China has like 4x the population of all the other countries on the list combined.
And? You're talking like what you're saying isn't obvious.
It's a basic knowledge that China has a lot of people, and that their cinema industry is massive. Especially on an Asian site like MyDramaList, where people (just a little) interested in Asian cinema.
As a non-chinese person, who's living in a not-so-big country, who's not used to such massive amount of money for movies, I'm saying that those numbers are crazy high, and I'm impressed.
I know that you didn't understand what I was saying, and you though I was saying that China is a better country than others or something like that but no : I knew that those numbers are here because of the population, not because they make better movies, or people go to the theatre more. Doesn't change that those numbers are impressive, like China's population is impressive, or the numbers of votes on Idol producer was impressive...
I liked this article, don't watch the show but heard about it. :)
But the "fun fact" don't seems really fun to me. ^^' Your sister seems to be a difficult person to deal with… I can't even imagine my big brothers talking to me like that, even if they're extremely angry at me, they'll still let me talk…
Anyway, really nice article. Made me want to watch it. Maybe I'll binge-watch it, because like your mother and sister, I can understand japanese ;)
Its slow... I really want to like it because the visuals are AMAZING, but I'm getting really bored in front of my screen. I know a lot of Chinese period drama are like that, but this one is just... too much. The episodes are 45 minutes but it feels like 1H30...
Well, it's not like Mandopop needs international popularity to do very well. ^^'
They're so many, that they don't do any work to be popular outside of China. It's like for the MMORPGs, even if a game is a huge success in China, they won't try to sell the rights, or translate it, because they don't need it.
Same for movies & dramas, they don't try to do some promotions internationally. It's a nightmare for all the international fans that can't speak chinese T^T (because there's not as much fansub as K-pop or K-dramas).
Chinese productions just don't care about the outside world, they make enough money just with China T^T
(this is not a message to the author of this post, just a rant XD)
I always find it so sad that people discovered YamaKen through shojo adaptations. He began his career with small roles, mainly in thriller/police/mystery drama, and one of his first movie role is a murderer (I won't say which one because spoil ;)... His best film is also one of his first : Control Tower. And people are always saying he never did anything except shojo... Without even trying to search his filmography...
The first time I saw him was in Yowakutemo Katemasu (2014) as an extremely shy baseball club captain, then I watched his works from the beginning (2010) and was so surprised when his first drama role was a kid with serious anger management issues (I was used to the shy one, not the weird one) XD
But after the success of LDK they were making him film shojo after shojo, and his fans (the ones that follows him since his pre-shojo-era) are worried it's really ruining his skills. Even if you can give a performance with a shojo adaptation (Your Lie In April, Orange) or you can play very different characters (Black Prince & Wolf Girl =/= One Week Friend =/= Your Lie In April) it's still very "safe zone", and a lot don't really require a lot of acting chops.
I really hope he can escapes from all that and return to his career roots T^T And he really began having more "not shojo" freedom : Rikuou, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K, and now A Forest Of Wood And Steel !!
PLEASE, let him continue like that, don't let him fall into the shojo world again. He's a really gifted actor, but shojo don't permit him to grow as an actor T^T
Arata Mackenyu is good, too (and SO handsome). He doesn't have a lot of experience, but he never disappointed me. Mugi is already a very good actress, she's more onto the "serious" world of Japanese cinema. That not a lot of international fans know. And she mainly do movies. When she's in a drama, it's only as a quick guest character, so I was really surprised to see her as a main character in this show (and excited). Araki Yuko is growing on me, she really has a presence on screen. Her character isn't that interesting, but my eyes are really drown to her (not just because she's drop dead gorgeous XD)
Its all rom-com... XD. It's not that I don't like those, but sometimes I'm sad that the only j-drama that international drama fans watch are rom-com. Usually adapted from a cheesy shojo manga x) The funny thing is that even if the drama is badly acted, poorly scripted, and cheesy as hell, international fans will alway watch this over a more interesting non-rom-com drama. And it's not linked to Japanese ratings because a lot of very popular j-dramas aren't really known from international fans. Today, I feel the only thing people watch are: rom-com, or dramas with Yamapi.
Anyway, Tokyo Bandwagon is such amazing feel good drama, the background is amazing, from the streets to the old library. <3 And Buzzer Beat is such a good memory <3
I think to enjoy the live-action Gintama, you need to be a fan of the manga. It's easy to see where comes the success of the live -action in Japan because it's already an extremely famous and popular manga, and the people who saw it already knows the manga. The humor is always over-the-top, and the movie is very loyal to the original source, while being a good adaptation. It's like the anime : it's loyal to the manga, but is an adaptation and makes others jokes that the manga can't really do (making fun of the animation studio, and its staff for example). The movie did the same. And, of course, to enjoy a live-action, you usually need to already be used to japanese comedic acting (usually exaggerated and over-the-top).
