NEWSbluriishh’s Neighborhood

Here are some promotional posters of the 3 leads from The Slingshot/Story of a Man/남자이야기.

Below are the two main songs played in the drama. I translated one because the final line kept resounding in me as I watched the drama. How I wished that Yong Ha sang for the drama! =/

PHEW! I had totally forgotten about 紅白歌合戦 until 15mins ago, when I started to clear space for the impending JE Countdown download. So, frantically I switched on the tv and checked the 紅白 website to check up if I have missed Arashi already. Mika Nakashima was singing, so, I was just 6 songs from Arashi! PHEW! Choohh lucky.

Mika's fringe was odd...and her dress made her at least 5 years older. Oh well....I still prefer NANA Mika.

And then, YUZU! With my favourite song aitai, supposedly written for his father. I really liked the contrast during their performance. The stage looked really grand with bright lights and royal-looking decorations. But there they were, two man in front of standing mics, singing and playing the guitar. They looked so bare. I loved their harmony. XD

Now, waiting for Arashi! I'm kinda sad that I missed TOKIO though. =S Nvm...Kobukuro is after Arashi, so at least I have 2 groups to watch. My wish fulfilled! Them, on tv!

[EDIT]

HAHA! My gf saw me camping in front of the tv. "Are you watching this?" he asked, refering to the enka-looking singer on tv.

"No, mine is coming up in 10 mins. I'm gonna watch for 5 mins and you can switch channels after that."

"Arashi?"

haha!! I was totally beaming when they appeared!

My gosh, I loved their costumeS. The first one was red...at first I thought it was pink, a shade deeper than Kitto Daijyoubu's. Demo, I think it's red. I liked how during Happiness they started to go wild a la concerts. Jun even leaped (literally leaped) off the stage and go up close to the audience, shaking hands, smiling, bowing...KAWAII...like an over-excited kid at his birthday party. At that moment, it felt like an Arashi concert. Sasuga Arashi! Maybe it's just me, but compared to the other perf I saw (Mika Nakashima, Yuzu, Koda Kumi), the camera shoots seemed to become more wild and excited along with Arashi, with a lot of wide zooms and sudden close ups.

But the thing I loved most was right before they started singing Believe. As Happiness ended, they went to the upper stage, where they were engulfed by thick smoke. At first, I was going to throw the remote control because it seemed like they were going off stage just like that. But no. After the smoke dissipated, they emerged again! This time, in line with Believe, they had changed into silver suits! And as the camera panned from above, I couldn't spot their red costumes. O.o I didn't even see any holes in the ground. They changed really fast, like within..3~4 secs! haha.. Concert-trained! But it was strange that they only sang one song after the costume change. =S

So, all in all they sang A.RA.SHI, Wish, Happiness and Believe in a medley.

As Nino said after the perf, it'll be great if they returned next year!

Oh, during the short talk, a male fan actually shouted out to them, and Nakai-san was like, other than female fans, Arashi has a lot of male fans too. True ne! That's our Arashi for you. They have the substance besides the face. =)

It's out!

1st	With a median of 9, the first place winner is: The Perfect Christmas Date By karened
3rd	With a median of 8 (mean: 7.3), the third place winner is: Myeong Dong and Mistletoes By karened

I'm super duper happy! But as I've read all the entries, I think I was just lucky. I have wrote so dilligently since Fungyi. Maybe I will stick to one-shots for now. I never managed to do one-shots but full fanfics usually need alot of determination and perserverance, especially if readers are mainly silent. But as I used to write stories independent of a drama, it was hard to flesh out the characters and their background within a one-shot. 

Below are my entries for both short and long fics.

Myeong Dong and Mistletoes (Long fic. Pairing: none. Avg rating: 7.3)
The Perfect Christmas Date (Long fic. Pairing: TKMN. Avg rating: 8.5)
A Gift For... (Short fic. airing: none. Avg rating: 6.4)

And one more, that precedes all the fics (the fics make minute references to each other).
"She was wearing his shirt."

Lastly, just for reference, the wonderful graphics contest.

Will It Snow For Christmas.

What an irony.

I was 90% through ep 8 and was thinking how the supposed-to-be angst-filled ep unfolded quite nicely and captured my heart without being overdramatic. And then, the ending of the ep, which I had expected given the scene set-up, started to push things downhill.

Kang Jin kisses Woo Jung in front of Ji Wan because he recalled Tae Jun's accusation that if he doesn't let go first, Ji Wan will continue to hold on even if it means death (as she develops illness from feeling too guilty). Seeing that, Ji Wan leaves, heartbroken. But she doesn't see the tears that wells up in Kang Jin's eyes and how they fell down his cheeks after she left. In a voiceover:

I dreamed a dream. In that dream, I met Ji Wan. In that dream, I made Ji Wan a promise, that I won't let go of her again. That I won't be that foolish like back during our San Cheong days.

