Once again am late for this latest edition of the series which has proved to be somewhat popular. It takes a while to write these up so it takes some inspiration to begin, should have had this done five days ago. Over the years the recaps I did for dramas had a large surge in views, at least percentage wise. If you go back to 2018 and before a drama recap would get a hundred views for it's first month, then some would increase to 150 or so after a few more months. Then I revamped the formatting and to me those drama posts since 2021 are the best posts here, the views for them would usually get well over 200 views. But there was a downside and it's of them taking so long to do, last year I was getting so burnt out writing them and needed a long break from those posts. So revived this series in September and have done done about a dozen posts that have averaged well over 300 views, sometimes over 400! So that means you readers much prefer these kinds of posts for dramas and movies, would have liked to have done one a week but that won't happen but the pace of 2-3 of these a month should continue on for a while.
Try to have a theme to begin off this post that features some of my long time favorite women. Too often it's been about how some have disappeared and why that happened, the last theme was about a pair of huge favorites who have gotten married or will soon. So for today will once again take a brief look at those vanishing favorites but ones who that's just happened to recently. Well, as far as Haruka goes her cold period has been going on for a while and I never have been able to do as many posts as I would like for her. But that missing her goes double with you readers as she is so immensely popular here and her posts get more views than just about anyone else. It's been a while though since that last post and it makes me wonder why she spent so much money on surgery to enhance her already fine figure? Those procedures took place between 2020-22 and as you can see didn't that do wonders for Haruka? It certainly did and really helped out her career so I can't understand why we've heard so little from her the past two years and aren't we all dying for a few new photobooks?! Just below her pics is Miyuki who celebrated her 32nd birthday last September, that was also when she had her last post. The year of 2025 was not a busy one for her and will admit I am so ga-ga over Miyuki, it's been that way for a decade! Sure it shocked many when Miyuki finished in the third position on my 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list and wonder if she's now at the age where she's thinking of retiring? Sure hope not as I am so smitten with Miyuki and check up on her activities almost daily. Which has been a waste of time recently but even though there's been zero going on lately I'll still do posts for Miyuki so expect one very soon but can't give a specific date.
On an NMB note Miru released her fourth(?) photobook last November and did a pair of posts for it featuring magazine spreads plus outtake and event pics. There's two versions of the "Merci" book so will have one right around March 1st and the alternate version, which is better, about a month later. On a positive note there aren't too many gals who have slowed way down in their activities as of late or have disappeared, been able to do just as many posts as ever for my massive faves. Not everyone though and that includes the members of BababaBambi whose posts come in spurts. I still like the group but when Mio left I was so heartbroken and she truly leaves me speechless. Mio has been in many stage plays the past year but no woman here had better gravure photos than she did from 2020 to 2024, the first time I laid eyes on Mio 😍 it was love at first sight and that had never happened with me before. Mio does post a lot of IG photos plus finally had her first lingerie pics since leaving the group so let me work on a post for her and when someone isn't that busy I sadly overlook them on occasion. I've said it before and it is true that if things had worked out differently Mio 😍 would have ended up being my all time #1 woman and I guess in a way she could be....
Entering my 15th year of blogging and have only given a 10/10 to one woman, did that for Maria in her last post but could have bestowed that grade upon her two years ago. Speaking of Maria in less than two weeks her eleventh photobook is coming out plus she'll be celebrating her 25th birthday so there should be a post for her quite soon. The only reason Mio didn't get a grade of a perfect ten from me is that's she's somehow above the level of perfection!!!! So if the judges will allow it will give her a grade of a trillion/10(!) and hope that's not too low! All this gushing about Mio has made me miss her even more, wasn't going to have another batch of photos but in case you're wondering why she gets such a high rating from me....
