Been on a nice roll as of late with my choices on what to view for both dramas and movies. Been trying to stay with things I've never viewed before and been successful with that as everything since November 1st has been something brand new for me. But more than that it's every pick I've made has been a Winner(!), not that their ratings would be 10/10 but everything has been top notch and all of the dramas I talk about today are ones I would recommend. These posts have become mildly popular with you readers, none will ever get more views than a photobook but most are close to or over 300 views and rising so to me that's a success! So will keep doing at least three of these a month, two for movies and one for dramas though now and again it could be two. Am learning how to keep things brief as I usually can give a quickie synopsis and other tidbits about a film in two or three shortish paragraphs and for now don't miss writing up those long reviews of dramas and films.
**** The next post will also be for dramas and that's because I still have a ways to go with the first, third and fourth shows talked about in this post. It will take me a while to get through them and want to do posts for them until I finish watching them but will also try to squeeze a post in for movies.
Another positive to these posts is that it gives me a chance to talk about a long lost/forgotten favorite of mine and it even inspired me to do a post for one of them! But that's not always possible and it may not be for today's celebrant Yume Shinjo who truly was someone I thought would end up in my top ten of all time! She was on pace for that and while we don't always agree with who our favorite women are you viewers and myself agreed on Yume who is so adorable yet also alluring to the Nth degree!!!! Back in April 2024 noticed there hadn't been a post for Yume in a while and also hadn't heard anything about her for a long time. So when I checked for current news was stunned like I never had before with a woman here and it was because Yume retired from show biz on March 31, 2024! I have been saddened before with others retiring but often it was because of getting married or even getting a regular job, Yume did want something regular as she said her goal was to just be a normal person. Since that date I haven't heard one thing about her and she truly was one of the most likable women I've ever done posts for, she's also among the hottest! I had seen Yume in about seven dramas and she was popular but I think what made her want to leave show biz was the last drama she appeared in.
They certainly are(!) but I was very shocked she appeared in such a drama which was titled "Akai Ringo" that aired from January 23rd until March 27, 2023. Even though Yume didn't retire for a year that was her final role in a drama, I viewed half of the ten episodes and was kind of turned off by how lewd it was. Maybe Yume wanted to change that 'Girl next door' or 'Nice Girl' tags but it didn't work out well for her and am presuming she too was kind of shocked she appeared in such a drama. So after that series ended we saw so little of Yume, the only things she did was to have a pair of events for her 2024 calendar and I truly do miss her. It's been almost 21 months since her retirement, now it's at the point where most have forgotten about her(but not me!) so it could be getting too late to plan a comeback. In April Yume will be hitting the age of 28 and wouldn't doubt if she is now a student, bet she made enough Yen to support herself for a while. She always seemed like an intelligent woman to me so as long as things work out well for Yume that's good enough for us but wish her departure had been under better circumstances.
In posts for movies will end up discussing at least seven of them which makes sense as I can view at least one a night while it could take a week or longer to watch one season of a drama. So for drama posts only talk about four or perhaps five of them, as of now undecided and did get a head start as I was already done with two shows before I began this post on December 3rd. Been on a hot streak lately as all of my choices have been winners and two completed are American shows, one is semi recent but the other is from seventy years ago! Tonight will begin on a Japanese series from 1985-86 and it's been a while since I've viewed any from that country and needed a mini break from them. Will end off with a new Korean drama though as mentioned undecided if there will be a fifth show(no) and am leaning towards having some photos from the main actress in that Korean series, I still have a few days to make a decision. Will have one final of Yume photos and sadly her name may not be mentioned often in the future here. Often talk about a list of my all time hottest/alluring/sexy women and have often talk about having those lists in groups such as my top actresses, gravure models, J-Pop Idols, etc. If I did just one list combining everyone in a shock to some Yume would be way up there, perhaps as high as seventh(!) and you could call her my #1 top secret woman 😍 here as I have been so ga-ga over her for so long....
By prequel it means the series is set before the events of the movie but the time frame isn't from 1957-60 but starting in 2013 which seems to work for me. The Bates family consists of the (ultra hot!) mother Norma and her seventeen year old son Norman, after the death of her husband, his father, the pair began fresh with a move to the coastal town of White Pine Bay in Oregon from somewhere in Arizona. In Oregon Norma had bought a very small motel which didn't open until near the end of the first season. After a week or so moving unexpectedly into their lives was Norma's 22 year old son Dylan, Norman's half brother. Dylan only moved in for he had lost his job and was poorer than poor, he hated his mother with a passion but soon began to understand her better and Dylan actually became the most reliable member of the family by the end of season one. So far have only watched this first season and am trying to spread all five out for a while. It's hard to say who the series revolves around as Norma and Norman both get about the same amount of airtime, the two are slightly wacky but don't quite see that in the other though Norma does to an extent. For she revealed to Dylan that was Norman who killed his father and he's been thinking his death was from a freak accident. When I came into this series thought it would be more of a horror show but that hasn't been the case.... yet. However we've seen a fair amount of gruesome killings with the first done by Norma who killed the previous owner Summers, she had a tiny bit of help from Norman.
