Noriko goes to Seoul 노리코, 서울에 가다 [series]

oh that coat. seriously...

Leapt on this as soon as I heard it was done. Finally getting around to writing it up. I’ve been liking the Korea/Japan cross overs I’m seeing lately. I have just watched the mini drama Friends フレンズ / 프렌즈 with Fukada Kyoko and Won Bin from back in 2002 (well I have one more part to go) which was the first drama ever to be co produced by both countries, and I also have virgin snow to watch at some point soon. But for now, Noriko goes to Seoul pops up into our lives with a great excuse to listen to Hongki sing and be mean and generally do what he does best. I was hoping for a bit more of Hongki speaking Japanese but alas he only says one line right at the end – worth an ureshii squee though.

This was a Korean production staring Japanese actor Takashima Reiko (atashinchi no danshi, Yamato nadeshiko shichi henge) as Noriko, and Korean star Lee Hongki who we should all know by now from FT Island at the very least, but also the Korean drama You’re beautiful, and the Japanese drama Muscle Girl. Hongki here plays MinHa whom Noriko meets at an audition when she travels to Korea with dreams of becoming a singer.

Noriko’s intentions are not fame and money. On hearing she had developed lung cancer and also fearing for her daughter’s happiness and motivation, Noriko decides she must show her child how to be strong and follow her dreams in the face of hardship and impossible circumstances. She does not tell her family of her illness and leaves her family in search of a way to set an example to her suffering daughter.

MinHa is an arrogant but immensely talented guy who makes more money out of teaching than performing. He wants to prove himself but always falls short at his auditions. Noriko enlists his help (and I use the term loosely) to get through the auditions even though he himself never manages to get to show his true talent on the stage.

There is a lot of banter from Hongki as you can imagine, it is all woe is me for a good long while, He does it so well – I love his spoilt brat face. He proves no matter what he does, he is still a whiney little boy. Love him for that. But also his singing is flawless – as it always is without question. He sings a fair bit in this production and they’re all FT songs so it’s a bit of fanservice going on there. 

Noriko is a very strong and likable character who you root for all the way. She gets a good handle on MinHa quite quickly and the two have such a sweet relationship built on their desires to push themselves and subsequently each other.

There are some really great moments, it’s very touching and really quite sad at some points (yes Hongki cries and that made me cry and everyone was crying and I wish they wouldn’t cry) but the majority of it was filled with that argumentative banter that Korean TV delivers so well, and made it enjoyable to watch with or without Hongki fan tinted glasses.

I have to mention the coat that Hongki wears. What the f*ck is that all about. Seriously I’m lost for words as to how to describe that thing.

Well, I think this will do for the review; otherwise I will only get sucked into the trap of ranting about Hongki’s fantastic teeth again. I only wanted to do this post so the first picture on my home page wasn’t Nakamaru’s mental furrows of worry.

that coat....seriously....

                              

promo poster and shots from the set:

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muscle girl! マッスルガール! [series]

wanna watch a drama where FT Island is playing the soundtrack throughout?

youve come to the right place!

 cast:

azusa - ichikawa yui (kurosagi, rescue, inpei shirei)

jiho – lee hongki (FT Island, you’re beautiful, winter child)

tsukasa – yamamoto hikaru (kamen rider w, wangang midnight)
himawari – akai saki (dohyo girl)

mai – aya vanessa

kaoru – shida hikaru

gohara – mikami kensei (bloody Monday 2, tsuki no koibito, deka wanko)

sukaru – koike keiko

kurogane – kuwano nobuyoshi (misaki number one)

lee soonja – kuroda fukumi (kindaichi shonen no jikenbo, kabachitare)

Siwon☆ – oh wonbin (ex FT Island, heartstrings)

genius cast list right?

I mean, yes – I obviously watched this for the same reason as everyone else. a certain young chap who everyone adores but no-one really knows why, FT Island’s smiley eyed lee hongki. ive said it before and I will no doubt say it again, I love that boy’s teeth.

well I got my fix yet again with muscle girl, not only of hongki’s teeth but his lovely accent when speaking japanese (another thing we all know I love – koreans speaking japanese.) and there was also an abundance of my favourite hongki stupid facial expressions... though it is never quite enough. (^_^) ㅋㅋㅋ

it was nice to see ichikawa yui again, hadn’t seen her since kurosagi where she was a total idiot tw*t faced sh*t bag. I really liked tsukasa, played by yamamoto hikaru - who I totally don’t remember being in wangang at all but apparantly she was.

I’d better outline the plot I guess.

so, korean pop star jiho (hongki) one day secretly leaves his manager in search of his runaway mother who upped and left him in the not too distant past. I should start using commas really shouldn’t I… ok, take a breath… right, so, anyway, jiho ends up haphazardly becoming a referee for a female wrestling group who are being bullied and threatened by rival hard man gohara and his weird ass muscle girl sukaru (skull).

…take another breath because I didn’t put any commas in again…

various stuff happens with the wrestlers as they try to save their business from evil villainy type guy and russian gangster wannabe girlie. various stuff also happens as they all try to search for jiho’s mother. and various cute will-they-wont-they moments happen between jiho and azusa causing some great cross-eyed-hongki faces.

this one is my favourite ^      ㅋㅋㅋ

and just how adorable is ichikawa yui? well, very. when she’s not being a d*ck in kurosagi she is completely the cutest thing ever. even better when she clothes-lines the bad guys and sleeper-holds hongki (twice!) – she kicks ass.

you get to see shiny pants, cat scraps, hongki get beaten up a fair old bit, ichikawa wear cute little red glasses, and mostly yeah its all about the shiny pants and cat scraps.

it is a short series, 10 episodes 25min long each, so it is one of those ones you can watch the whole thing in a day (if youre anything like me) and then wish you had more.

it is really stupid and cheesy. definitely. but from the outset it is what you expect right? oh yeah! I almost forgot! we have an special appearance as well. it was a "aa! wonbin!" *finger points furiously at screen* moment as i saw him pop up. he does a little cameo as fellow musician Siwon☆ lovely lovely thanks for that, we appreciate the little appearances he keeps making in stuff recently.

