Hanako to Anne

NHK連続テレビ小説「花子とアン」は2014年３月31日よりスタートであります。花子さんは同じ女性としてとても感情移入しやすくて……わかるわかる、とニヤリとしてしまう所などもあってわくわく見てしまいます。http://t.co/F3qnDh2tss
— 梶浦由記 Yuki Kajiura (@Fion0806) March 11, 2014

I wanted to write about this when Kajiura Yuki tweeted about it on the 11th Mar but I was just unable to take time out to update the blog then.  Now that I have some time, I think I'll do a quick post about it since it's looking increasingly unlikely that I will be able to write about Ieiri Leo's "a boy" album, a band (called Karasu 鴉 ) that I just re-discovered and the experience of watch 3 Ghibli movies on the big screen last week. :)

Some time ago, it was announced that Kajiura Yuki will write the bgm for NHK's new asadora starring Yoshitaka Yuriko.  On the 11th Mar, Kajiura Yuki tweeted that the series will start airing on the 31st of Mar.  The website for that asadora is also already up and there is a PV for it.  The opening theme song is by Ayaka and isn't written by Kajiura Yuki.  That should be the song that's playing under the PV.

I would of course have loved it if Kalafina or FictionJunction sang the theme song but I don't think they're kind of music is really asadora theme song material, sadly. :(  Ayaka's a great singer... just doesn't usually sing the kind of songs that I like which is why don't buy her stuff... but I will most likely buy the OST for this series because it's Kajiura Yuki.  I'll most likely buy the 3rd OST for the Rekishi Niwa Historia tv documentary series next month.... although I am struggling between getting that and this ufotable release.

source

This looks like it might be an awesome artbook to own.... so many decisions. :P

Anyway, I am looking forward to this series, not just because Kajiura Yuki writes the music but also because I quite like Yoshitaka Yuriko who's the lead actress in this series.  Hopefully, I will be able to watch it. :)

Okay... time for bed... I took longer than I wanted over these posts. :)

Good night!! :)

Mail Order Rocks!

Lately it seems that all I've been doing is working and it didn't help that the first thing I see after I checked my email today is a thinly veiled personal attack on my apparent lack of taste because I had nothing good to say about a TVB series called "Steps" and because I dared to actually suggest that Chen Fala was NOT devoid of acting ability in said series. Strangely the person who left me that comment actually seemed to think that I would find it immature that they didn't leave a name other than "anonymous". Shouldn't my only logical reaction be to react to the immaturity of the content of the message and not the fact that someone left me a message signed with an unverified nickname or name?

I know I shouldn't be surprised that I might attract this kind of comments from time to time and I suppose I've been lucky that there haven't been more as I'm often not kind to series that I find terrible. I suppose the lack of such comments in spite of my trashing of several TVB series in my blog has lulled me into a false sense of security. Sigh... it must be one of those days... =(

Anyway, in order to chase the blues away, I thought I would just ramble a bit about my new obsessions, Matsushima Nanako, Japanese dramas and learning Japanese. =)



Now as you guys who know me well know, I'm simply terrible when I get obsessed. I was like that with Ada Choi for a while and now it's the same with Matsushima Nanako. And like it was with Lau Ching Wan, Moon Lee, Jade Leung and Ada Choi, I've set out to try and watch everything Nanako has ever been in. Now I failed with Lau Ching Wan simply because the man's filmography is like ridiculously long and a lot of it is quite un-watchable, so much so that even I the crazy completist cannot find the strength to continue the struggle, so I gave up. =) Thankfully, Nanako's filmography is only a fraction of Lau Ching Wan's and is mostly filled with quality work and so I have had little trouble watching most of it. The most difficult part right now isn't the watching, it's the getting.



After a great deal of effort, I've managed to acquire almost everything that Nanako has been in and today I added a very difficult to find title to my collection. =) The best part of today was to find in my mailbox, the dvd of 「加賀百万石 母と子の戦国サバイバル」 (kaga hyaku man seki ~ haha to ko no sengoku sabaibaru ~ ). =) Sadly, this made for tv title doesn't have any English subtitles but I'm happy to get it nonetheless. See... told you I'm a nutty completist. =)

I can't really figure out the exact dates this particular story is set in since it's in Japanese with no English subtitles and my knowledge of the Japanese language is quite sad at the moment. What I can figure out though is this, this telemovie is set in the Sengoku era in Japan's history and seems to concentrate on Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Maeda Toshiie and Maeda Matsu's twilight years. If you're a Jdorama fan, you would most likely have watched, or at the very least know of, this popular and highly rated series called Toshiie and Matsu (利家とまつ). This series which stars Nanako as Maeda Matsu also has in its cast some of her generation's most popular and talented stars.



