TV Drama Review #183 - Kiina 奇异搜查事件簿

No.of Epis: 9
Year/TV Station: 2009/NTV
Cast:
Kanno Miho ~ Haruse Kiina
Hiraoka Yuta ~ Yamazaki Takeru
Sawamura Ikki ~ Miyabi Kazuma
Koike Eiko ~ Endo Sakura
Synopsis: (from Dramawiki)
At first glance Haruse Kiina is a completely normal 29-year-old. However, Kiina is the head of a special investigation unit nicknamed "Beppan" which deals with strange cases. With an unorthodox approach to solving crimes, she draws on her exceptional memory and powers of observation, and gets so absorbed in the pursuit of these cases that she forgets to eat or sleep til she solves the mystery.
Slacker's review:
It's nice to see Kanno back in a new drama! But this time round, "Kiina" seemed to be too similar to her previous drama "Hataraki Man". So what are the similarities? Firstly, Kanno's Haruse was paired up with another rookie in the drama, and that was Hiraoka's Yamazaki. (It's the same in "Hataraki Man" where Kanno was paired up with Hayami.) Secondly, both characters had some super powers-Kiina had a photographic memory, she can just flip the books and rmbed everything. As for her role Matsukata in "HM", she wld be in her "workaholic" mode when she wrote her reports etc. Thirdly, Kiina loved to eat sweet stuffs, while Matsukata loved to eat natto sushi. Fourthly, both Kiina and Matsukata didn't seem to have much luck in romance...haha! Next, both girls had some distinct trademarks when they did their poses..lol! Also, both dramas were based on respective cases in each epi.
Enough of listing the similarities. Even with so many similar stuffs, "Kiina" is still a quite unqiue drama of its own. It's a crime-solving drama, but the cases were related to unexplainable circumstances, supernatural or otherwise. Of course, in the end, the suspects were all humans. Lolz! But it's a nice way to see how they used the unconventional way to commit crimes. What's more? Some of the cases were actually based on real life cases! Even though Kiina might have her way on how to solve the crime, she always went to ask for more scientific explanations from Kudo, who's working as a scientist. (And he's Kiina's ex bf!!)
I enjoyed Kanno's portrayal as Kiina, and she didn't remind me of Matsukata in "HM", which was good. Kiina was a little exaggerating when she's not solving cases, but I liked how she enjoyed her sweet snacks and how she talked to her friends. Once she's following a case, we get to see a different Kiina on a "serious mode". Kiina cld be a little indecisive at times, and she cld be a little "different" when she spoke to Kudo? Ha! Well, I just wished that they cld find some better looking guys to act as her ex la.
Hiraoka's performance was alright, he's more like a complement to Kiina, and their chemistry was not bad la (though no romance b/w them). Yamazaki was quite a funny fella, like how he was so scared of ghost etc. Also, he yearned to join other policemen to solve the normal cases, but Miyabi always put him under "Beppan". So Yamazaki kinda "ren ming" in the end, and slowly, he changed his attitude while working with Kiina.
Other support cast was great, I think two of the cases were linked to the policemen, including Miyabi. Koike was too underused though...
Theme song "Change the World" by Michi.

Birthday Present

--Tuan--
Well, actually I asked the girl to help me buy the album in Shanghai la, but she said it wld be my bdae present...haha! Hey....it's "too cheap" for u liao ok? Lolz!
Anyway, she had got me a backpack with E.W liao...thank u la piggy.
And pls rmb to find me that book. Hahaha!

Belated Birthday Celebration Part 2

--Shokudo @ Raffles City--
This is my 2nd visit to Shokudo after a year (and last yr it was on 29/3 too!). Met up with the teachers and had a nice meal la.
ML's omelette with cheese & ham.
PF's usual fav...sashimi.
Another PF's fav...forgot the name. It's made of potato, and came with egg & sausage.
ML's recommendation...Japanese peach tea!
ML's Katsu curry rice.
Tada! My Hakodate seafood cheese pizza!
My BBQs...tebasaki (chicken wings) & scallop.
And ML ordered calamaris...looked different from normal western styled ones, but it's quite delicious.
--Marina Square--
The gals shopped around in RC before we moved to MS. PF went to cut her hair while ML & I went to shop. Hmm...didn't find any nice clothes leh. Sianz...
--Killiney Kopitiam--
So, we decided to sit down & take a rest before meeting PF again at Chap 2. My first visit to Killiney, which is famous for their kaya toast and traditional kopi. ML had her root beer float, and checked out mine!
Kaya Toast Set! The kopi was nice! I liked the kaya toast too, the kaya was not like those found in supermarkets. Not that sweet & artificial...plus, I like the small pieces of butter in b/w the bread. Finally, my fav soft-boiled eggs! Ok..I gotta admit my "cracking eggs" skills were super lousy, and ML was loling...haha! (Ok i must prac more often!)
So, our dear PF got a haircut, but the hairstyle was not dramatic different la. Hahaha! Hey I'm looking forward to see ur new hair colour soon eh! Hehe!
And, thanks for the present...hahaha! (I will make gd use of it....very soon~~) Yipee!!!

