2007 in Review: doramas

[meganbmoore]

Well, I'm done with doramas for the year(not done as in "sick and tired" but done as in "well, all I have in the backlog are Korean melodramas, which I'm not in the mood for, and 1 modern cdrama and 1 wuxia, both of which I shall save for a rainy day") so I shall go ahead and do this "Year in Review" post now.  The others will be closer to the end of the month/at the first of the year.  This is only dramas I watched all of(with one case of my cheating, but only because I watched most of it this year.)

cdrama:

Historical/Wuxia:

Chinese Paladin
Face to Fate
Handsome Siblings
The Little Fairy
Patriotic Knights
Return of the Condor Heroes
Romance of Red Dust
Sword Stained With Royal Blood
Strange Tales of Liao Zhai
Twin of Brothers
War of In-Laws 
Young Warriors of the Yang Clan

Contemporary:

Gateau Affairs
Love Guaranteed
Shades of Truth

jdrama:

Historical:  

Yoshitsune

Contemporary:

Brother Beat
Detective Conan Special
Galcir
Hana Yori Dango 2
Hero(series)
Kekkon Dekinai Otoko
Kindaichi Shonen no Jikembo III
Love Generation
Nodame Cantabile
Pride
Rondo
Taiyou no Kisetsu
Teru Teru Ashita

kdrama:

Historical:

Emperor of the Sea Vol 2-3
Hwang Jin Yi


Contemporary:

Fantasy Couple
My Girl
Next/Rebirth

twdrama:

Contemporary(as far as I know, Taiwan doesn't do period dramas):

Devil Beside You
Hana Kimi (TW)
Magicians of Love
Meteor Garden

Period Dramas and Wuxia:

Top 6:

Emperor of the Sea Vol 2-3:  We shall count it as the whole series, yes?  This is, quite honestly, probably the best drama I've ever seen.  It's the story of Jang Bogo, a warrior and merchant of Shilla who became one of the most powerful men of his time and never once strayed from his convictions or beliefs(this was, of course, ultimately his downfall, and certain plot points add complexity to the character because he was a great man, but he may have been a better man had he learned to compromise.)  Born a slave and sent to work in the great desert of China, he is bought by a merchant who recognized him as a warrior and turned him into a gladiator, and then sold to another merchant who recognized his potential, he rose to be the man who controlled Korea's seas, all but eliminated piracy, and controlled a good chunk of Korea itself.  it's also the story of Jung Hwa, a noblewoman who has(mutually) been in love with Jang Bogo since they were young, who was raised by a corrupt merchant and noblewoman after the death of her father and struggled to maintain her own integrity(oh, said noblewoman is also responsible for the whole desert slavery bit) and Yum Moon, a man raised by pirates whose only friend early in life was Jang Bogo, and who was fiercely dedicated to helping and saving him when they were friends,but who later became his enemy as life took them in colliding directions.  Also desperately in love with Jung Hwa.  I am possibly in love with him.  The whole thing is stuffed with layered, complex characters, the story is amazing, and it has one of the very few love triangles I like(was obsessively into, possibly)

Face to Fate: Ok, this one is the reason it's 6 instead of 5.  I don't like it quite as much as the others up here, but I didn't want to lump it in with the others.  If you want to watch a wuxia series just to see what wuxia is about, this is the wuxia for you.   FtF is about, quite simply, the battle between the Good and Evil forces of the kung fu world, and preparations for a tournament to determine which will rule. Two neutral men, a fortune teller and a doctor(both kung fu experts, of course) are asked by the Good side to go and recruit representatives for the tournament.  They're joined by an apprentice of the leader of the Good side who has been banished after claiming she attacked men to protect her friend(the daughter of the leader of the Good side) and later by an ex-thief turned inn-keeper.  Meanwhile we're learning that some bad guys are really good guys, some bad guys are really good guys, and the rebellious daughter of the leader of the Good side and the world's greatest assassin are busy falling in love.  It may move a bit slowly at first, but it's one of the best.  And, seriously, if you have a shipping or romantic kink or character type preferrence, IT WILL BE CATERED TO IN ONE OF THE THREE ROMANTIC PAIRINGS! TRUST ME!

