become increasingly attracted to their soundtracks. It all started with "They Kiss Again" - during really romantic or heartwarming moments, they would play this song "你 (You)" sung by one of the main leads, Ariel Lin. Ever since then, I've paid special attention to a serial's soundtracks - often there are some really nice songs. And even when they're not particularly special, I still love them, because I associate the drama with those songs.

So in one of the dramas I've watched - "Tokyo Juliet," which I haven't blogged about yet, I heard this really nice duet. I youtubed the video, and it turns out to feature a band that the male lead was in, named "Fahrenheit" or "飛輪海". Adore it! It's called "I Only Have Feelings For You" - the girl in this is Hebe, from a popular Taiwanese girl group.



I also love this other song of theirs, another duet, this time with all the members of S.H.E. It was featured as the opening song in another drama that I just finished, "Romantic Princess" and is called "Love Nest (Xin Wo)."



Lastly...a video of just the band themselves! They're all pretty popular, and have all acted in dramas. My favourites are Wu Zhun (lead in "Tokyo Juliet" and "Romantic Princess" hehe) and Jiro Wang (male second in "It Started With a Kiss" and "They Kiss Again"). <3 This song is called "Ai Dao," or "Liking" I think...My translation's still not the best :P

iPods...

I've had my classic clickwheel iPod since I was an innocent little first-year in college. I've always been the clumsy type, so my dad got me a hard plastic case to go around it. The case has protected my poor iPod from thousands of potential breakages and scratches, but it also makes the iPod look and feel a little like a brick. Especially since it's a second generation iPod - it's sleek for it's time, but it's still a little heavy. I love my iPod, but I think it might be time for me to get a new one - the new models are much thinner and lighter - and let's face it, more stylish. Other perks - a much longer battery life (mine currently runs for all of 6 hours, MAYBE) and the ability to play videos...which means that I can watch my favourite taiwanese dramas on the go haha.

So I was looking at the different types of iPods last night, and I like both the Classic and the Nano.

IPOD CLASSIC
The new iPod Classic (formerly the video iPod, I think) is really pretty. It's pretty thin - much thinner than the version I have now, and has a nice 2.5 or 3 inch screen. And apparently it's had abit of a feature overhaul - well in four years, Apple's got to have done something, right? I've heard that it's much easier to manipulate songs and the equalizers and all of that cool stuff on the new iPod. It also has a ton of more storage space (80GB or 160GB) - I only have a little more than 9GB of songs, but videos probably will take up a lot more room no? And the battery life is 30-40 hours long - which is leaps and bounds ahead of my worn-down battery! On the negative side, a review says that the new iPod doesn't work with any of the old docking platforms - which is a problem since we have so many of them! - and doesn't have the best sound quality. The latter is okay with me - as long as I can hear the song, and it's not distorted, that's fine. Sells for around USD 250.

IPOD NANO
The iPod Nano is also an option. Originally I clicked on the review as kind of a joke, but after reading its specs, I'm starting to seriously think about it. It's smaller than the Classic, which is awesome, but I'm not sure that I like how wide it is. Nonetheless, it has all the features of the iPod, with the exception of a marginally smaller screen and a smaller clickwheel. It's battery life is around 24 hours...not bad. A big negative is that it only has 8GB of storage...It's less than USD 200 though, which is nice.

Overall, I think the iPod Classic is a better deal, and has most of what I'm looking for. I'm not someone who needs to be able to wholely control and understand my technology (though a little bit of customization is okay :P). I'm looking for a simple little mp3 player that plays the music and videos I want to hear, that I don't have to charge every 10 minutes, that holds all that I need to store in it. I use iTunes, so there's really no point for me get a non-Apple mp3 player. Yup, an iPod Classic it shall be - as soon as my old one breaks.