There are a few points of interest if you're a Nanako or Toshiie and Matsu fan. It might amuse you to watch the young Nanako play the proud Lady Yodo in this telemovie. This telemovie was made in 1999 and Nanako played 淀殿 , also known as Cha Cha or Lady Yodo, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's concubine and Lord Oda Nobugana's niece. Who would have known then that 3 years later, in 2002, she would go on to portray with greater success the wise Matsu of the powerful Maeda Clan. Lady Yodo doesn't feature much in either Toshiie and Matsu or "kaga hyaku man seki ~ haha to ko no sengoku sabaibaru ~ ". At the time she made this telemovie, I don't think anyone knew then that she would become one of the most famous and popular Japanese drama actress of her generation.

Another point of interest is that Takashima Masahiro who plays Maeda Toshinaga really looks like the same guy who played Tokugawa Ieyasu in Toshiie and Matsu. Now if only I understand Japanese, I'm currently 10 or so episodes away from finishing Toshiie and Matsu and it would be interesting to be able to compare how they each portray the events of that time.

Wow, it's already 2:40am... sigh... will need to sleep now. Too bad, maybe next time I'll have enough time to give a brief comment on the other Nanako series I've seen and also talk about Jdoramas on the whole and maybe even touch on this other TVB series I finished watching during Chinese New Year

Anyway, that's it for now... good night. =)

Matsushima Nanako

First let me wish all you guys 新年おめでとうございます (Shinnen omedetou gozaimasu), Happy New Year to all of you and may the new year bring you much joy.

My interest in Anime and video games led me to this wonderful Japanese drama called Nodame Cantabile. A drama I went into somewhat rambling detail about how much I love it, love classical music and how much I love the cast in particular Ueno Juri (上野 樹里) and Tamaki Hiroshi (玉木 宏). As a result, I decided to sign up for a Japanese language class in the hopes that one day I might be proficient enough that I would be able to watch anime and jdorama without relying on English subtitles.

Then Poh Kim, one of Singapore's largest dvd/vcd distributors, began importing tons of Japanese dramas into Singapore and I decided to get a couple of them.

What I definitely didn't bargain for is my new current obsession. It has consumed all my free time and now all I do is watch Japanese dramas. =)

For the longest time, I had this impression that jdoramas were weepy affairs or highly exaggerated melodramatic dramas and hence, I had very little real interest in watching them. This is mostly due to the strong impressions that Oshin and old Yamaguchi Momoe (山口百恵) series left on me when I was a child.


Matsushima Nanako, Inoue Mao and Matsumoto Jun

As a result, I almost missed out on Matsushima Nanako (松嶋菜々子), Takenouchi Yutaka (竹野内豊), Inoue Mao (井上真央) and Matsumoto Jun (松本潤). But by far my most favourite Japanese actor of all time right now is Matsushima Nanako.


Matsushima Nanako

She ranks right up there with my Ada Choi Siu Fun obssession and like with Ada, I have tried tracking down as many of Nanako's series and films as possible. The likelihood of me ever getting my hands on all of them is very slim as some of Nanako's series are quite old but those that I've managed to get my hands on have only increased my regard for one of the best Asian actresses I've ever watched. Unlike Ada, who in my opinion didn't manage to attain the level of regard she should have as one of the best actresses of her generation in Hong Kong, Nanako is loved by many Japanese and scores of Asians and I am one of them.

While I would love to wax lyrical about Hana Yori Dango 1 & 2 (Inoue Mao and Matsumoto Jun were fantastic and Nanako looked lovely) and how divine Nanako was in Majo no Jouken, Bijo ka Yajiuu, Koori no Sekai, GTO, I really need to go as I would like to try and watch as much of Yamato Nadeshiko as possible before the avalanche of work hits when work begins tomorrow.