Hwang Jin Yi:  Most people understandably think Damo is the reason Ha Ji Won is is my favorite korean actress.  That's actually not the case.  While Damo made me notice Ha Ji Won, and made me love her, it was Hwang Jin Yi that made her my favorite.  Hwang Jin Yi is the story of a gisaeng(korean equivalent of a geisha) by the same name.  Born to a gisaeng, Jin Yi was raised by monks, but was captivated by the dance and music of the gisaeng's she saw, and ran away, to be taken in by the same gisaeng who employed her mother.  An innate dancer and musician with amazing wit, Jin Yi lives for her art but is shaken from that world when she meets Eun Ho, a young nobleman who falls for her.  From that moment on, Jin Yi's life becomes a desperate, hopeless struggle between her life as a woman, and her life as an artist.  I'll tell you right now...this is, at times, an incredibly depressing drama.  not because of massive death, but because of the hopeless struggle Jin Yi's life is, and the knowledge that to be happy with one part of her life, she'll be miserable in another.  It's also beautiful and utterly amazing.  And she has a really hot bodyguard.

The Little Fairy:  This one is such an amazingly guilty pleasure.  Except for the part where I feel no guilt.  An adaptation of a famous story about a fairy(goddess) and mortal who fall in love, it's essentially an emo manpainy angstfest.  There is more crack and emo manpain in here than a girl knows what to do with.  There's death by flying carpet, wounded crosscountry treks across medieval China, clawing at walls with bloody fingers, screaming to the heavens, catgirls, selective amnesia, magic apples, interfering mongolian princesses, blackmail, torture, false imprisonment, heroes storming heaven, banishment to hell, writing a goodbuy letter to your friends in your own blood, betrayal, murder...the series is utterly shameless and I love it for it.  But it has redeeming value.  Really, it does!  Under all the crack and emo angst wallowing, there's a very good, well told love story inside and pretty solid acting all around. 

Sword Stained With Royal Blood:  Based on Bi Xue Jian by Jinyong, SSWRB tells the story of Yuan Chengzhi, the son of a rebel who goes on a quest to avenge his father's death and overthrow the king his father died opposing.  Separated from his men, he meets and falls in love with Qing Qing, a crossdressing, sweet, spunky, of sometimes childish girl who belong to a family of dastardly rogues(leaving her with some serious attachment/abandonment issues.)  As they are the best thing that's ever happened to each other, he saves her from her Evil Family and they have adventures.  During their adventures, they meet and befriend Ah Jie, who is secretly the daughter of the very emperor Chengzhi wants to destroy. Though it's also both a love story and an adventure, at it's heart it's about the question of what makes a hero.  The heroes aren't perfect and flawless, the new king may be no better than the old, and the villains may not be as bad as they seem.

Young Warriors of the Yang Clan:  Probably the most heartbreaking thing I watched this year with the possible exception of Hwang Jin Yi(but different kinds of heartbreak.) Young Warriors is  is the story of a famous Chinese family who were famed for  being among the greatest warriors of their time-the father was the chief general of the army and all seven of his sons were in the army with varying rank, all known for their fighting ability-and for most of them dying in one battle after being betrayed.  After which their mother, sister and wives become a clan of female warriors and probably spend the next forty years driving the one remaining son bat crazy.  Though there's romance aplenty, it's the story of a family and their relationships, and their patriotism.  It's my favorite wuxia.  But the second the father and all the brothers go off in one fight and there's a huge parade as they leave GET YOUR HANKIES BECAUSE IT'S TEARS FROM THERE ON OUT AND THE SHOW WILL RIP YOUR HEART OUT AND STOMP ON IT UNTIL IT'S JUST A GREASE SMEAR!

Duds:

None, really.  Even the ones I have reservations about or problems with still have enough good qualities for me to recommend them.

The rest:

Chinese Paladin: Based on an RPG, a fantasy wuxia about a young rogue who goes to an island to get medicine for his ill aunt, meets and falls in love with a princess, gets amnesia when he goes home to tell aunt and give her the medicine, then meets the princess again, thinks she's nuts for claiming they're married, but agrees to help her find her homeland, and many adventures ensue.  I liked it when I saw it, then I loved it, and now that I've seen a lot more wuxia, I still like it, but not nearly as much.  In terms of wuxia fantasy and adventure, it's great, and it has a wonderful supporting cast.  But honestly, Hu Ge and Crystal Liu's characters are so amazingly annoying that it's a miracle I like them now, and their love story never worked for me.  It's one of the few times I passionately believe the hero should have ended up with the other girl.

