Skip Beat live action

Long time no see, my friends. I really have no excuses for how long it's been since my last post except for my own laziness. Still, I hope you'll keep reading my posts and not hold it against me.

Real life has been so busy that I didn't have time to watch anything recently. However, the moment I heard Skip Beat, my most favourite manga of all times, has been turned into a live action, I couldn't simply let it go. How could I not find time for such a marvelous little drama?

I find it hard to believe that someone might not have at least heard of this manga, especially since it's already been made into a very awesome anime as well. Yet, for those of you who haven't heard about it, here's a little summary of the story:

Plot:

Kyoko Mogami has moved from Kyoto to Tokyo with only one goal in mind - supporting her boyfriend, Fuwa Shoutaro, in realizing his dream of becoming a top singer. But now that Sho has made his dream come true, he hardly pays any attention to her, even though Kyoko works four part-time jobs in order to pay the rent to their super expensive apartment. Only when Kyoko manages to enter his studio does she finds out, by accidentally eavesdropping on Shou talking to his manager, that all this time he has only considered her his maid. Furious, Kyoko confronts him, but Sho is only amused by the situation. Mockingly he tells her that the only way she could ever get close to him from then on would be by entering the showbiz industry. Kyoko accepts the challenge and, thus, begins her journey to becoming a famous star.

Acting:

Since this is a taiwanese live action, it's no surprise that the names have been changed. Kyoko became Gong Xi, Shou - Shang, Ren -  Lian and so on. To be honest, I imagined a whole different cast, but I was pleasantly surprised by Ivy Chen's acting. She is the most adorable actress I've ever seen! As for Choi Si Won, his face is flawless, I must admit, but, so far, his acting hasn't convinced me much. Is it the language barrier, I wonder? After all, he only lip-syncs and much of the acting is lost in the process I suppose. It's tough to really look at him when the image of the mouth moving completely differently form the sounds distracts you ll the time. The same goes for Donghae, another Super Junior handsome member, who plays the role of Shang. Although I must admit I consider him a little more expressive than Choi Si Won. The person I really liked was Bianca Bai, who acts flawlessly as Gong Xi's best friend. All in all, a surprising, but very nice cast.

Personal opinion:

As I said, skip Beat is my most favourite manga. There is no way anything would surpass it in my mind. As a result, I very much enjoyed this live action that follows the manga story almost to the T. Of course, I still think the manga is better, obviously, but I am 100 % sure that any Skip Beat fan will enjoy it. As for non-Skip Beat readers, I still think the cute characters and funny situations, but especially strong message of this story, which is GIRL POWER, will definitely reach your heart.
I really recommend this girly comedy to all girls out there who are fighting for their dreams and even to boys, as long as they can handle utter cuteness :D

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Rebound - a unique romantic comedy

Plot :

Nobuko is a successful journalist working for the top women magazine "Eden". However she has a very humiliating secret. In reality, Nobuko has been fat for most of her life and she barely managed to loose weight thanks to an exceptionally good nutritionist. Nobuko has always loved cakes and she was warned by her doctor that if she ever tastes a cake again her will will definitely be broken.
Nobuko's boss sends her to a cake shop to make an article about it and she discovers that it's the same cake shop where she tasted her very first cake. The owner is now the son of the previous owner, but Nobuko isn't impressed by his sweets. She writes a harsh article that practically destroys the shop's reputation. Now, driven by guilt, she lets the owner convince her to test the cakes he makes until he manages to make them delicious enough to rebuilt his reputation. But what happens if Nokubo's weight rebounds?

Cast:

The main characters are superbly portrayed by the same actors who played the main roles in Absolute Boyfriend : Aibu Saki and Hayami Mokomichi. To be honest, I hate Nobuko's way of speaking (she's almost screaming all the time and she's overly excited), however, I cannot deny that Aibu Saki did an extraordinary work in portraying this character. Not only did she have to wear a special costume and make-up in order to look fat, but she also depicted the main character's feelings' perfectly. Hayami Mokomichi is a great partner that complements Aibu-san's acting entirely and I'm sure that, as the drama progresses, we will see his skills more and more clearly.