Some people are shocked at the acting of japanese comedy and/or high-school drama/movie, and keep thinking that every single japan dramas/movies are like that. That japanese can't act and/or all their dramas/movies are like mangas. It's like watching some american sit-com and keep thinking that all american shows are like that.
A lot of actors in Gintama are amazing, heck, they got someone who won Best Lead Actor at Cannes Festival to play Hijikata. But it doesn't change that you will see over-the-top thing everywhere in this movie. It's a style of acting, and a lot of actors in Gintama can do both subtle & delicate, and exaggerated & over-the-top acting.
The lead of Gintama and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas is the same : Oguri Shun, and his style is very different in those 2 movies.
No one said bad things about japanese actors/actresses on this page as I write this comment, but I see those comments too often so I just wanted to say this ^^
Oho ! I love it when international j-dramas fans are talking about asadora !! The first one I watched was Umechan-sensei, and I fell in love with the concept. It's so rare to watch the whole life of a character. <3 After that I saw Amachan, Mare, Asa Ga Kita, Gochisousan, Toto Nee-chan, Beppin-san, and I'm trying to keep watching Hiyokko. I never finished Amachan though, it was SO popular, and I was so excited to binge-watch it, but then I saw the first 50 episodes or so, and really wasn't into it. I didn't felt the heroine at all. I can't seem to get into Hiyokko too, and when I'm thinking, maybe it's because I want "my" asadora to begin with "my" heroine's childhood? Idk, I don't know why I have a problem with Amachan and Hiyokko when I loved the others.
1st love interest =/= lead always. Gen was just as prominent as Wao.
i'm not saying that he's the lead BECAUSE he's her first love interest.
SPOILER
While reading the manga (and finishing it),I felt like it was more the story of the brother & sister and their relationship with their love interest. Even if Gen is a main character, I felt like the "protagonists" of the story were Wao and Shima, because we're a lot more inside their head, and they appear more too (especially in the first 4 volumes,but it seems the movie will skip everything that is not the romance)
After her parents divorced, Sumitomo Shima lived with her mother. She felt uncomfortable living with her stepfather and she was unable to hang out with people at her high school. Shima decides to move to Hokkaido where her father lives. At her new high school in Hokkaido, she meets classmate Tatebayashi Gen and Sakurai Wao. They are the two most popular boys at her school. A principle of her school is that"Gen and Wao are for everyone." If anyone breaks the rule, that person will be ostracized. Sumitomo Shima gets closer to Gen and Wao.
Manga synopsis :
Somewhere along the way, life for high school teen Shima seemed to take a wrong turn. A fall-out with a friend in her all-girl’s school became fodder for nasty rumors, etching her name onto the school’s blacklist. Things at home aren’t looking any better. Her mother seems to be in love with the idea of being in love, and has a string of husbands to prove it. Shima has been silently putting up with her mother’s latest arm-candy, but with her friendships going down the drain, the pressure to escape and start anew has her craving for the bears and Yezo sika deers of her biological father’s hometown in Sapporo.
I'm a little afraid, because this manga is REALLY good, and even if it's a shojo, I feel like the focus is more onto the true friendship between the 3 than the romance.
She's first in love with him, but it's one sided. Because 1 - he's in love since forever with someone else, 2 - their parents marry each others. But this love transforms into AN AMAZING FRIENDSHIP between the two. They will be each others confident, and really close <3
And then she begin to be really interested in Gen and here the love story. But it's only in the 4th volume (there's 7)^^
That's why it's more like Wao & Shima are the protagonists of the manga, because we follow each of their relationships.
_____________________________________________ END OF SPOILER
But when I saw the trailer, it's like it's a romantic triangle when THERE'S NO TRIANGLE!
The guys are adorable (no violent tsundere, they're both super sweet), and at the beginning she just really want to be their friends, without romantic feelings, and it's awesome.
It's that with just a bad synopsis it can be seen as unoriginal, but it's not at all like any other shojo manga.
You're talking like what you're saying isn't obvious.
It's a basic knowledge that China has a lot of people, and that their cinema industry is massive. Especially on an Asian site like MyDramaList, where people (just a little) interested in Asian cinema.
As a non-chinese person, who's living in a not-so-big country, who's not used to such massive amount of money for movies, I'm saying that those numbers are crazy high, and I'm impressed.