Handsome Siblings:  A very good story about twin brothers separated at birth-the quick witted and silver tongued Little Fish and the angstmuffin hottie assassin Flaawless Flower-who are raised to be enemies but become friends instead.  The problem is that while Flawless Flower's story is excellent, most of the series is devoted to catering to Dicky Cheung's slapstick humor, which doesn't work for the story and makes large chunks of it aggravating.  STill, I do rather like it, flaws and all.  It just has many FF-able chunks.

Patriotic Knights:  About a young man raised on an island who goes off to honor his father's promise to his dead lover that they'll each send their heir to fight to determine which lover is the better fighter.  Wuxia is like that.  Naturally, the heirs become friends, fall for the same girl, and have adventures.  Great fun though often standard with appealing, complementary characters and a fun main romance.

Return of the Condor Heroes: Probably the most famous wuxia ever(overall, not this version) an almost pure love story about the son of a villain who loves her beautiful kung-fu master.  It has a lot of flaws to me(which I detailed in my wuxia primer) and I'm never quite sure the lovers love each other for any reason than that nobody else was as pretty as they were, but it kept me very entertained while I was watching and I can still sigh over it if called on, but not a favorite.  Probably the best intro wuxia I've seen, though.

Romance of Red Dust:  The story of an idealistic scholar and an assassin sent to kill him who fall in love and become rebels, eventually coming into the service of the future emperor.  I didn't realize it until I finished(though I started suspecting miudway through) but it's actually the historical story of the emperor and one of his generals, with the assassin heroine added in as the woman they both love.  It's notable for often being harsh in it's depictions of the world(and is rather dark for a wuxia) and for the near total gender reversal in the first half.  The romance took a little too long to take off for me for such a romance driven plot, but I really liked it.

Strange Tales of Liao Zhai:  A collection of 6 stories from Liao Zhai(there are over a thousand) these are mostly angsty romances between a mortal man and a woman with a supernatural nature.  The stories are of varying quality, but overall I really liked it, and want to see the 2 new Liao Zhai series.

Twin of Brothers:  Another frustrating one about two orphan's who grew up as brothers who become kung fu heroes.  Raymond Lam's character is amazing as he goes from a penniless rogue to a famed hero...or a villain, depending on who you ask, and remains faithful in his love and determined in his goals.  Ron Ng's hero, however, is a dull, sanctimonious prat who cheat's on his girlfriend but is supposed to be the "Better man" of the two.  Plus he can't act.  I don't mean that Ron Ng is a bad actor, I mean that he stands there and recites his lines.  Watch it, but uynless Raymond Lam or Nancy Wu is around, FF through Ron's junk.

War of In-Laws:  A very fun period drama about the daughter of a bandit who pretends to be a noble bride to escape arret and finds herself with a milksop mama's-boy for a husband and a controlling, shrewish mother-in-law.  The upside is that there's also a hunky masked rebel who keeps rescuing her.  But the masked rebel is ALSO secretly her husband, who ends up jealous of himself.  Despite the fact that MIL is one of the most annoying things to ever appear on my TV screen, the show is great fun...just FF through MIL if the leads aren't around.

Yoshitsune:  The story of a legendary hero of the Heian era.  A good show, but brought down by the fact that, while Takizawa Hideaki did his best and was very good early on as the young man trying to follow in his father's footsteps, he was simply way out of his depth as a legendary hero and warrior.  A very good samurai tale, though, just be prepared to see the lead outclassed by the entire cast(even those who aren't as good an actor as he is, juts because they were better suited for their roles.)  Plus, Abe Hiroshi is amazing once you get to around the midway point.

Modern Dramas:

(Even though this is the part more are interested in, it's going to take longer because...uhm...the first half took longer than planned...)

Top 9(it would be 10 but I realized I was just looking for a 10th):

Brother Beat:  About the lives and loves of three brothers whose father died when they were young, and whose mother is more of a sister.  Simply a very, very good family drama that's well acted, has a good plot and storytelling, and has appealing characters, even when they screw up.

Fantasy Couple:  Flat out my favorite modern kdrama.  About a wealthy **tch who distrously crosses paths with a greedy handyman and refuses to pay him for services rendered.  They have several more such terrible encounters and when she gets amnesia, he claims she's his girlfriend, figuring he can get enough out of her in housekeeping and childcare(he has custody of his 3 orphaned nephews) to pay the bills she stiffed him on.  It had the potential to go horribly wrong in ever so many ways, but ended up utterly wonderful.  Largely because, for all his flaws, the hero really was a great guy and very charming, and the heroine never once let anyone walk all over her.  Both leads grow and mature a lot, and it also has a wonderful supporting cast.

