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

I guess it's easier to divide things up...


1. Maou
I watched the first episode of Maou last night, and while I did enjoy it, I also found is ridiculously hilarious in quite a few spots. The biggest thing? It's way over-dramatic. Especially Toma's character. Everything he does is SO dramatic, SO passionate. I mean, he runs everywhere. As sn0tcat said, he's just too full of passion and emotion to simply walk. Ohno's character, on the other hand, I LOOOOVED. I LOL-ed a lot at him (come on, Ohno being creepy is kinda funny), but he was damn good. I like evil, conniving, dastardly characters. They make me happy.

Come On, you can't tell me you don't find evil!Ohno hilarious...
( A BUNCH more caps from episode 1 )


2. Misfits
SERIES TWO IS FINALLY HERE YOU GUYS! I've been waiting a freaking year for this show to come back. For reals! It's currently my favorite show (not that LOST is off the air), and I'm so excited for the next episode. I read some spoilers earlier, and watched the pre-air, so I knew what was going to happen, but damn if it wasn't worth watching in HD. This season I'm loving Simon a whole lot more, despite him being a total creeper. And I'm still on the Nathan/Kelly ship. I kinda like how they didn't make them get together right away. These things need to be drawn out. That being said, I wish there had been more time before they dug Nathan up, just to see how everyone (mostly Kelly) was handling it. I seriously could watch this show only for Nathan though. He's such an asshole, and we all know how I feel about the asshole characters...

This makes me wonder about British graves... Are they really that easy to dig up?!
( A few more caps from episode 1, including one that may haunt your nightmares... just warning you )


3. Koukou Debut Movie
I randomly heard about this the other day, while looking for news on the ParaKiss movie. The news came out awhile ago, but I'm kinda slow on the uptake recently. Apparently Mizobata Junpei (who played Shuji-kun in Buzzer Beat) will be acting as Yoh, and Ohno Ito (a new actress, as far as I can tell) will be Haruna. This will either be awesome, or epically bad (see : Love Com). I hope for awesome. Because Koukou Debut is a really good manga, and I'd love to see it done well. While I loved Junpei in Buzzer Beat, I wouldn't have picked him to play Yoh... then again, who knows, he may knock it out of the park.



4. Fated to Love You sequel
Nothing is confirmed about this story, so take it with a grain of salt. HOWEVER, SETTV is looking to make a sequel to Fated to Love You, called 醉後決定愛上你 (Drunken to Love You... odd translation). I AM SO AGAINST THIS IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY. Now, I love SETTV, I love their shows, I love their actors, I just love them. And yes, FtLY is the highest rated drama in Taiwanese history, so I suppose it makes sense to have a sequel. But a sequel without Qiao En or Ethan?! And didn't they already make a tie in with Invincible Shan Bao Mei?! The actors they're looking at are Rainie Yang and Jerry Yan. I just... don't know. I think seeing them together would make me think too much about Meteor Garden, and question why Ken isn't there. But yeah... not really looking forward to this. I loved FtLY, and I don't think there needs to be another one.

Two random pieces of news. FIRST! I just found out about a new drama that will hopefully (HOPEFULLY, Taiwan!) be airing in the summer or fall.

It's called "Just Want To Depend On You", and it stars Jerry Yan and Ella. So bit of a dream cast for me (ELLLLA!). Apparently Jerry plays a cold divorce lawyer, and Ella will play a nanny to two children. There's even a tidbit in the article about how Jerry's character mistakes Ella's character for a lesbian.

I'm going to LOVE it.

Second; CHERYL YANG!

Random article about My Queen (mostly about Wen Sheng Hao, who apparently doesn't think he's attractive. Sorry dude, you're hot...)
Too deep into "My Queen"; Wen Sheng Hao hates to be a cuckold. If Wu Shuang ends up with Yun Hao, I think I'll cry. I think Ethan and Cheryl should be a couple in real life. They're SO cute together. But I think Ethan's still with Tiffany Xu... maybe not.

THIRD! Abe Tsuyoshi marries Chinese actress! Congrats to him! (But what is with all the marriages lately?!)

Thanks so much for all the good wishes re work! I'll try to get back to everyone tonight (unless I manage to fall asleep, which is looking more and more probable by the minute). It's been a long day, and I won't go into it more, but it's left me exhausted.

So yesterday I mentioned awesome (to me) drama news, but then put off writing about it, because Big Bang got in the way...