Summers was so furious he had lost the motel to foreclosure and had attempted to rape Norma who ended up stabbing the creep. The disappearance of Summers interested the police and that was the basis for much of what happened after the death of Summers. He had been involved in a trafficking ring that was bringing young Asian women into the area and they were forced into prostitution, also involved was the town's main deputy Shelby who began to date Norma! Shelby was eventually exposed and had been killed by Dylan at the family's house, the town sheriff Romero took credit for that. He wasn't on Norma's side but did bail her out in the final episode when he killed one of the ring leaders of this trafficking ring and it appears the pair may work together in some sort of capacity in season two. Much, much more took place and what a show this is, it may not appear so from what I wrote but there is quite a bit of violence and suspense in this series. And killings too, there's been at least one an episode and sometimes two, a main reason is that what make this small town thrive economically is that their main industry is growing Weed! The problem with having just three paragraphs in these kinds of posts is that it doesn't give me a lot of time to describe everything that has taken place. But that's a positive in case you want to view the series and there's plenty of reviews already out there. My goal was to change things from writing up a post for every episode I viewed plus was hoping to hear from you viewers about the shows I've been viewing or any of your thoughts, to date not one comment has been made. This won't be the last you hear of this drama, think I will include a season per post in this series of mine which means four more mentions. PS: Also had talked about Vera Farmiga a few times as in the movie portion of this series reviewed her "Conjuring" movies which were so superb, if you love horror and suspense check those out. But want to add in that Vera is one of the most attractive women I've ever done posts for, she's now 52 in age and was in her young forties when this series was made. That's older than me and sure most of you readers but doesn't she look so darn terrific?! I think so and need to see if she's been in a few other things worth viewing.
Every American TV series I talk about have the DVD boxset for it. I'm not into streaming and much prefer having something physical in my hands such as a book, CD, DVD, etc. and above is next up on the list! Back in July bought this 104 episode box set that had the six seasons of "The Adventures of Superman" that aired from 1952-58. The first two seasons were in B/W and each had 26 episodes, each of the last four seasons had thirteen and the reason It was shortened is that it was filmed in color which back then was much more expensive. Watched the first season right after I purchased the set and the special features also had the 1951 movie "Superman and the Mole Men" which was an hour long. Also viewed the other features for season one and everything was such an enjoyable watch, I had never seen any of these episodes nor knew much about the series. Which I purchased on a whim, besides never seeing any of these episodes have also never viewed any of the movies or other TV shows of Superman even though I am a fan of superhero shows. After I viewed that first season said I was going to take a mini break. The break happened but it wasn't a mini one as it lasted four months and least this is a TV show that doesn't have a continuing story line.
While season one was such a fun, exciting and very cheesy(!) show this series got even better in season two! This aired from from the Autumn of 1953 into the Spring of 1954, that was the early days of TV so budgets were very low and the ways to do effective special effects was also unknown. However all 26 episodes were so fun and interesting, good plots and scripts can go a long way when a project is a low budget one. Of course the alter ego of Superman is the reporter Clark Kent, we see more of him dressed as a regular person than in his Superman outfit. Kent works at the Daily Planet newspaper located in the city of Metropolis, the editor there is Perry White. Kent's two close friends at the paper are the reporters Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson, in this season Lois began to have suspicions that Kent and Superman were one and the same! I've never seen "Smallville" or the other newish TV shows of Superman, does anyone have any opinions on them? One huge positive to me is that back then Superman didn't look like he was a Steroid addict and, George Reeves who played Superman was a big man for that era. I much prefer seeing Superman look like he does below, I've read most of the older comics and Superman looking more like an everyday man is more appealing than one who is so muscle bound.