Galcir:  Crack.  Sheer, utter crack.  Featuring Fujiki Naohito as an american cowboy(HA!) who comes to Tokyo to find a girl whose message in a bottle savedthe life of his indian mentor years ago.  He sets up camp and digs  traps in the park and hooks up with a group of Para Para dancing Shibuya Gals.  The ending credits feature Fujiki Naohito in reaally really bad cowboy duds dancing the Para Para with a silly grin on his face with the rest of the cast lined up and dancing behind him.  Just thinking about this one fills be with glee.

Hana Yori Dango 2:  Sequel to the first awesome series, only done better.  And with better fashion.  And I remain in love with Hanizawa Rui.

Love Generation: A pretty straightforward romance with Kimura Takuya as a man who gets transferred from the artistic division of his company to the business side and has to adjust, while falling for the plucky office lady he now works with, who he once tried to get to go to a love hotel with him(actually, he got her to go, she just outsmarted him as far as getting what he wanted.)  A very good romance with appealing leads.  Just ignore his brother and the brother's fiancee(who's also KimuTaku's ex and decides she wants him back...very annoying character and she and the brother were as interesting as dirt...I forgave them somewhat for doing things like running through the airport to stop the other from leaving, though.)

Teru Teru Ashita:  A charming story about two women who find themselves in the small town of Sasara, which is home to many supernatural incidents.  Teruyo is a teenager whose parents send her to live with a woman who may or may not be nice and who's sort of a relative while they flee from their debtors, while the newly widowed Saya moves there with her young son after her husband's relatives try to take him from her to be adopted by her husband's brother.  It's a very charming and whinsical tales that manages to avoid being remotely saccharine or mushy.  It's not as good as Ame to Yume, which it's basically a follow up to(Teruyo and Saya are played by the lead actresses of AtY, and there are many AtY referrences, including guest appearances by the male leads of AtY) but still excellent.

My Girl:  After Goong massively bombed for me and almost made me swear off modern kdramas, I decided to give My Girl a chance and learned that yes, they CAN work for me.  It made me root for a chronic liar and a guy with Highly Questionable Fashion Sense and a stick far, far up his butt.  I though it dragged a bit around the middle and was very annoyed when the hero went back to his ex(why?  It made no sense except to add to the angst and conflict) and there were a few times when the heroine, though no doormat, should have spoke up for herself more(primarily in regards to said ex) but all in all it was great fun.

Nodame Cantabile:  Also pure crack.  (jdramas give me crack and mysteries and rarely give me doormat heroines) About a genius, near excessive-compulsive musician who wants to return to Europe and study to be a conductor but has a deep, deep fear of flying, and a superslob pianist who wants to be teacher.  And all their utterly insane but totally charming friends.  The romance is odd and offbeat but works amazingly well and you just can't imagine them without each other.  It's also the most manga-like manga adaptation I've seen.  I long for the special.

Pride:  Another straightforward romance about a hockey player who enters into "contract dating" with a woman, on the condfition that they'll break up if the boyfriend she's waiting on ever comes back for her.  I normally dislike contract dating/marriage intensely, but it worked for me here.  It's just very well done and well acted.

Duds:

Devil Beside You:  Ok, the secondary romance with Kingone and the heroine's best friend?  If they'd been the focus, it'd be #10.  But as it is we have Rainie Yang as a really fake cutesy girl and Mike He giving an amazingly bad attempt at a "bad boy" and bossing her around, bullying her, holding all the strings in the relationship, essentially forces her into the relationship in the first place and in general trampling all over her.  Meanwhile, she stands there and whines but lets him walk all over her and they fret over the fact that they're going to be stepsiblings soon, making their love Oh So Forbidden.  Honestly, I don't get it.  For that matter, I don't get the appeal of Mike He's "bad boy" act at all(IT! WAS! SO! BAD!) or why the Mike/Rainie pairing is so big, because they didn't really work for me on any level.  It's the reason i'll probably never get around to watching Why Why Love.  Despite Kingone.

Next/Rebirth:  I found it interesting and the reincarnation aspect interesting, and really liked all the past lives stories, but this ended up with a hopelessly muddled message about love that made no sense and in the end made the modern versions of the characters all thoroughly unlovable.  And they all ended up miserable because...maybe they can try again another time?  It had a lot of potential, but in retrospect, it flopped bigtime.

