Let me tell yah.....

I write about things like Kdramas, Chinese Dramas, Japanese Dramas, Kpop or Jpop... and maybe even give weird quizzes....

[ptaj83]

KPOP Songs that are hitting a little different  because of 2020

In these last few weeks of 2020 and with part 2 of lockdown here, certain songs are hitting a little different...  I was like everyone listening to BTS “Life Goes On” and again for some of us 2020 has been rough both mentally and physically.  Some of us has been adhering to social distance and mask wearing cause we wanted to prevent the spread but also some of us have either lost our jobs, are doing online school or something else..

Mentally its been exhausting and yeah a lot of people myself included had a nose dive.... so while listening to BTS, I remembered the song “Magic Shop”, because like the song, we all need a place to just feel alright with everything going around us. Its a song about doing the best for you and I hate to say it but its really resonating because we are all trying to just get through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNESJGyH9RE&ab_channel=BTSLIVESUBS

Twice “Feel Special”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ymwOvzhwHs&ab_channel=JYPEntertainment

Loco “Can’t Sleep”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0gZnxJ5U6c&ab_channel=AOMGOFFICIAL

Epik High “Over”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwKiGy2A_nU&ab_channel=sminkle

Red Velvet “Psycho”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR8Mrt1IpXg&ab_channel=SMTOWN

Shinee “Our Page”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psl-x_nw7TI&ab_channel=SMTOWN

[ptaj83]

I can’t believe it.... this was the first Taiwanese drama I saw..... found it on youtube

[ptaj83]

Help me choose my next Drama Rewatch???

1.  Hana Yori Dango 

2.   Lie to Me

3.  Hotel Del Luna  

4.  Goong

5.  Hana Kimi

Leave a comment on which of the five I should do next?

[ptaj83]

Who knows the answer to these questions?

How many Meteor Shower/ Hana Yori Dango / Boys over Flower has there been?

What are the character names in Korean?

What was the theme song for Hana Yori Dango?

Which F4 ended up being a full on boy band?

[ptaj83]

Instead of listening to Savage Love BTS remix.... I recommend this very sweet song featuring Suga..

[ptaj83]

BL dramas

I have watched a few BL or boy love dramas from japan but apparently I have been missing out..... A few people recommended this Thai BL drama called Love by Chance to me and it has two seasons, and I’m watching the first season it’s 14 episodes.

Story is about Pete and Ae, who met because of a bicycle accident.  Pete is gentle soul that knows his gay and is seriously downplaying it because well you know.  He met Ae when he was almost ran over by Ae’s bike and a friendship struck.  The issue with Pete is that because he is in the closet he has been taken advantage of by people around him.  Meeting Ae was a great moment for Pete because Ae was a friend when he felt alone but you know feelings happen.  Ae protects and takes care of Pete but also introduces him to new friends.  However this isn’t a one sided love because Ae starts to feel for Pete in a more than friends kind of way.  

Its a coming of age story but with the whole coming out and being open about who you love.  Pete knows how it is to be gay and the hardships, his had people blackmail him because he is gay.  Ae has to reconcile his feelings for Pete and whether this is a love worth the hardship for. 

I enjoyed watching this drama, it reminds me of some BL mangas I have read.  Falling in love is not easy and this drama shows that being with the right person is worth it.  They are not overtly dramatic but rather it felt like how a relationship progresses.

If anyone has any other recommendations, leave a comment...

[ptaj83]

Nostalgia

When I first became the asian drama addict, cause lets face it I don’t discriminate between Kdramas, JDramas and Cdramas.  At the moment I have found some of the dramas that are lost to me because my old external hard drive from 2005-2012 broke and it was the one I made specifically to host all my drama videos.  

When streaming wasn’t a thing in the mid 2000s, I had to download torrents of dramas and use VLC player for them.  Recently found eight dramas that I was like oh wow, this was on that drive, and wanted to see them again...

So far My Girl, Devil Beside You. Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang, Nodame, Gokusen have been watched and I have to say I miss Nodame and Yankumi a lot.  I have also been looking for my old drama dvds that are somewhere in my house.   

My next binge will be Hana Yori Dango since I finally watched the sequel with new characters but setting in Eitoku.

What are some of your oldies but a goodie dramas? 

[ptaj83]

Savage Love----- drama

Woke up today with Jason Derulo being canceled and I’m like yeah who cares.  His song Savage Love hit #1 on Billboard but the drama is due to the fact that it was BTS’s remix that went to the top not his alone but he claimed it as his victory.  My issue with Jason Derulo and Savage Love started when he found the beat on Tik Tok from a polynesian teen tik toker and then added lyrics and claimed it as his without giving credit to the teen until he was called out.

However, the song was popular but BTS was part of the remix that came out a couple of weeks ago that shot to the top due to ARMY.  When Savage Love became number one, Derulo threw a party with Hype House that cost over 100 thousand dollars, during a pandemic when we are supposed to be social distancing, but I digress.  He partied and gave a shout out to Big Hit but not BTS directly.  Of course this is causing drama he doesn’t seem to understand fandoms and it wasn’t until he was trending negatively did he finally gave credit to the boys...