I know that you didn't understand what I was saying, and you though I was saying that China is a better country than others or something like that but no : I knew that those numbers are here because of the population, not because they make better movies, or people go to the theatre more. Doesn't change that those numbers are impressive, like China's population is impressive, or the numbers of votes on Idol producer was impressive...
But the "fun fact" don't seems really fun to me. ^^'
Your sister seems to be a difficult person to deal with… I can't even imagine my big brothers talking to me like that, even if they're extremely angry at me, they'll still let me talk…
Anyway, really nice article. Made me want to watch it. Maybe I'll binge-watch it, because like your mother and sister, I can understand japanese ;)
I really want to enjoy it... T^T
They're so many, that they don't do any work to be popular outside of China.
It's like for the MMORPGs, even if a game is a huge success in China, they won't try to sell the rights, or translate it, because they don't need it.
Same for movies & dramas, they don't try to do some promotions internationally.
It's a nightmare for all the international fans that can't speak chinese T^T (because there's not as much fansub as K-pop or K-dramas).
Chinese productions just don't care about the outside world, they make enough money just with China T^T
I always find it so sad that people discovered YamaKen through shojo adaptations. He began his career with small roles, mainly in thriller/police/mystery drama, and one of his first movie role is a murderer (I won't say which one because spoil ;)...
His best film is also one of his first : Control Tower.
And people are always saying he never did anything except shojo... Without even trying to search his filmography...
The first time I saw him was in Yowakutemo Katemasu (2014) as an extremely shy baseball club captain, then I watched his works from the beginning (2010) and was so surprised when his first drama role was a kid with serious anger management issues (I was used to the shy one, not the weird one) XD
But after the success of LDK they were making him film shojo after shojo, and his fans (the ones that follows him since his pre-shojo-era) are worried it's really ruining his skills. Even if you can give a performance with a shojo adaptation (Your Lie In April, Orange) or you can play very different characters (Black Prince & Wolf Girl =/= One Week Friend =/= Your Lie In April) it's still very "safe zone", and a lot don't really require a lot of acting chops.
I really hope he can escapes from all that and return to his career roots T^T
And he really began having more "not shojo" freedom : Rikuou, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K, and now A Forest Of Wood And Steel !!
PLEASE, let him continue like that, don't let him fall into the shojo world again. He's a really gifted actor, but shojo don't permit him to grow as an actor T^T
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Arata Mackenyu is good, too (and SO handsome). He doesn't have a lot of experience, but he never disappointed me.
Mugi is already a very good actress, she's more onto the "serious" world of Japanese cinema. That not a lot of international fans know. And she mainly do movies.
When she's in a drama, it's only as a quick guest character, so I was really surprised to see her as a main character in this show (and excited).
Araki Yuko is growing on me, she really has a presence on screen. Her character isn't that interesting, but my eyes are really drown to her (not just because she's drop dead gorgeous XD)
The funny thing is that even if the drama is badly acted, poorly scripted, and cheesy as hell, international fans will alway watch this over a more interesting non-rom-com drama.
And it's not linked to Japanese ratings because a lot of very popular j-dramas aren't really known from international fans.
Today, I feel the only thing people watch are: rom-com, or dramas with Yamapi.
Anyway, Tokyo Bandwagon is such amazing feel good drama, the background is amazing, from the streets to the old library. <3
And Buzzer Beat is such a good memory <3
The humor is always over-the-top, and the movie is very loyal to the original source, while being a good adaptation.
It's like the anime : it's loyal to the manga, but is an adaptation and makes others jokes that the manga can't really do (making fun of the animation studio, and its staff for example). The movie did the same.
And, of course, to enjoy a live-action, you usually need to already be used to japanese comedic acting (usually exaggerated and over-the-top).
Some people are shocked at the acting of japanese comedy and/or high-school drama/movie, and keep thinking that every single japan dramas/movies are like that. That japanese can't act and/or all their dramas/movies are like mangas. It's like watching some american sit-com and keep thinking that all american shows are like that.
A lot of actors in Gintama are amazing, heck, they got someone who won Best Lead Actor at Cannes Festival to play Hijikata. But it doesn't change that you will see over-the-top thing everywhere in this movie. It's a style of acting, and a lot of actors in Gintama can do both subtle & delicate, and exaggerated & over-the-top acting.
The lead of Gintama and I Want To Eat Your Pancreas is the same : Oguri Shun, and his style is very different in those 2 movies.
No one said bad things about japanese actors/actresses on this page as I write this comment, but I see those comments too often so I just wanted to say this ^^
The first one I watched was Umechan-sensei, and I fell in love with the concept. It's so rare to watch the whole life of a character. <3
After that I saw Amachan, Mare, Asa Ga Kita, Gochisousan, Toto Nee-chan, Beppin-san, and I'm trying to keep watching Hiyokko.