The stories for this season were an improvement over the first season, least to me they were. In the first episode of this second season Superman had to save a man on death row, he made it with only a minute to spare. In the sixth episode it was finally revealed that Superman had a weakness which was Kryptonite, in another show he saved the Earth from being slammed into by an asteroid. In the thirteenth show there was a computer that could plan out crimes and that may have been the first time a computer had been part of a story on TV. The bottom line is if you're a fan of Superhero shows and older ones such as I am then highly recommend this series. As mentioned it was a bit cheesy at times and there were a lot of continuity errors so that part of the series will give a grade of 9.2/10 to which is still very high. But as far as the entertainment/enjoyability factor goes will give this second season a rating of 10/10, time flew by watching this series and wish it had been twice as long! Have heard the next two seasons weren't as good as it got a bit fluffy but will be checking them out as I do have the boxset.... grrrrr(!), noticed the price has decreased by $10 since I bought it in July, grrrr.............. EDIT: Ooops, the video can't be embedded but just click Watch on YouTube and it is a video worth checking out.
Have mentioned the site name of GEO9875 a few times and if you're interested in older Japanese series from the 1980's/90's then that's a place to get some rare yet terrific dramas plus a few movies. Have recapped four other dramas GEO9875 has completed, none will top the 51 episodes of "Abunai Deka" but all are highly recommended, just began my fifth drama older drama with season three of this series on deck when it's completed. **** Added in the * because my next comment will be somewhat important which at times can be rare for me! It's also the main reason why I've stopped recapping all of the episodes for a series, one other is how time consuming they can be. When I view a drama to recap a 25 minute show it takes 35-40 minutes to view! I end up taking forty or more screenshots, jot down notes and perhaps look something up on the internet pertaining to what I'm viewing.
It's not that forty minutes affects my life too much but what doing things like taking screenshots does is take away from how much I may enjoy a show. Spend so much time setting things up for a post instead of enjoying what I'm watching, noticed that so much in this drama's first ten episodes. Plus for all the other series I've viewed the last two months where I can just kick back and watch a drama/movie without any interruptions. I don't mind coming back after viewing a bunch of episodes and taking some screenshots then so think this change will be permanent except for the occasional movie review. I am enjoying everything so much more when I don't have to worry about writing up posts and think this series for 'My Current Watches' is turning out well. These posts receive many more views than regular drama recaps plus these have been more fun to write up. Had been taking a break from Japanese dramas but will ease my way back in with this series that aired from November 7, 1985 until October 23, 1986 for a total of 42 episodes(!) and I will be viewing all of them.
Who doesn't love Sukeban dramas and movies(?), know I sure do! Earlier this year recapped the 24 episode season of "Sukeban Deka", that was a show I enjoyed quite a bit and will view it again. The main character in the series is a seventeen year old high school student named Saki Asamiya, in season one she was portrayed by Yuki Saito and wish I was twenty years older as I've always had a crush on her. She couldn't return for season two so taking her place was another actress who also became popular thanks to this series, Yoko Minamino. In this second season her character was originally named Yoko Godai, this gal had been a rebel rouser from the Osaka area with a deep Kansai accent. What made Yoko so noticeable was that she always wore an iron mask, that's why this series was titled "Sukeban Deka II: The Legend of the Iron Masked Girl". We viewers did learn a bit about why Yoko was wearing that iron mask but not the complete details by the tenth episode which is where I'm stopping for a week. It had something to do with Yoko's father disappearing over ten years prior, she desperately wants to find the truth out about him. This is where the very secret Dark Agency comes in for they've told Yoko they know the exact details of her father's death but do they really? There's two key people that make up Dark Agency, the director who remains unnamed and was the same man in season one. His top agent and also the man who will be overseeing Yoko is Nishiwaki, in the first season the agent's name was Kyoichiro but he perished.
And so didn't the original Saki who died in a fire that ended the first season. If Yoko will accept the Dark Agency's offer to become an undercover detective for them and assume the name of Saki Asamiya they'll do everything in their power to protect her and also help Yoko, soon to be Saki, find out what happened with her father. That all took place in the first episode, the screenshots below are from that. This new Saki didn't need much training as she was such a skilled fighter from the start, it may have been because she had been a gang leader. One huge difference is that this new version of Saki has two mates working with her, they joined up with her in the second and third episodes and weren't part of the deal with Dark Agency. Yukino Yakima is one ally and comes from a wealthy family, she uses Koto nails(!) and a Fukusa as her main weapons. Rounding out the small team that will be protecting the youth of Japan is Kyoko Makamura who is nicknamed Marbles for that's her main weapon! It may sound lame but Kyoko can fire those off at rapid speed and bet they hurt! So am not going any further than this paragraph so can't give any details of what missions the trio have partaken in but the action level is often sky high. For the next few posts in this series will talk more about what's been taking place, added in those top two paragraphs which I don't have to write up again. But as the saying goes so far so good for this fun series, there was also a movie that was released when this season ended. After the screenshots is a video with some mini scenes from the show and most of the video features Akie Yoshizawa who played Yukino and I think she looks so much like Yuki Saito. Akie sang one of the show's two theme songs and it's her on vocals for the video's tune, "Naze? no Arashi". In English it was shortened to "Why" and it was her debut single which reached #8 on the charts.