Someday, maybe I will go into greater detail on just how wonderful Nanako's acting is. Here's hoping that Nanako will continue to act even though she gave birth to her second daughter with husband Sorimachi Takeshi in Nov 2007. She's been working a lot less since her marriage to Sorimachi and I would be really sad if she decides not to work completely anymore. =( I read some where that there is suppose to be a Hana Yori Dango movie which will go into production in January of this year and Nanako will have a small part in it if she recovers in time. If she makes it into the cast for this movie, I would be in 7th Heaven. =)

Okie dokes... am off to watch more Nanako and I leave you with these youtube videos of a series of Nintendo DS =) commercials featuring the still stunning Nanako. =)





cheers =)

Jdorama - Nodame Cantabile

Cast of Nodame Cantabile

I think you can easily tell from the title that I've been bitten by the Japanese drama series bug. And although I've neglected this blog because I've been really busy with work, I just felt I needed to write about this series, so here you go... =)

Aside from HK's TVB dramas, some of the stuff made by Mediacorp Singapore and a few Mainland Chinese series, I really don't watch any other types of series made by the Asian TV industries. Even then, the last Jdorama I watched was Shomuni 1, 2 and 3 which I really enjoyed but I was never truly into Jdorama's since I wasn't able to get good recommendations to the kind of Japanese dramas I liked.

How I came upon Nodame Cantabile is actually a little unusual and makes a mildly amusing story. =) Since Elite Beat Agents on the Nintendo DS, I have been hooked on rhythm games and hunted down Ouendan 1 & 2 just so I could play them. In the process of looking for more rhythm games to play on my NDS, I came upon Nodame Cantabile. While EBA and Ouendan used songs from popular music, Nodame Cantabile differed from them because it used only classical music.

Now I really like classical music and my familiarity with it made playing Nodame Catabile the NDS game a breeze. But what made me really fall for the game was the quirky girl that kept showing up in the story parts. In this game, one takes the role of a conductor and tries to conduct a musical piece by taping or performing movements on the touch-pad with the stylus. This quirky girl didn't seem to have too much to do with the music parts but she kept showing up and even though I didn't have a clue what they were saying to each other, I pretty much figured out she lived in a messy room and made a lot of cute quirky sounds. Now it sounds silly but I for some reason, really liked her character in the game.

So just last week I was in TS video shop when I saw Nodame Cantabile the TV series being sold on DVD. I didn't even have a clue then that Nodame Cantabile was first a manga before it was made into a hit TV series, an anime series and a video game. For some strange reason, I was drawn to the series and the prospect of finding out just exactly what this quirky girl with the funny expressions story was and so I bought the series.

What I definitely didn't expect was just how wonderful this series turned out to be. The series has a cast of quirky characters that are not just for laughs but who influence each other and the story, giving this series depth and warmth. This series is heartwarming without being maudlin. The exaggerated manga/anime-ish moments are also well thought out as they aren't use merely for laughs but also to take off some of the edge of the serious moments so that the series isn't weighed down by melodrama. The background music is mostly comprised of classical music which is very well used and the music is so striking that I do consider the music to be one of the stars of this series. Many of the orchestra performances are also very nicely setup and really do bring across just how grand and moving a live performance can be.

It really helped that this series was very well cast and although Ueno Juri isn't the lead in this series, she played Noda Megumi with so much passion, energy and charm, and so perfectly that without her, I don't think Nodame Cantabile would have been superb series that it is. That's not to say that Tamaki Hiroshi who plays Chiaki Shinichi the protagonist in this series was bad. He was really good too. He was very convincing as the arrogant, very talented and at the beginning very self-absorbed music student. And Tamaki Hiroshi needed to be good because even though this series is titled Nodame Cantabile, the series isn't about Nodame (aka Noda Megumi). Although it is Nodame's love for music and life that influences Chiaki Shinichi and changes him, the story is really about him, his growth as a person and a musician and how the influences of not only Nodame but also Mine, Masumi and a hold host of other people help him to in turn influence them and others to seek out the best in themselves.


Eita as Mine Ryutaro and Mizukawa Asami as Miki Kiyora

Other notable characters and actors in this cast are Eita (plays Mine Ryutaro - violin), Koide Keisuke (Okuyama Masumi - timpani) and my personal favourite among the secondary cast, Mizukawa Asami (plays Miki Kiyora - violin). And yes, the only reason for this paragraph is because I just had to mention them. =) Truth is a lot of the supporting cast is very good, suitably cast and quite memorable.


Support cast

If you love classical music and heartwarming stories about love and friendship, then I urge you to check out Nodame Cantabile the TV series, it is that good. =)

cheers
p.s. now I'll have to hunt down the manga and the anime. =)