Taiyou no Kisetsu:  I just...don't see how I was supposed to find the hero appealing on any level.  The heroine was darling, as was the hero's best friend, but Takizawa Hideaki's character was just an utter cretin with no apparent morals or redeeming traits, and without anything to make him appealing except for being pretty.  And really, the whole vengeance plot was very weak and blown way out of proportion.  He was very, very cute with the heroine and I could ship them(despite his massive unworthiness...but really, if we only shipped characters who were worthy of each other, there wouldn't be nearly as much to ship) but mostly I wanted to kick him.  I think I was supposed to sympathize and root for him at the end, but all I could do was wonder why he was the one who got to live.  The fact that most of the other characters weren't much better didn't help any.

The Rest:

Detective Conan Special:  Just a light, fun special that serves as a prequel to the manga series.  Nothing special, but great fun.

Gateau Affairs:  An amazingly fun and cracky parody of wuxia and kdramas about a woman who wants to be a baker who thinks a master baker stole her design and swears revenge and becomes his apprentice, only to fall in love with him.  There's also random brain cancer and amnesia and betrayals and such.  Great fun.

Hana Kimi (TW):  A light and fluffy adaptation of the crossdressing manga about a girl  who crosses the ocean to enroll in her idols all boys school.  Despite some quibbles about plot, character and relationship changes, it might have ended up in the top ten, except that it had no ending.  They just stopped it but tried to trick us into thinking there was and ending.  I smile when I think about the series then growl when I think about the ending.

Hero:  My introduction to Kimura Takuya as a high school drop out who became an unorthodox lawyer with a strict sense of justice and an addiction to buying things from shopping channels.  Nothing special, but very endearing and entertaining.  It also features Abe Hiroshi in the only role I've seen him in where he wasn't an oddball(though they couldn't help making a few mnods to Trick, for which I was deeply appreciative.)

Kekkon Dekinai Otoko:  A slice of life drama featuring Abe Hiroshi as an eccentric, obsessive compulsive architect with a fondness for classical music and rich foods.  An offbeat but very charming drama with a great cast and an odd yet effective romance.  It saved me from a dorama funk and I love Abe Hiroshi.  It won't win "drama of the year" awards, but is well worth watching.  And it has a dog so ugly it's the cutest thing ever.

Kindaichi Shonen no Jikembo III: Another drama featuring a famous manga detective in his young days.  This is a straightforward, often dark, mystery series featuring MatsuJun as a young man who's social inept but a brilliant detective.  And has a Girl Friday with the world's biggest crush on him but he's completely oblivious.  I seem to be saying versions of this a lot, but while it's nothing incredibly special, it's a good, well done drama well worth watching.

Love Guaranteed:  A romantic comedy about feuding insurance agents who have to pretend to be dating so they can sell "love insurance."  GReat fun with a charming hero and an awesome heroine who doesn't take anything from everyone.  It made me a Sunny Chan fan for life.

Magicians of Love:  A cracky drama about hairstylists who have to save Taiwan with their styling skills.  I kid you not.  It has the worst fashion ever and a battle where one of the heroes takes out and entire gang by kicking a soccer ball.  Could have been about 5 episodes shorter and a better show for it, but still fun.

Meteor Garden:  The Taiwanese version of Hana Yori Dango.  Most people prefer this, but I found it rather draggy and thought a lot of issues needed to be addressed that weren't.  In addition, while I liked her in the end, the heroine's wishy-washy-ness drove me batty, and while I have no objections to looking at F4(especially Jerry Yan's arms) they aren't good looking enough for me to forgive the bad acting by...well...the entire cast.  Still, the story itself is good enough for me to still like it.

Rondo:  A great suspense drama about an undercover cop working for the man who destroyed his family who falls for a Korean immigrant who's more than she seems.  Good acting, great production, good romance, good story, interesting characters.  Probably the best "jdrama as kdrama" that I've seen, if not my favorite.  Highly recommended.

Shades of Truth: A fun story about 2 cops-one a high-ranking playboy elite and the other a low-ranking undercover cop-who are reincarnations of two legendary heroes.  The undercover cop spends half the show trying to get the playboy to remember their past lives, with a lot of hysterical results.  The main romance didn't work for me, but didn't bother me enough to affect my enjoyment, and I loved the secondary romance and the overall story.