In one of the next two drama posts for this series will spice things up a bit and have a special feature. Mentioned Akie above who played Yukino in the second season of "Sukeban Deka" and how she sang the above song for the show. She was a member of the first big J-Pop Idol group who were Onyanko Club, I had heard of them but didn't know much about them and still don't! But I want to check them out as they seem to be such an historical part of J-Pop so will work on something which could take a bit of time as they were around forty years ago! What made me curious about the group is that they were in episode nine of this second season, in all honesty it was just a so-so episode though kind of fun. One of the members had been kidnapped and because of that the group may have to cancel their next TV appearance to promote their new single.
In the end run Saki, Kyoko and Yukino saved the day, that's her in the bottom singing with her mates. For that feature will go back and take some screenshots of episode nine and wonder how much more I can find as the group was only active from April 1985 until Autumn 1987. They were so popular as all of their singles and albums reached the top five and to me J-Pop of the 1980's was the best. Groups such as Morning Musume were definitely influenced by them though have noticed not many members had a long career after they disbanded. They had a variety show called "Sunset Meow Meow" and I'm hoping there will be a few episodes on YT, any places you know of where there might be some subbed versions?
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What an exciting opening to this series, perhaps the best action scene ever for a drama to open with. The star of the series is Seo Kang-Joon who plays an elite NIS agent named Jeong Hae-Seong, think he's about 26 in age. The first screenshots below show some of that opening scene, Jeong and his partner were sent to prevent a black market deal from going down, the gang doing the selling had been at it a while. Jeong and his partner Go Yeong-Hun did stop the deal and nabbed the bad guys but in the process wrecked a valuable statue from a prestigious museum. Because of that the NIS director has threatened to shut down Team 4 which Jeong is a member of, the leader is Seok-Oh in the first screenshot. But the director has given the team one chance to make amends, if they can recover 800 Billion Won worth of gold bars that had been stolen the team can remain and no one will lose their jobs. The problem is the gold bars had been stolen at the end of WWII and their location is unknown. That amount of Won is worth almost $543 million in US money, the Won had been stolen from Korea's 1945 King and it rightfully belongs to the government. If Jeong and his team can locate the gold bars it would help out the country immensely as Korea like so many other nations is having tough times economically.
The gold had been hidden by an aide of the King, the last place may have been near the extremely elite Byeongmun High School that's about a mile from downtown Seoul. Even though Jeong was about 26 in age he was chosen by his leader Seok-Oh to impersonate a student and find out if the gold is hidden at the school! Seems a bit far fetched and Jeong did look older than the students but not overly so. It was very important that Jeong keep his identity a secret and that's been tough for him as there was a lot of bullying at this school which had many children of Korea's elite class. At the school Jeong's homeroom teacher was Oh Su-A(Ki-Joo) and the pair did not get along well at all, least at first. Su-A thought Jeong was the cause of the bullying and she had even witnessed him drinking at her mother's restaurant though he was just a student! For the first pair of episodes Su-A was quite daffy but passionate about her job which she's hoping will turn into a FT position, she's become a bit more normal and think she may become an ally of Jeong. For he feels the gold bars are hidden at the school but where(?) is the mystery, he's in an unknown battle with the school chairwoman Seo Myeong-Ju who is also looking for the gold bars! Naturally much more happened and in the next drama post will be able to give more details as I'll just be looking at three dramas and not four. What a roll I've been on with dramas, this one too is a winner and don't know if I could say what my top drama of today's four is! After the screenshots is a behind the scenes video from the first episode which is an enjoyable watch.
Will end off with some photos of Jin Ki-Joo at an event to promote the show on February 20th, the series began the next day. Said above that I adore Ki-Joo to no end and she's my second favorite Korean woman plus all of her dramas are worth watching. The problem is Korean dramas are much longer so there aren't as many but think Ki-Joo's scheduled to be in two 2026 dramas. Events is where she shines, these pics aren't fabulous but click on that Promo Events tag for some tremendous Ki-Joo photos. The bottom two screenshots are from the 31 minute mark of the first episode, Ki-Joo's character of Su-A was being put down by her mother which was kind of hilarious. There is a video of the event after the pics, it is a bit too long though is subbed in English.
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