Such bittersweet words.

And then, the preview destroyed it all.

With Kang Jin's new, Kiiroi Namida era hairstyle.
With hints that Kang Jin and Woo Jung collaborated in accepting bribery and plotting against Tae Jun.
With Kang Jin and Woo Jung looking like they got together.

It doesn't really make sense and I hope that it's just the PD trying to mislead. I mean, given Woo Jung's character, I don't think she would dabble with anything underhand. And if Kang Jin did something of that sort, ep 8's "Because he's (Kang Jin) honest and honerable" wouldn't make sense. Ok, now upon thinking through, I think the preview  is misleading. I hope. But why is Kang Jin's hairstyle so different? Even Woo Jung's hairstyle looks different. I think there might be a time leap. If so, then perhaps it's possible for the two's character to change...T.T I hope not, or I might just drop this drama. Just as I was starting to really like Woo Jung and Kang Jin. haizzz

I had a late Christmas celebration with my Arashi family (excluding dear Mrs Ohno who has left for Indonesia) today  at the KTV. And it was basically an Arashi matsuri! SantArashi came to the room and piled on the table tons of un/official photos, keychains, calculators, photobooks, the 5x10 Best clips dvd, My girl singles, newspapers detailing Arashi's claim in the Oricon charts, fanclub letters, fanclub anniversary gift, My girl photobook and many more. XD I think this ktv session was wasted as we spent like 30% of the time squealing over all the Arashi goodness on the table.

I went in late and was told that my friends were in Room 39, all the way at the back. But as I headed for the back, it felt wrong as it seemed to be leading to the storeroom/toilets. At that instant, I heard an Arashi song. Yes?No?. So I turned back and walked towards the source of the song, one of the ktv rooms, and wanted to head right in. But as I reached the door (which was mainly transparent glass), I saw that the people inside weren't them. I hesitated, and then looked around for Room 39, and found them, bringing them them news that the people next door were sing an Arashi song. I wondered if they saw the My girl photobook I was carrying by my side when I walked past their room. XD In between songs, during the brief periods of silence, we opened the door and eavesdropped on what the other room was singing. All Arashi songs!! HAHA it was so fun picking up bits and pieces of the song and guessing its title! So, confirmed! Arashi fans they are. Still in a very high mood, I suggested popping over to say hi. XD But in the end, I didn't want to disturb them and so settled for singing as loud as possible in hopes that they will catch on what we realised. And when I went out to order a drink, I brought the My girl photobook along. XD

Later, as we flipped through the pages, we realised that some songs such as Niji, wasn't listed. So, after a lot of hesitation, I went over to ask. Ok, it really was an excuse to say hi. But I really wanted to sing Niji!! I walked over, looked in, and turned away immediately. Because I saw a mini Sho uchiwa in a clear box file, facing right at the door!!!!!!! HAHA! But with the company of Angel, I knocked onto their door and asked about Niji. In the end, we started to exchange songs. We had managed to find some newer songs eg Ashita no Kioku, and had wrote them down on a piece of paper, which we shared with them. XD And then we exchanged cyber contacts, talked abit about our ichibans, and left. It turned out that they had purposely put Sho's uchiwa at the door. LOL! And they heard us singing Carnival Night Part 2. Gosh!

I had recently experienced some not-so-friendly Arashi fans, the first time in the past 4 years, but today's incident helped me get over the disappointment. Arashi does bring people together. =)

[EDIT] Their account here.

I just heard that Arashi's gonna be this year's Countdown's MC again.

Well, who else but the group that made this their year?

YES! That means alot of Arashi this year too!

Screencapped these pictures from the Will It Snow For Christmas SBS site. I had expected the website to play a drama theme in the background because there are many instrumentals that suit the Christmasy theme. But surprisingly, the website had no background music. I even turned my speakers' volume to maximum to check! Btw, I was translating ep 5 when this new insert song played. The voice sounded really familiar, and when I searched for the lyrics to do a translation, I realised the beautiful voice belongs to Heo Young Saeng from SS501!! XD

You should visit the website just to see how beautiful it is done up. The background of the main page changes (as per above) and done two of them, there's this snowing effect. I love the last background where the main characters all look up like that andCGI snow rains down on them. The still picture is nice too but with the CGI it's even better. And then, when you hover the mouse over a link, snow will fall from the mouse too. The logo is also interesting. Not only is the font quite artistic, the Christmas tree on the top right is made up of stars and even more stars continue to rain on it.