In six months will be starting the countdown for my third 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list so will be using this series to keep you updated about it and to muse on who will or won't make the list. Know Mio hasn't had a large amount of posts but that was also the case for a few other women who made the previous list so she should make the cut. For this 'My Current Watches' series talk about what movies I viewed or what dramas I'm currently watching, these days am concentrating more on TV series. In a way this is a part two of the first January post as three of the four dramas I'll be discussing were in that post. But wrapped up one of those series and for the next post the pair of Korean shows I'm viewing will be finished so the hard decision will be what to view next? I'm back into Korean shows but may make one of my next views a Japanese series, am thinking of the very old classic 1967 show "Ultra Seven". That's a long series with 49 episodes but that doesn't mean they need to be viewed at once and will space them out to two months. For these posts will give a brief synopsis of the series, any thoughts I may have and also some screenshots or pics along with a video. For today have four dramas but will add in a film at the end and it's something you never thought you would see here.... know I never thought I would be viewing such a movie but it could be the start of many of them!
That story continues into season three, when you put the trio of episodes together they add up to be 130 minutes so it's like watching a long movie. Will discuss those three shows in a future post after I've started on season three but that story could be my my favorite 130 minutes of TV, even more than any Asian drama. As far as season two goes it was an improvement on the first season and while every episode wasn't a classic there wasn't a dud out of the 25. Whatever kinks they had in season one were worked out and the series even kept getting better after this season. Sure most know of the two main stars Mulder and Sculley but it's the semi-regulars whose roles increased and that's what really helped the series improve. My favorite character could be the older man William Davis and his character has no name in the show but it seems to be more important than the president! Mulder will often call him Cancer Man for he's always smoking a Morley cigarette, have even seen him light up while observing a surgery and he's standing next to the surgeon! Most fans refer to him as CSM aka Cigarette Smoking Man and while his role was important in this season it grows even more, could he be possibly be enemy #1 to the duo of Mulder and Sculley?
As a matter of fact for a while beginning in season three the possibility became very high that CSM was actually Mulder's father! I forget what the outcome was but don't think it turned out that CSM was. Also with a bigger role which also will be growing is the supervisor of Mulder and Sculley, he's assistant director Skinner. In season one he doubted Mulder's claims of aliens and government conspiracies but kept the unit alive due to pressure from above. In season two Skinner is believing in Mulder's work much more and and has bailed him out on many occasions. So that's the short musing about season two and it'll be a few weeks before starting on the third season again. Am juggling about ten shows at once so want to start wrapping up some seasons or an entire series, even though I've been viewing so many shows my 'Needs to be Watched' list keeps growing instead of decreasing!
Above wrapped up a second season and also did it for this series which could also be considered a classic! Had been debating on what other TV series I should dive into but instead made a very wise decision and finished the second season of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" and glad I did! TV series and their episodes were much longer sixty years ago, most shows these days have about twenty episodes which last about 42 minutes. This must watch show had thirty episodes a season which lasted for fifty minutes, to break it down more a current show may have 840 minutes in a season while 'U.N.CL.E.' had 1500 minutes which is 25 hours! Above is the box set I have, so often have said how box sets for older TV shows may seem expensive but are actually a bargain. This set was about $50 but there's 41 discs, 36 for the 104 episodes and five of bonus features so to me it seemed like a good deal. This is another series there isn't much I can tell you that hasn't been said before and I give this series/box set one of my highest recommendations ever!
The acronym U.N.C.L.E. stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, their main HQ is in NYC but most major cities in the world have a branch. The two main agents are Illya Kuryakin on the left below, his partner Napoleon Solo is in the middle and the older man is their leader Mr. Waverly. Kuryakin is from Russia and I give high praise to David McCallum who portrayed the character as his accent was close to perfect, there haven't been many times when American and Russian spies worked so closely together! The plots/stories in the series are very serious but they're also done in a semi light hearted way at times, not sure if that helped out but then again every episode to date through two seasons has been a winner. The duo travel everywhere in the world to combat their nemesis THRUSH, that name stands for nothing and in just about every episode they're the main criminals.