Anyway, I've heard rumors for awhile, but now, not only does it look to be happening very soon, but it's ALREADY IN PRODUCTION!

The drama I'm talking about; Good Health & Fortune (福氣安康, Fu Qi An Kang), starring my most beloved Chen Qiao En! The male lead? Why none other than Lan Cheng Long (Blue Lan)! He was in The Outsiders, but probably is best known for playing Yamen (the dude was was supposedly Ah Si's cousin, but was actually hired by Dao Ming Feng to seduce Shan Cai) in Meteor Garden. He also dated Barbie Xu awhile back.

Anyway, the plot of this drama is pretty interesting; Cheng Long plays a rich guy with a genial facade, but is really kinda evil. He is forced by his grandfather (somehow...) to marry Qiao En's character (an ordinary girl [with a heart of gold, of course!] who studies herbalism). Because he doesn't want to marry her, he decides to hire assassins to kill her. Up until the killing part, it's typical drama fare. But man, they had me at the assassins.

Of course, Qiao En will melt his heart, and everyone will be happy. BUT FIRST THERE WILL BE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATIONS!

I'm actually kinda glad Jerry didn't sign on to do this drama. I love him, but the role just doesn't seem right for him. I've only seen Cheng Long in MG, but his character was kinda evil and manipulative, so hey, it fits in my mind! It's supposed to air post My Queen, which is GREAT! I'll be losing the amazingness that is My Queen, but gaining a new Qiao En drama. Pretty even trade.

I also heard rumors that Extravagant Challenge was back on. Tenative of course, but still super exciting!

Also; How off the presses. A potential new drama starring Sam Wang; Mo Nu 18 Hao (魔女１８號, Witch 18). I know NOTHING about it, other than it possibly also starring June and Dou Zhi Kong. Which makes me think it's somehow connected to Your Home Is My Home. Or maybe not... maybe they just wanted to throw the actors together again. They ARE both on CTS...

Calling Big Star is supposed to start airing this month, but I haven't heard a specific date.

I hate whenever I go to look something up about a upcoming twdrama, my blog is always one of the first listings. Seriously, am I the only one writing about them?! That's kinda sad...

Summary of ratings for Taiwan's Idol Dramas: Performance of 'ToGetHer' is mediocre

First off, they changed the name of Superstar Express to "ToGetHer"?! No wonder the ratings suck... I hate it when there are those last minute changes to drama names (in english)... while the original titles aren't always great, the alternative titles are always 50% worse. Like, when they changed "Invincible Shan Bao Mei" to "Woody Sambo" (which is totally 'wtf territory' to me). Why can't they just do direct translations of the Chinese name?
( Thoughts on the current season of Twdramas )

When Black & White comes on, I AM going to be live-watching. It stars Zai Zai (love of my life), and Chuan Yi (not the love of my life, but close). Btw, the wiki.d-addicts site for this show has the BEST engrishy sentence ever used to summarize a drama ever; "When a case brought these two top crime solvers together, sparks flied and a little light peeked into this dark city where the nation's President is on friendly terms with the local mafia and twins kill people while drinking milkshake."

I've seen videos of Zai Zai practicing shooting guns, and holy shit is it hot. I also have recently discovered I like his shorter hair a lot better than I like his longer hair. It took me months to get used to it though. Oh Zai Zai, I still love your Mars era Farrah 'do as well.

"The Director of the International department from the Tourism Bureau, Liu Xi-Lin pointed out that in the two years when F4 was the spokesperson for Taiwan Tourism in Japan and Korea, they successfully attracted the attention of 35- 45 year-old mature female fans. The effect was very satisfactory. Last November Fahrenheit took over as the new spokesperson and their target would be 18-25 year-old young female fans."
( Um, what? )

In other news, I REALLY REALLY want this. but it's $24! Also, do you think it'd be strange if I bought a huge GD poster, and hung it up in my room and stared at it a lot? Yes? Fine.
( More Big Bang Stuffs )

Oh, and the best random quote of the day (enjoy the engrish); "Ella even had once helped her father to catch and castrated pigs when she was younger." Somehow I can totally see Ella doing this.

I'm watching Love Scar, and adoring it. Parts of the story are pretty far fetched, but I don't care! Jerry Yan is in it, and he's adorable. That's all that really matters.

I'm on the last episode now, but I NEEDED to post this.

You know how I said Figaro Zeng was in a lot of random things....?