I think I really should stop watching tv. Below is the list of dramas I'm watching right now:

1. Liar Game Season 2
   Why is it ending so soon!? I know there's gonna be a movie...but, this seems too fast! Not enough of Akiyama. Not enough of AkiyamaxNao. But well, I'm glad my beloved white-hair villian is returning! His character's going to be really interesting I guess. I mean, do you think he has turned over a new leaf? It's fun to go muse.
   
2. Creating Destiny
   Its screenwriters seemed to have heard our complains of dragginess and the pacing is improving. since like..maybe 6 eps ago, things have been moving uphill and catching my attention a lot.
   
3. Invincible Lee Pyung Kang
   The past 2 eps - of last wk, haven't watched this week's - were great as the romance starts to kick in with both romantic and comical portions and On Dal starts to act like a man. But the slow plot, the really unattractive villian and ex-gf are really getting on my nerves. I'm watching it slowly, for the sake of watching it...in case I need to help with translations.
   
4. Will It Snow For Christmas
   I haven't got time to watch ep 8, which is the critical ep since it determines if the drama goes downhill into full-melo mode - aka the road to sure death. But up till now, it has been an engaging melodrama with appropriate plot. Plus there's good eye candy and lovely music!
   
5. Smile, You
   While I've been watching the rest from the start, I started on this just as it reached the midway mark at ep 26 or 27. Yeah. Midway. It has..46 eps the last time I checked. Due to good ratings, it apparently got the 16 ep extension that got it to that number. 16 ep extension!? Goodness...that can become another mini-serie already. But I'm not complaining.
   
   The drama isn't all dramatic. The male lead isn't very handsome. But he grows on you as you watch, even though it still creeps me out when he smiles brightly. It being a family drama, there are of course family/elderly/family members. But even in those scenes I found much humour that I can't bear to fast forward. The pacing is appropriate, slower than YB but faster than Creating Destiny.
   
   And the characterisation of the leads, the female one especially, is such that it's flawed (aka realistic) yet still very likeable. Also, acting as the evil, desperate ex-bf is the same one who dumped Kim Sam Soon in MNIKSS! He's cute! Too bad he's stuck with such roles.
   
   I just finished ep 19, and it must be my favourite ep as of now. After receiving criticisms about her previous failed *almost* marriage from Hyun Soo's mother, Jung In got really sad and went home (the entire family was out to help out at a new shop opening). Hyun Soo followed her home and comforted her with the sweetest words ever, but which are not out of character/too unrealistic given the Hyun Soo we've seen since ep 1. He ended it with a hug from behind. Unfortunately, his parents and her parents headed home too, and his mother caught his backview with his arms around Jung In. So, what happened next? Their secret relationship gets found out and the drama falls into the kdrama parents' trap? NO! The mommy's boy Hyun Soo (who almost never lies) started to fight and struggle with Jung In, asking her to "take it out". Jung In catches on his act very quickly and the two started scolding each other interlaced with "Give it back" and "What? What? What? I don't have it!". The Jung In finally comes up with a 'something' to carry on their act, saying she didn't take his wallet. This drama had a lot of moments that made me laugh out real loud (almost like in YB) but this scene was the best! The best thing is that as the two had fought like this so much in earlier episodes, I can accept how they managed to fool the older ones.
    
6. Slingshot/Men's Tales
   By my dear Park Yong Ha! I bought the dvd while in Korea, just in case the nights there got long and I have nothing to do. Of course, it turned out that blogging and translating took up all of my hotel time and so I haven't watched it at all. Brother watched 5 eps and he loves it. If he loves it, it must be good. The problem is, I'm the kind of person who, if I get the dvd, will not feel the need to quickly watch it since it'll always be available. Oh well, I'll try!
   
7. NANA
   There's this mad sale at BlueMax (they had this set of 14 vcds of an English serie going at a discounted price of $6!) and I bought myself the set of NANA dvds (Up till ep 40++). I loved the first movie, read the manga up till book 15, and then stopped. So I hope the purchase won't be a waste. It was $60 for all 5 volumes (see, I'm still quite law-abiding. I didn't fall to the temptation of online viewing!) and they even gave me a free NANA diary planner that's super heavy. O.O

See? I really have too much shows to watch. But most are Kdramas ne...Somehow, this season's Jdoramas don't appeal to me much, other than Liar Game. I might give Tokyo Dogs a try, but the first 15 mins didn't hook me so i don't know...

You're Beautiful has done something to me. I don't usually watch a drama while it's still airing. You're Beautiful was the first in a looooong while (Since Why Why Love). Especially for non-Chinese dramas where I'll probably only understand 60% when I watch it first time, without subs. But from there, I started to watch everything as they air. T.T Bad habit!

Oh yes, I was saying I should watch less dramas, especially Korean ones because when I went out today, I kept hearing Korean. EVERYWHERE! But when I get nearer to the person speaking and heard him properly, it's totally not Korean. T.T

Not here in Singapore!