I never finished Amachan though, it was SO popular, and I was so excited to binge-watch it, but then I saw the first 50 episodes or so, and really wasn't into it. I didn't felt the heroine at all.
I can't seem to get into Hiyokko too, and when I'm thinking, maybe it's because I want "my" asadora to begin with "my" heroine's childhood? Idk, I don't know why I have a problem with Amachan and Hiyokko when I loved the others.
SPOILER
While reading the manga (and finishing it),I felt like it was more the story of the brother & sister and their relationship with their love interest. Even if Gen is a main character, I felt like the "protagonists" of the story were Wao and Shima, because we're a lot more inside their head, and they appear more too (especially in the first 4 volumes,but it seems the movie will skip everything that is not the romance)
END OF SPOILER
Best Japanese Movie of 2017: Gintama
Best Romance Drama: Kahogo No Kahogo
Best Comedy Drama: Rabuho no Ueno-san
Best Romantic/Comedy Drama: Tokyo Tarareba Musume
Best Family Drama: Rikuou
Best Action/Thriller/Suspense Drama: Shikaku Tantei Higurashi Tabito
Best Mystery Drama: 100-manen no Onna-tachi
Best First Episode of a Japanese Drama of 2017: Ima kara Anata wo Kyouhaku Shimasu
Best Manga/Anime Adaptation: Gintama
Best Medical Drama: Kounodori 2
Best Japanese Actor(and for which role?): Kamiki Ryunosuke (March Comes Like A Lion)
Best Japanese Actress(and for which role?): Takahata Mitsuki (Kahogo No Kahoko)
Best Japanese Supporting Actor(and for which role?): Yoshizawa Ryo (Gintama : Mitsuba Hen)
Best Japanese Supporting Actress(and for which role?): Toda Erika (Code Blue 3)
Best Up and Coming Actor of 2017(and for which role?): Murakami Nijiro (Mukoku)
Best Up and Coming Actress of 2017(and for which role?): Araki Yuko (100-manen no Onna-tachi)
Best Villain: Manabu (Tomodachi Game)
Best Idol Actor(or Actress): Arioka Daiki (Code Blue 3) for actor, Hashimoto Kanna (The Disastrous Life Of Saki K, Gintama) for actress
Best Couple: Takahata Mitsuki & Takeuchi Ryoma (Kahogo No Kahoko)
Best Bromance: Ayano Go & Oshiro Gen (Koundori 2) for bromance, Aragaki Yui & Toda Erika for sismance (Code Blue 3).
Best OST: HANABI by Mr.Children (Code Blue 3)
The difference between live action & manga.
Live action synopsis :
After her parents divorced, Sumitomo Shima lived with her mother. She felt uncomfortable living with her stepfather and she was unable to hang out with people at her high school. Shima decides to move to Hokkaido where her father lives. At her new high school in Hokkaido, she meets classmate Tatebayashi Gen and Sakurai Wao. They are the two most popular boys at her school. A principle of her school is that"Gen and Wao are for everyone." If anyone breaks the rule, that person will be ostracized. Sumitomo Shima gets closer to Gen and Wao.
Manga synopsis :
Somewhere along the way, life for high school teen Shima seemed to take a wrong turn. A fall-out with a friend in her all-girl’s school became fodder for nasty rumors, etching her name onto the school’s blacklist. Things at home aren’t looking any better. Her mother seems to be in love with the idea of being in love, and has a string of husbands to prove it. Shima has been silently putting up with her mother’s latest arm-candy, but with her friendships going down the drain, the pressure to escape and start anew has her craving for the bears and Yezo sika deers of her biological father’s hometown in Sapporo.
Especially Wao and Shima..
____________________________________________SPOILER
She's first in love with him, but it's one sided. Because 1 - he's in love since forever with someone else, 2 - their parents marry each others. But this love transforms into AN AMAZING FRIENDSHIP between the two. They will be each others confident, and really close <3
And then she begin to be really interested in Gen and here the love story. But it's only in the 4th volume (there's 7)^^
That's why it's more like Wao & Shima are the protagonists of the manga, because we follow each of their relationships.
_____________________________________________ END OF SPOILER
But when I saw the trailer, it's like it's a romantic triangle when THERE'S NO TRIANGLE!
The guys are adorable (no violent tsundere, they're both super sweet), and at the beginning she just really want to be their friends, without romantic feelings, and it's awesome.
It's that with just a bad synopsis it can be seen as unoriginal, but it's not at all like any other shojo manga.