So while the two lead actors and the stories made this show so terrific and interesting one other key factor was the guest stars. For the series was a big hit with many stars so they appeared on the show, as you can see at the bottom Vincent Price made an appearance. Will confess that to me his 1950/60's horror flicks are among my favorites and have viewed them too many times to count. But there was also so many darn attractive women from that era, a few I had heard of but had never seen before and glad I did for many were knockouts! During this time James Bond had become the rage but this series wasn't a ripoff from those books and movies. Of course some things were such as our heroes having an such a vast supply of some hi-tech gadgets, it was the first instance of cell phones being used on TV. There were two features on the bonus discs about the gadgets and those bonus features may be the best I've ever seen, over ten hours worth! So that ends this mini recap, noticed I've gone from two to three paragraphs in these posts and even then it's not even to describe what I've viewed. Like the above series and the two following this will give tuis show a very high recommendation. The video is of the opening credits, season one was in B&W while this second season was in color.
Now on to a pair of Korean series and both are so much better than I expected. Have been stretching them out for both have only a dozen episodes and will hate to see them end. For a long time Korean TV series had twenty episodes which were often too many and so much filler was added in. Then a trend began when series had sixteen episodes and to me that's a perfect length, that began around 2015 and for the most part is still the norm these days. But many like "Undercover High School" have just twelve episodes and because of that sometimes things such as the finale needs to be rushed or things aren't fully explained. The episodes are a tad longer as they used to average 55-60 minutes, now many shows are in the 65-70 minute range. So just watched episodes nine and ten for today, this series has become so compelling am holding off to view the final two shows for another week or so.
The main story is of an NIS(National Intelligence Service) agent named Jeong Hae-Seong who screwed up on an assignment and because of that his team was going to be disbanded. But the NIS director of the team Lee gave Jeong another chance to save his mates, it was to pose as a student at Byeongmun High School where the rumor is of a huge amount of gold bars worth 800 billion Won that have been hidden at the school since 1957.... and no one has found them? That's Jeong's mission and the series did begin off a bit slowly as the main emphasis was on his fitting in with teens as Jeong is 31 in age! His team is very competent and have given Jeong quite a bit of help, so hasn't his teacher Oh Su-Ah and the two had been so close as youngsters but didn't know that until the midpoint of the series. Su-Ah has become an unofficial teammate of Jeong and she's saved the day for him a few times for there are others also looking for the gold bars. And why not as they're rumored to be worth 800 billion Won, the person who wants to get the gold at all costs is the school's director Seo Myeong-Ju, she's below in many screenshots. She wants to money to open a new and very elite school, she'll stop at nothing to obtain the gold and working as a mole for her at the NIS is the director Lee!
What I will do is when I finish the last two episodes is to give a much longer recap of the series, perhaps I'll devote half a post to it. So it's a race between Jeong and Seo to find the gold, there were four school urban legends which held the clues. Jeong was the first to discover them all and to him the vast amount of gold is hidden below the school's gym but it made me wonder how large of an area is needed to store 800 billion Won of gold? In the last two screenshots Jeong has made it to the cellar where he found some empty rooms, the second to last shows the arm of a skeleton with a watch! Jeong had given that to his father 22 years ago so the skeleton had to be of his father who had also been an NIS agent. But while doing a quick search Jeong radioed back to his team that the rumor could be a hoax for.... he doesn't think there was ever any gold hidden there!!!! That ended the tenth episode and what a cliffhanger which is why I was wishing there were more than two more shows to go. So will do a much longer recap in the next post of this 'My Current Watches' series, I'm also planning on doing a post very soon for Jin Ki-Joo who plays Oh Su-Ah in the show. She could be my favorite Korean actress, on January 26th she'll be celebrating her 37th birthday yet still looks so magnificent!!!! Have two videos below which are promos for the ninth and tenth episodes.