Personal Opinion:

I've been a fatty for over a year now due to some very troublesome health problems so I can tell you for sure that this drama hit very close to home for me. Maybe this is why, I've had quite mixed feeling about it from the very first episode. Half of me was thinking "God, I don't wanna see that cause I'll surely get depressed!!", while the other half kept pushing me "Come on, it's high time you took your weight a little less seriously..." Well, in the end, I decided I had to see at least one episode.And I didn't make the wrong choice.
Rebound is a fresh and original romantic comedy, approaching a very realistic and sensitive subject : weight. Weight is, after all, the thing we most worry about when dealing with the opposite sex. This drama portrays the pain and effort fat people go through in order to form a relationship, but in a humorous and cute way. The characters' feelings really get to you and make you question what a relationship is all about. Don't they seem to take weight a little bit too seriously? What exactly do we love about the person we're in a relationship with? What really makes our heart skip a beat when we are close to the one we love? This are questions that come naturally to mind whilst watching this drama's plot develop. As a result, this show is, in my opinion, a very good opportunity to  get to know ourselves better and have fun throughout the process.
I truly recommend it!

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How to date an otaku girl

Prompted by a very nice post from Aigoo Aigoo blog - which I take the opportunity to thank for all the great recommendations, I decided to watch this cute romantic comedy. This is my humble "review".

Plot: 

Hinata is in love with his ex-co-worker, Yoriko. He asks her out and she accepts, even though she confesses that she is a fujoshi. Hinata doesn't actually knows what a "fujoshi" is, but he reassures her that he'll love her no matter what. Only later does he find out that fujoshi are girls obsessed with BL (boys love).

Cast:

The main characters are played by two adorable actors: Daito Shunsuke, who has acted in a very large array of tv shows and movies,  and Wakana Matsumoto. Although, I have to admit that I was completely enraptured by the handsome Furukawa Yuta who played the role of Hinata's best friend. Total eyecandy!

Personal opinion:

Here comes the hard part.
Since we've reached this part, I'm gonna be completely honest with you and make a confession: Watashi wa fujoshi desu! Yes, I'm a total yaoi addict! I read at least 5 gay romance novels a week (which is probably why I update this blog so rarely), my pc is full of shounen-ai and yaoi manga and my ideal man is one who'd be willing to ride a ***** for my sake  So, you see, I can't help but being a little biased because I totally found myself targeted by this movie's plot. I truly expected the whole plot to be centered on yaoi and totally drooled at the thought of seeing lots of otakuish scenes. 
It turns out this movie is simply a love story. The main character is a fujoshi and because of that, like all of us fujoshi out there, she's scared that her love interest will consider her a freak. However, it turns out that the guy doesn't give a damn about her weird hobbies. All, in all, this is just a romantic comedy. The main female character just happens to be a fujoshi, but this has no real consequences on the love story itself, expect for a bit of anxiety form her part.

Nonetheless, I did find this film cute. There were a lot of scenes that made me go all "Aww! Kawaii!!! I want a boyfriend like that!" -no, scratch that, I want A BOYFRIEND, no matter how he is- and there were also a lot of scenes that made me laugh out loud like, for example, the scene in which the guy, who was so influenced by his girlfriend's hobbies that he began seeing yaoi scenarios everywhere around, sips calmly from his glass of water while watching two men dressed in Santa Clause and his reindeer and imagines a possible kinky dialogue between them (the best scene in the whole movie! In my humble opinion, the film's worth watching just for that; yoi fangirls will definitely appreciate the humour).
As a result, I couldn't say that I was disappointed. Not at all. But I would have definitely appreciated more otaku scenes. I can say for sure, even though I didn't read it, that the manga is at least 3 times better.
All in all, if you're looking for a cute, sweet and light romantic comedy, I'm sure "How to date an otaku girl" will suite your tastes just fine.

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