( BAM )

I'll post #17 soon. I have the post written, I just have to straighten up the pictures. I also might post a Love Scar entry, but maybe not. It's nothing groundbreaking.

I managed to watch episode 6 of BBF as well!

( Liveblog episode 6 )

I hate/love the coming conflict between Jan Di, Jun Pyo, and Ji Hoo. Stories without conflict are boring, but it also breaks my heart.

It's late, so I'm not going to watch episode 7 tonight. Maybe tomorrow (snow day?!).

I took 101 screencaps during these two episodes (obsessed much?). About half of them are of Jun Pyo. 1/3 are of Jan Di looking pretty (I screencap mostly for iconage, therefore I end up with a lot of pretty people closeups), and 1/6 are of the other F4 members (mostly Ji Hoo, with a few Yi Jung).

Oh yeah...
( Random bonus gorgeous symbolic screenshot from Innocent Love! )

It's good to see that the Edison Chen scandal didn't totally ruin Cecilia Cheung's life!
Deborah Lai confirmed Cecilia's second baby; Patrick Tse wants twins

*Dies!!* My dream of cross agency co-operation is coming true!! Mike, Joe, AND Qiao En in a commercial! So excited to see it when it comes out on youtube! (Article also totally mentions Mike's birthday! I meant to do a picspam celebration (mostly as a present for me...), but didn't get around to it.)
Mike He and Joe Cheng both appear like strangers

I'm now EVEN MORE excited for Starlit. Previously, the print ad was enough to make me want to see it, but these trailers make it so much better!! Jerry Yan + piano + tragic car accident involving broken hands + Terri Kwan without the ridiculous extensions they made her wear in WtSYA + angst = DRAMA GOLD.
4 New Trailers for Jerry Yan's "Starlit"; "Starlit" OST

I like the title of this story (it totally make Qiao En sound like a prostitute!) Plus, I ♥ Qiao En! She has a western boyfriend! How adorable! I'm still MingEn all the way though...(I know I'm being redundant in my news, but I thought this one was interesting because I never knew that Mike and Joe had issues with their friendship.... ohhh now I see why. (Hehehehe! Brokeback relationship! Even if Joe was in love with Mike, which I very much doubt he is, it'd be adorable! Joe is rather androgynous, and Mike is so pretty. So it works out...)
Chen Qiao En wanders between two men, passionately hugs Joe Zheng to earn money, rushes towards foreigner boyfriend

Um, crazy fans much?! Poor Alan! Apparently he can never get any action from his female costars, or else his fans will rebel and freak out... I know it's Asia, and things are different there, but COME ON?! It's ACTING.
Show Luo french Kisses with Alice Ceng, Wife fans accuse him of having an affair.

Stupid Taiwanese press, trying to make Ella look bad! I'm sure S.H.E can easily win awards with or without the presence of Twins.
S.H.E rely on Twins' absence to win awards? Ella gets angry

Qiao En and Ming Dao are doing a new drama!? MEEEEHHH! How did I not know about this?! Maybe it's just a rumor though, since I can't find any evidence... (Also, MingEn loves!!)
Chen Qiao En has Ming Dao; almost forgets about boyfriend

Awww the cuteness! I know Wu Zun is Ella's rumored boyfriend, but I had no idea Jay Chou and Alan Luo were rumored to be Selina and Hebe's boyfriends...
S.H.E holds Christmas party; fans imitate their rumoured boyfriends

Awesome Joe Cheng quote;
"Cosmo: So to you, what you like to do most for the environmental issues?
Joe: People around the world will wear nothing and will only eat vegetables! (Laughed)"
Joe Cheng’s sincere Q&A session

Oh wu Zun! You kill me your your adorableness! Wearing skirts, and joking around with Alan Luo (... about wearing skirts)! Adorable! It's kinda too bad that Taiwan doesn't have the crazy obsession with cross dressing that Japan does....
Wu Zun wears short skirt; invites Show Luo to compare femininity

I adore Ariel and Joe so much (I'm definitely an Arjoe fan), and they're so cute in this article. They also randomly talk about the US. And how Joe wants Christmas wishes from the leader of Mars....
Ariel Lin and Joe Cheng's Merry Christmas

Yay Extravagant Challenge!! And they're just WANTING us to suffer now, with the teasing that the second male lead is ALMOST confirmed! I'm dying to see who will play Shou!
Jerry Yan's new drama 'Extravagant Challenge' ; Director Niu says filming will begin soon

ANNNNNDDD Done!