                                  there he is look ^ 

ive not really said much about this drama but it sort of speaks for itself. what else can I do but leave you with hongki’s teeth? yah!     

... and oh wonbin.      ...seriously.

...seriously. i mean, really how...

i mean, ...it's...just...

i think i need to stop watching stuff with koreans in. im completely distracted again wondering if there are any beautiful genes left for the rest of the world. i lose sleep over this sh*t you know. i really do.

...

c'mon girl mv - oh wonbin (i should probably wait for when ive done the review of heartstrings for this vid, seen as he is in, y'know, more than one episode, but what are ya gonna do. 

the audio track isnt in sync in some places but i cant be bothered to fix it.

he's pwetty.

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you're beautiful 미남이시네요 [series]

can i have jeremy as a pet please? he'd get on with pet taguchi too dont you think?

ok, i really dont know where to start. lets go with a cast list.

that will help.

A.N JELL:

hwang taekyung - jang geunsuk (mary stayed out all night, beethoven virus)

go minam - park shinhye (hayate the combat butler, heartstrings)

kang shinwoo -jung yonghwa CN Blue [band], heartstrings)

jeremy - lee hongki (F.T Island [band], muscle girl)

others:

yoo heyi - uee

manager ma - kim inkwon

mr kim - choi ran

mo hwaran - kim sungryung

president ahn - jung chan

so i obviously watched this because i have a (minor but growing) fixation with hongki's teeth. i dont know why, but there it is. 

love that mental little munchkin.

when i started this drama i did have some fears during the first two episodes that it was a cheapo version of coffee prince but it really does become its own animal later on.

so on to the plot then i guess.

a nun, twin of some dude who is being signed to a big shot band but off in some hospital somewhere, is asked to fill in for her brother and sign said contract in his place while he is indisposed.

dressed up like a boy she plays his part but it goes on for far longer than anticipated.

gradually the band and other linked people come to find out of her real identity through various stupid accidents and ridiculous going ons, and there are a whole heap of love triangle type epic disasters that start to form.

i have to say, however side tracked by geunsuk's hysterical pout and yonghwa's increasingly stalker like affections, hongki still made this drama for me. 

never failing to have me in stitches 

(other than when he had me in tears - i missed a whole chunk of what happened  cos i was too busy sniffling) 

and as a side point to my former mocking self, he was called jeremy in gumiho because their band A.N.JELL made a cameo appearance, so it was the characters from this in that. It all makes sense now. 

so, the main character, played by shinhye, go minam - well, i wasnt sure i liked her. at first i didnt really have much context for her and kept thinking maybe i should have watched this before coffee prince, but - i really need to stress this - she is wonderful. im glad i gave this a fair chance. yes, she is annoying, yes the way she pouts as she talks is f*cking irritating but she is kinda meant to be like that, she is childlike and dense.

this girl ^  was the great little miss evil sh*t head yoo heyi. the same facial expressions as park soojin in my girlfriend is a gumiho, she wants to be hwang taekyung's girl and puts a constant spanner in the works, pretending to be little miss sweet to the world while really being a jumped up pr*ck of a girl.

most of the characters are really quite a flawed bunch of idiots. theyre all a bit of a mess. but it works. it has that kind of madcap sense of stupidity and humour that korean dramas flaunt so well.

the pouting became intolerably funny after a while. i thought i wouldnt be able to stand another but they just kept coming. geunsuk became funnier and funnier with each episode and i wasnt really expecting the comedy to come from him.

seriously he pouts more than Ikuta Toma in Maou

looking back at this drama it was definately another one i will enjoy watching again years later. 

i wanted to watch this as muscle girl (hongki) and heartstrings (yonghwa, shinhye) are both airing at the moment and i wanted to get on with those two shows. seen as i still hadnt gotten around to finishing this i thought i should crack on with it first.

i have seen funnier dramas. i have invested more emotion and been taken through more challenging story lines. but this series is by no means even average in my affections. i did definately love it and am completely happy with the fix of smiley hongki-teeth it allowed me to have. aish he really is so funny. the mix of the 3 guys and shinhye worked so well. 

it was a great drama. it will definately have a safe spot in my memory, and yes i went straight onto ebay and bought the stickers and sh*t that go with it, and am kinda tempted to get some of the other stuff i saw but i must resist! i like the pig-rabbit merch though. seriously. how long can i hold off before i buy that sh*t?

she is seriously so cute. im so happy she is in heartstings. cant wait.

i dont really know what else to say about this drama so have some videos.

video: funny cut from ep14

[jeremy reading fan fic about the band]

i put some subs on there so you knew what the hell they were saying.

video: the cast dressed as SNSD and dancing to genie

hongki as jessica - i nearly died laughing

ANJELL being d*cks some more...

hongki just being a randomly awesome moron

i love that he tweeted this vid saying: 완전웃겨 (fully funny) on twitter
he knows he's a moron.



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