My thoughts on this as the original artist he can claim victory but if he was a smart and humble man he would share it with the collaborators that got him to the top.  Not going to lie the only reason I even knew Savage Love was due to the Siren Beat from Tik Tok and I only downloaded it because of BTS and Jungkook saying fuck.  Like dude the maknae  is saying “fuck” in english like wow.  Also in the last six months Jason Derulo has had two Kpop collabs...  The other was the song “Let’s Shut Up and Dance” with NCT 127 and Lay...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvu4nPMyl3U&ab_channel=BANGTANTV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBWgqb3KIeA&ab_channel=JasonDerulo

[ptaj83]

It Started With A Kiss, Mischievous Kiss or Playful Kiss

Itanazura Kiss or It Started with a Kiss is a japanese manga written by Kaoru Tada turned anime and drama.  I am a big fan of Kotoko and Naoki’s love story, that starts with Kotoko who has had a massive crush on Naoki the resident hot genius of the school a love letter.  He took it and then corrected it cause it was filled with errors and he doesn’t like her at all and then fate/ her house falling down on her changed their fates.

I started reading Itazura Na Kiss in the early 2000s and its one of my favorite Shoujo mangas.   Kotoko and Naoki are two polar opposites from personality to intelligence, their love wasn’t simple.  They had very supportive parents and friends who help them figure out their love and even their lives.  Its a coming of age story as well as it shows Kotoko and Naoki from high school to adulthood.  Its a favorite because as a rom com addict the antics that Kotoko ends up being entangled in because of her lover for Naoki  are highly amusing.  A surprise for me was Naoki’s mom, she isn’t your typical mom who pushes her kids to do her bidding, she tries and she can be overbearing but in a comedic way.  I love watching all these dramas, even if admitting I saw the taiwanese one in 2005 makes me old.

The first incarnation of this manga was the Taiwanese Drama It Started with a Kiss and its sequel They Kissed again in 2005.  The Taiwanese drama starred Ariel Lin as Yuan Xiang Qin (Kotoko) and Joe Chen as Jiang Zhi Shu. I also enjoyed Jiro Wang’s character.  For the mid 2000s idol drama this was cute and gave a happy ending.  It has been remade again in Taiwan recently but I haven’t seen it yet.

The second incarnation I saw was the Korean one from 2010 called “Playful Kiss”.  It tells the same story as the Taiwanese one but with some changes, and I felt like Kim Hyun-joong’s portrayal of Baek Seung-Jo had that cool detachment gave him a more cool persona.  

The Mischievous Kiss is the recent Japanese incarnation of Itanazura na Kiss from 2013.  There was a Itazura Na Kiss drama from the 90s that was nine episode but didn’t really follow the story closely.  This version from 2013 and the sequel in 2015 gave you Kotoko and Naoki from high school love to adulthood.  I liked the potrayal of Kinnosuke in this one.  

[ptaj83]

What’s your Current Jam?

For me it depends on the moment... I am loving the Black Pink’s and Cardi B’s “Bet you Wanna”....  Also Jay Park’s “Yacht” mainly to move around in the house.  

[ptaj83]

MV of Say Yes

I started doing a couple of rewatches and this was on my list because its been 4 years since I have seen this drama and I recall it being tragic or me being salty about it.  I was listening to this song in particular and I was like why?  

So I started watching it and the ending was what made me so salty.

Synopisis from Wikipedia:

-During a total solar eclipse, a 25-year-old 21st-century woman, Go Ha-jin (Lee Ji-eun), is transported back in time to the Goryeo Dynasty. She wakes up in the year of 941 in the body of Hae Soo, among the many royal princes of the ruling Wang family during the reign of King Taejo. She initially falls in love with the gentle and warm-hearted 8th Prince Wang Wook (Kang Ha-neul), and later Wang So (Lee Joon-gi), the fearsome 4th Prince who hides his face behind a mask and is given the derogatory label of "wolf dog". As the story develops, Hae Soo finds herself unwittingly caught up in palace politics and the rivalry among the princes as they fight for the throne. -

I highly recommend this drama, for the first few episodes dealt with her fish out of water and her budding friendship with the princes that she is meeting.  It had an amazing cast that included IU and Lee Joon Gi as the leads.  I told a friend be prepared to cry there are parts that are heartbreaking...

The ending was what made me totally salty.  I didn’t want to write it since I’m trying to keep it spoiler free.... However, if you have seen it  drop me a comment and we can chat about it.

[ptaj83]

Who am I?

Well name is Jan and I’ve been watching these dramas for over 15 years, and been listening to Kpop since first gen of HOT and SES. I still have my Shinhwa greatest hits album from the early 2000s.  

I got started on listening to Kpop because of the now obsolete thanks to streaming, International Channel.  I am a transplant from Manila to the US and at midnight on Saturday/Sundays I was able to watch variety shows from the homeland but before hand I was able to watch Kpop music videos... 

Again thanks to the International Channel I was able to watch Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean dramas in the late 90s and early 2000s.  I can’t really pinpoint when I started watching Asian dramas but its been a while.  I can’t remember my first drama but I can remember that when youtube started and they only allowed up to ten minute videos, I had to watch dramas in segments which looking back kinda sucked but it was the only way.

I wanted to start this page because I’ve been watching a whole lot more drama and have had friends ask me for recommendations and what not...