Trouble-chan

Watch these two episodes and then the movie - these episodes were like the prequel and explain the beginnings of the story. The movie is the story itself and who she ultimately chooses. Hope that helps. :) PS its a really good story now it's all together. :D

Like Junypo and Jandi then in BoF - he got her almost gang raped, beaten up, her bike set on fire; covered in God knows what at said beating and then kidnapped just for knowing him and beaten again. Not to mention abandoning her repeatedly; his mother ruining her family and her best friend's - yet she STILL chose him instead of the wonderful Ji-Hoo........I will NEVER, EVER understand the women in such dramas. NEVER. *face wall* when face palming is just not enough.

I get it with Irie-kun (Itazura na Kiss) - there were times when I would've gutted him like day old mackerel with a song in my heart and a smile on my lips. BUT, and it's a pretty big one, I know people with Asperger's Syndrome and this IS how they honestly act. They genuinely don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings or make them angry; it's just who they are - and so I refrain from organising a lynch mob for Irie-kun.

I mean imagine living in a world where you have a high IQ (Intelligence Quota) and find studies easy and facts, figures, and books understandable because - like computers - they don't have those pesky emotions to deal with and NEVER change. They are an unchanging constant and you can rely on them to always be the same.

HOWEVER, you have ZERO EQ (Emotional Quota) - so you cannot understand body language, facial cues or tones of voice. Other people's emotions confuse the hell out of you, because you just don't get why saying a certain thing at a certain time should be important. Like saying I love you - why isn't once enough; they know, so why keep repeating it? Or just telling your significant other they can't love anyone but you - that spells it out surely?

Of course when YOU experience emotions such as love and jealousy it freaks you out and so your default reaction is just retreat and hide (internally; perhaps even externally too - retreat to bedroom and instead study/work) because it's just too much to deal with. So for me, whilst the Taiwanese was my favourite version, the Japanese one will always have a big place in my heart, just because of my friends. :)

Yup me too and this only reinforces my need to learn Japanese and Korean. :)

Eguchi Yusuke AND Saito Takumi!! Drama HEAVEN. ;)

My three favourite Japanese actors are best friends? I think I just died and went to heaven. :) I loved 'Lady Girls' because it had my fourth favourite actor in it, Saito Takumi. The screen lit up when he and Saito were on screen together - they stole the show right there, EVERY time. :)

However 'Brain Man' was just so brilliant on every level - right amount of gore, violence and suspense; the fact he was in it too was just the icing on a very tasty cake. Any weak parts (there were only a couple) he managed to carry without even letting on he was doing so. Epic actor.

My absolute favourite of the four though has to be Takenouchi Yutaka - I just adored him in everything he's been in; but most especially 'Mou Ichido Kimi ni, Propose' and 'Nagareboshi'. Now if all FOUR of these actors could work together I would be happy to die right there!! XD

What about Saito Takumi? The guy is an excellent actor and steals every scene he's in. Plus he's not too shabby to look at and he comes across as a sweetie in interviews - what's not to love.

Oh my stars you are SO right on that - I kept watching to see if it got better, or at least intelligible. It didn't - bless his heart, I swear he looked embarrassed in the end!! XD

ikr? You're left wondering if you blinked or even fell asleep and missed a chunk of it.

Oh my stars, I'd forgotten that move - oh that one is usually so sweet too.... AWWW......yup, I usually get a stab in the feels whenever any one of them do this...

I think Healer had some of THE best kisses I've seen. Though Falling for Innocence had a nice one amid the traffic. It's really hard to pick the best - as the article so rightly points out the dramas have this list so well done that there's not really a way to pick a clear favourite. :)

Likewise - I swore I'd wait until this was completed before watching but, like Koe Koi, I got sucked in the first episode I watched 'just to see' and since then I've gradually been skipping as much of Hye Ji as I can - her expressionless face and bunny boiler clinging is too much and I just want to punch her until my arm (or her head) falls off......she's such a pointless character in this because no one's ACTUALLY watching her unless they like the actress.

Sometimes it's not ALL about looks though, sometimes it's the personality too. That's really what all the boys, especially Ji Woon, love about Ha Won. The only way Hye Ji will ever be as pretty on the inside as Ha Won is if someone invents edible make up.

I cried so much at this - the last episode had me sobbing by the last scene.... T-T

This is like Ha Ri in 'She was Pretty' - SHE was the 'bad guy' yet she played the victim and basically guilt tripped Hye Jin into refusing to be more than friends with Seong Joo for at least 3 episodes! it drove me nuts; I just wanted to punch EVERYONE in the end because they were all so nice to her (though Seong Joon came to his senses). She was so selfish and narcissistic and yet everyone acted like she was this poor little kitten. I loathed her and couldn't understand why I was supposed to feel sorry for her too.

I first saw him in Haunters and I found his character actually incredibly sad - as the other main lead character said "if we'd met under different circumstances perhaps we could've been friends" - Kang Dong Won's character was betrayed, abused and brutalised all his life - so it was hard NOT to at least sympathise with his plight. Perhaps if those around him had taught him to control his power then things would've been better; if they hadn't abused him when he was a child he may not have been as angry, filled with hate and a need for revenge when he grew into a man.

I think the same can be said for the other character he played where - although the worst of the worst - you still felt sympathy for him. This was the movie Kundo : Age of the Rampant, where he played the character Jo Yoon; again as a child his character was treated terribly and was also abused and which went on to twist him into a really terrible person. When you hear him speaking to his father I couldn't help it, I really cried for him because you could see in that moment how different he could've been and even he acknowledges it. He also did still have moments of humanity when some compassion showed through (however briefly and rare they were).

I know many abuse victims grow into wonderful adults and manage to come to terms with their past; but not everyone is able to do that and it seems that both these roles show what can happen to those who do not move past the feelings of betrayal, hatred and need for revenge......

He really is one of my favourite actors because even his 'bad guy' roles are never played as two dimensional villains; he always adds a depth to them that makes you think perhaps, just perhaps, they may have had a different path if certain things hadn't happened.....

I really don't think you could say Irie-kun from the Japanese version of Itazura na Kiss became a 'doting, ever forgiving husband (and father)' nor could you reall say he was 'a ring-buying, kiss-stealing charmer' unless you were REALLY drunk......perhaps not even then. But, as I truly believe he had a form of Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism) and did genuinely love Kotoko (and later his daughter) even if he rarely showed it - then I still root for him! lol! However for the biggest turn around in the various versions of the character was the Taiwanese one - by the end of the second season he had genuinely thawed completely.....<3

I love the dramas - regardless of the country of origin - but I do laugh at the women; the men treat them like dirt, even physically pushing them around in some cases and they STILL stay with them. Most women would kick him in his.....ahem...'sensitive' area and stalk off with their head high and mutterings of how he is a motherless moron flung over their shoulder as they leave. But dramaland women are, seemingly, a strange lot! XD

Wait I thought they were doing a season 3 with the ORIGINAL couple to be released next year? Has that fallen through now or are they doing BOTH?

I have watched a few long ones - but I will say this NOT ONE has NEEDED to be that long. Whether 40 or 120 episodes most of those could get away with 16 or 20 (or 25 for the REALLY long ones). There's so MANY episodes that are basically 'padding' that they could be dropped and NO ONE would even NOTICE. So I watch them and just skip the 'filler' episodes and get back to the story. It's one way to attack your kryptonite.... ;)