Libera me, Domine, de morte æterna, in die illa tremenda

So obsessed with Harvest Moon it's not even funny. Damn video games, making me ignore other media! Anyone else play it?

( ramblings about stuff like video games, nails, and suitcases )

So, I heard about this drama the other day. Somehow it escaped my notice. It's called Lucky Days (or 第二回合我愛你, which means, essentially, "The second round of I love you"... in general). It's about the trials of a young couple who recently got married for the wrong reasons (in order to save money), and how that caused their relationship to break down. I assume the drama is going to focus on how they go about finding love again (thus the Chinese title).

I'm, uh, not too excited about it. It's not that is looks bad, just not my style (I like stories that are more about the start of a relationship, rather than the rescue of one). Also, I watch dramas mainly for the casts. I'm not familiar with either of the main actors (Chen Yi Rong, the main actress is an established actor, though she does mostly historicals and wuxia, thus me not having seen her in anything yet).

Though, since Lucky Days is a SETTV drama, I know a good portion of the character actors, including Lin Mei Xiu (who plays the awesome mother character in TONS of twdramas, and the not-so-awesome mother character in True Love 18), Chen Bo Zheng (a great older character actor), and Song Xin Ni (who I think is fabulous, and plays the 姊姊/older sister type very well).

(SETTV is known [to me at least] for using the same actors over and over. To an extent all networks do that, but SETTV does it a LOT. Out of the ten dramas Chen Qiao En has done in Taiwan, eight of them are for SETTV. I wonder if they have some sort of relationship with J-star...)

Anyway, I can't embed it, but a subbed preview is here. For now I'll post this unsubbed one.


(I LOLed during the scene where she's in the hospital, Chen Yi Rong's character is like "I don't have a husband right now", and the nurse is like "lets not get excited, miss". And the Chen Yi Rong's character is all like "我不是小姐, 我是太太!" (She's saying she's not a "Miss", but a "Mrs")... probably not supposed to be that funny, but it was so random, and filled with Mandarin I understand!)

As far as I can tell, it's not subbed yet (or rather, the first episode has been partially subbed on youtube).

Also, CTV pulled a fast one on me, and pushed Down with Love back another week. It will air on 31Jan09, with another behind the scenes airing today. Last week they said the first episode was airing this week... *sigh* I should expect this out of my twdramas already. Things are CONSTANTLY being pushed back.

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with stuff recently. I've been feeling quite shitty.

But that's beside the point; Random Taiwanese stuff!!

SO, both Ariel Lin and Xiao Gui (Alien) are coming out with albums this summer. I knew about Ariels, but not about Xiao Gui's! Ariel's comes out 17Jul09, and Xiao Gui's 24Jul09. I'll probably buy both when I'm in Taiwan, since the shipping will take 2 weeks anyway. I'm particularly excited for Ariel's album. Her music isn't really my type (poppy and ballady), BUT I adore her voice.

Summer dramas... well... I haven't been talking about them much, because, to be honest, not a lot of them really interest me. I mean, you've got;

1. Mo Nu 18 Hao (Magic 18) - Joyce Zhao and Sam Wang are the redeeming factors of this drama for me. Mostly revolves around family, and magic, and it's complicated

2. Roseate Love - I'm SO bitter about this drama it's not even funny. Like, I'm sure it'll be good and everything, but it was SUPPOSED to star Ariel Lin AND BRYANT CHANG. In a lead role! But then bad things happened, and now he's not in it, and I'm sad. Rui Jia deserves a lead role, damn it! I mean, he was FABULOUS in Eternal Summer and Summer's Tail...

3. Momo Love - Drastic cast and plot changes cooled my desire to watch this as well. I might still watch it because Vanness and Ken will be in it (along with some other Taiwanese character actors I like), but I can't say it's number one on my list.

4. Love Buffet - This one is a maybe for me. It might actually be a high school twdrama, which never happens... But Calvin and Aaron are adorable, so maybe. I THINK it's based on a manga, and I usually like manga adaptations, so yeah.

5. Fighting Spirit - I have no idea what this one is about, and I think it was only recently announced... It's a sports drama though, so yeah. Not for me.

6. Calling Big Star - I love Mike He, but the premise just seems boring.

There's a few more, but the details are scarce....

ON THE OTHER HAND, there ARE twdramas I'm looking forward to!

7. Down With Love - Ella and Jerry's drama. Anything with Ella in it automatically goes on my list. Add a fun plotline, and it's on my must-see for the summer list!

8. Easy Fortune Happy Life - I finally got the first episode of this, and I'm so excited to see it! Qiao En = LOVE.

9. Ni Shi Wo De Wei Yi - OMG I want to watch this SO BADLY, but it'll probably never get subbed.

10. Summer's Bubble - Cast changes put it down my list, but the plotline, with the fakecest, makes me want to watch it.

11. Take Care of You, Accompanied by the Lights - This is a cdrama, but whatever. The pairing of Ming Dao and Chen Qiao En makes me happy beyond words. I CANNOT WAIT for this drama.

12. Meteor Shower - Another cdrama. This is, obviously, the mainland version of Hana Yori Dano. I want to see it for the lulz.

As for the Taiwanese version of Full House... I'm not really sure how I feel about that one. I adore Wu Zun, and I think he'll be great. I haven't heard of Zhou Xun, but she's a mainland actress, so it's not like I would have heard of her anyway. BUT she's beautiful, and supposedly a good actress. One part of the story I LOVE is the cross cultural issues it'll be addressing, since the plot will go into the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan. THAT is interesting. But then, I have a thing with Taiwanese history and politics.

So a few things;

1. Calling Big Star looks to be airing in July. It's been postponed, but it DOES look like it's still going to air.

2. I've heard positive things about the future of Extravagent Challenge, so yay! At least Ariel looks to still be in it, but who knows about Jerry. Seeing as how he's so sought after and busy, I think he probably won't be available. Maybe Joe will come back into it. Or maybe they'll pull Rui Jia in (which would make me SO happy).

3. Paper Rose has TOTALLY switched casts. Completely. It will now star newcomer Rachel Liang (Liang Wen Ying), Tender Huang, and Danny Huang. Apparently Tiffany Xu is also in it somewhere. I might watch it eventually, but it's no longer on my must see list. I could deal with Ariel opting out, but now that Rui Jia isn't in it anymore, I find no valid reason to watch (both Tender Huang and Danny Huang have only been in a few things, most of which I haven't seen. And as much as I like Tiffany Xu, I'm not going to watch an entire drama for a side character).

4. Depite the disappointing (for me at least) Paper Rose developments, there is a VERY GOOD bit of news in the twdrama world! Ella and Jerry's drama Just Want to Depend on You is not only confirmed, but it's filming! That means the chances of it getting canceled or delayed are VERY LOW. I've seen some shots from filming, and OMG SO CUTE! I mean, just look at this picture from a press conferance!

That little boy is one of the most adorable little kids I've ever seen! You can't see it in this shot, but his shirt totally has a tiny little Snoopy on it! *dies of cuteness*

Also joining the cast; Gu Bao Ming (Pan bà bà!), and Michael Zhang (!!!!!!!!!)... so now I KNOW I'm going to watch it.

5. Brief mention, but Good Health and Fortune has changed it's name to Easy Fortune Happy Life, which is a definitely clunkier translation of the characters, but it's not super stupid, and it still makes sense with the Mandarin name. It starts on the 31st of May! SUPER excited! Yay Chen Qiao En! I think this is going to be one of her last idol dramas.