The Japanese version of "Liar Game" that aired in 2007 is my all time series, well all time Japanese drama. The Korean version aired in late 2014, it followed the manga more than the original series. About a decade ago watched the first two episodes and thought they were decent but for some reason didn't continue on and that was my mistake. For this has been such a pleasant surprise as this is one excellent series, the first episode was a bit slow but since then I give this drama a rating of 9.4/10 and that's a high grade for me! The intensity level has really picked up, the games/challenges that are in this show are similar to the original series but also very different. The main difference between the two series is that the setting for the Korean one is a reality show and that was a unique twist. For there's been so much back stabbing, lying and betrayals so I wonder if I should make the next post in this drama series one just featuring the above "Undercover High School" series and this one, that way I could explain more and am leaning towards doing that.
One reason for viewing this series is to see more of Kim So-Eun who has the lead female role as Nam Da-Jung, for the Japan show it was Nao Kanzaki and guess who I named this blog after?!!!! EDIT: On a side note Erika Toda is back and is in her first drama in over four years. Only one episode has aired but may be checking that out if it gets subbed, she also has another drama starting in June. But Da-Jung's role became a bit smaller for episodes 5-8, hate to say it but the show improved when the males had more screen time. Da-Jung is still a very important character and bet the role will increase once we get to the final two games in episodes nine through twelve. Since the last post viewed 5-8 and there were two games, the first was a 'Layoff Game' while the second was the 'President Game'. In a huge plot twist the show's announcer Kang became a contestant and ended up being voted the president, they have the power to eliminate someone from the Liar Game. Most thought Kang would get rid of Ha Woo-Jin who is in the first screenshot below, he was recruited by Da-Jung in the first show after her game money had been swindled away.
But Kang respects Ha plus he knew with him on the show the ratings would be higher so Ha is a survivor along with three other regular contestants and the show's host Kang. That makes five players remaining but am thinking the total has to be higher, the show's director and producer have made rule changes as the game has gone on so perhaps there will be a dozen players for the last game or two. I am really enjoying this drama so much, more than I expected and sadly there was never a season two for the show like there was in Japan. So I have four episodes to go for "Liar Game" and two for the above dramas, both are huge winners in my book! As mentioned think I will devote a whole post to the two dramas where I can give a recap of eight paragraphs instead of three plus can have many more screenshots. No ETA for that yet but thinking the first week of February? Like the above show also have two videos for this drama below.
Every now and again it's nice to throw such a shocker to all of you viewers and this may be my biggest one yet! Was at the store about ten days ago, was in the DVD section pondering whether to find another TV series but then said No as I have too many. But as I was leaving noticed the above seven film collection and it was only $14 so didn't leave the store empty handed!!!! Though Elvis was much before our time he needs no introduction, I don't know much about him but that may be changing. I do have a double CD featuring fifty of his biggest hits which I listen to often as it's quite good. Elvis was in 31 movies and I had never seen any nor knew much about them. When I buy DVD sets for some odd reason prefer going in kind of 'cold' or not knowing much about the movies or TV shows. So just viewed my first movie a few nights ago which is the above film from 1966, "Spinout". I also was thinking about the J-Pop Idols that I've been posting about for over a decade. Many are immensely popular but will there ever be anyone at the level Elvis was and you have to think NO. He was a superstar in almost every country and think he's sold over a billion records to date which is mind boggling.
All I knew about his films is that many were campy but that's fine by me as I like that style. In this movie Elvis played a man named Mike McCoy who was the front man of a four piece rock band and also dabbled in racing cars. There wasn't much racing until the end but the final ten minutes did feature a race and was that was an exciting finale. And of course all females used to swoon over Elvis and they did in this film as a trio wanted to marry him! But in the end Mike remained a bachelor though to me he should have chose Shelley Fabares as she was so hard to top, she was a reason for starting with this movie over the others. What was quite good was the music as Elvis didn't perform any of his bigger hits but did his more rockin' tunes and that added much more energy to the movie. So all in all this is a movie I enjoyed and have been on a hot streak lately with my film and drama choices. There's three other films in this set and may mention one in the next post for this series. The three others in this set are a pair of music specials and think those will also end up being very fun watches, the other in the box set is a documentary.
No comments:
Post a Comment