XD I'm refering to the kdrama of that title (크리스마스에 눈이 올까요?). It's a melodrama, and I really dislike melodramas (haven't even watched the Mother of all k melodramas: Winter Sonata). Still, the story is not too far-fetched and the actors and actresses are really good (in their acting and their looks). It's not all crying and heartaches, but also filled with bits of details that can warm up your heart or make you laugh. One feature of this drama is the presence of many scenes that has no dialogue, just bg music and meaningful acting. I love those the most as it leaves room for interpretation.

Also, unlike most k melodramas, where at least one source of conflict comes from a character being a member of a chaebol (business conglomerate) family, this one doesn't seem to fall prey to this plot device. The only rich person is the female supporting lead Lee Woo Jung. But other than being slightly bad tempered and self-centered, I quite like her character. Her family doesn't seem to feature much up till now.

Basiclly, the story is as follows:

Female lead Han Ji Wan was from a small village town in Korea. One day, a family moves into the town and the male lead Cha Kang Jin is transfered into her school as a senior. Things happened and one day she indirectly caused him to drop his pendant into the river. The pendant was given to him by his father (whose identity we still don't know) and meant a lot to him. A few months later, she was confronted about her feelings for him, but she could not confess as she felt guilty for having caused him to lose the pendant. Seeing how sad she was, her brother decided to help her search for it in the river. As a result, he drowned. Later, Ji Wan found the pendant swept ashore from the river. She took the pendant with her and left home, feeling ashamed to face her parents.

Years later, they meet again by chance in Seoul. At first they were cold to each other, pretending not to know each other. But after Kang Jin confirmed that the Han Ji Wan he saw was indeed the one back from his hometown, he tried to continue their relationship. Kang Jin, being the more proactive one, gradually grew close to Ji Wan.

Things were going on fine and Ji Wan seemed to have forgotten about the sad past, and agreed to go on a date with Kang Jin. Kang Jin got called back to office during the date but left his hp behind. As Ji Wan waited for his return, she picked up a call on his hp, and it turned out to be her father, whom she has not contacted since she left home. That brought back memories of the past. Later, Kang Jin passed her some books, which turned out to be notes her brother had lent Kang Jin when he was still alive. He also asked her for the reason she left home without a word back then.

But Ji Wan didn't answer. Instead, she got Kang Jin to run an errand for her and went off by her own. Later, she was brought to the police station as she got too drunk. Her ex-fiance, Park Tae Jun, went to fetch her from the station and asked her why she got herself so drunk. Ji Wan blurted out that she had cleanly forgotten how her brother died, how he died while trying to find Kang Jin's pendant for her. This ws all overheard by Kang Jin, who had also rushed to the police station.

Superb acting, more realistic plot, good-looking cast. Go watch!

No, wait. I'll take that back. Wait till the next ep to see if this drama turns into a full fledged cliche melodrama!

Btw, I was having Christmas eve dinner at a hotel restaurant just now. There were people caroling at the lobby and they sang pretty well.....but as we ended dinner, I heard a familiar tune.

NOBODY.

OMG...like I haven't heard enough of it, on blogs, in shopping malls, on tv, EVERYWHERE, I had to hear it on Christmas eve even.

Took them when I was in Seoul.

Such a beautiful school.

Tons of eateries all around the neighbourhood.

A lot of PC-bangs, DVD-bangs and KTV-bangs too.

And more than 4 pharmacies!

lol.

A tunnel leads us to the traffic light in front of the school.

That's the hospital wing of the medical school.

That is the university entrance. In case you're wondering, it was around...1pm that Thursday.

The long uphill road leading from the entrance to the different colleges.

Admin building, about 150-200m from the entrance, at the end of the loooong uphill road.

As I was walking quite briskly & had like 4 layers of clothes + outer coat on, I was panting by the time I reached here.

Business school, about 50m behind the admin building, also uphill.

Business school circled on the top right, entrance on bottom left. All uphill.

Yes, can you see the road?

Took them when I was in Seoul.

Such a beautiful school.

Tons of eateries all around the neighbourhood.

A lot of PC-bangs, DVD-bangs and KTV-bangs too.

And more than 4 pharmacies!

lol.

A tunnel leads us to the traffic light in front of the school.

That's the hospital wing of the medical school.

That is the university entrance. In case you're wondering, it was around...1pm that Thursday.

The long uphill road leading from the entrance to the different colleges.

Admin building, about 150-200m from the entrance, at the end of the loooong uphill road.

Business school, about 50m behind the admin building, also uphill.

Business school circled on the top right, entrance on bottom left. All uphill.

Yes, can you see the road?