Belated Birthday Celebration

--三盅两件 Soup Restaurant--
Alright...there's no "celebration" in reality la, just a simple meal with my folks plus aunt jo. So, this was my 2nd time dining "Soup Restaurant". Impression of their food was average last time (ordered their set meal). This time round, E.W ordered ala carte, and the food was quite delicious. Hehe!
Soup of the Day: Pork Ribs & Lotus Root.
Steamed San Yu Fish Slices. Yummy!!!
Spicy Chai Po Tofu.
Fried French Beans with minced meat.
Fried Venison Ginger & Spring Onion. Oh my~I didn't know they sell deer meat here. The meat was very tender...ho!
Claypot Sea Cucumber & Duck Wings.
Gotta pardon me for the quality of the pics. My hp's cam suddenly got prob, so gotta use E.W's hp, and the lighting wasn't good at the restaurant. Thus, the pics looked blurred...
Anyway, it's a nice meal, but the crysenthemum tea was 1.8osgd! free flow la...(still kinda ex leh!)
Haiz~My hp's cam is not working leh....jia lat la! Going to change hp in may or june and now this happened! (Samsung phones really know the timing sia...my previous phone also started to switch off by itself when its "dateline" was reaching...haha!)
Bought 2 quilt covers from Aussino after the meal, price not very cheap, but the quality still not bad. Lolz!

Update

Updated "Zettai Kareshi Special" on ZK's drama review.
Go to Tags & search for "Japanese Drama 2008".

致: 自己

3月27日又来了。
今年阿清不会再埋怨自己又老一岁了。
反而是要庆幸自己还能过生日。
最近开始觉得能每年过生日是多么幸福的事情。
因为我们不知道下一分钟会发生什么事。

说到今年的生日会怎么庆祝呢？
还是跟往年一样吧。
不过，今天是有点平淡啦。
因为蒋先生放工时间有点晚，所以跟家人去“庆祝”的计划也要延后到明天。
接下来就是跟死党们一起庆祝了。。。

咳~可能心态真的变了。
以前小的时候很期待过生日。
不过，现在阿清把这一天看得很淡。
不需要蛋糕，也不需要很多礼物。
有人记得就已经足够了。

那今年阿清给自己准备了什么礼物呢？
我只能够说。。。还在“筹备”当中。
如果我能“收到”的话，到时候再告诉大家咯！

在此，阿清要祝自己生日快乐！
Happy Birthday! 0(^_^)0

TV Drama Review #182 - Perfect Cut 2 一切完美 2

No.of Epis: 13
Year/TV Station: 2009/Mediacorp Channel U
Cast:
Thomas Ong ~ Alex Tan 陈毅杰
Michelle Chia ~ Kelly Lim 林咏琪
Edmund Chen ~ Win Cheong 张乐风
Phyllis Quek ~ Joey Cheong 张乐依
Julian Hee ~ Sky Tan 陈冠天
Michelle Tay ~ Wu Xiaoli 吴晓莉
Zheng Wanling ~ Emily Tan
Synopsis: (edited from http://perfectcut.mediacorptv.sg/story.htm)
All will be perfect, if you can accept imperfection. And ever since Alex understood the meaning of it, he and Kelly began dating proper and are a loving couple despite their usual squabbling.
Alex's clinic is also thriving and he has even earned himself the nickname ‘Doctor with a Soul'. All seems perfect until a particularly tricky reconstructive operation leads Alex to invite his good friend and competitor Win Cheong to work with him for the operation.
After the operation, Alex even asks Win to be his partner in the clinic. His decision will unwittingly bring him unwelcomed changes to his clinic and his relationship with Kelly.
On the other hand, Sky is eager to prove himself, goes against Alex's wishes and joins Joey's modeling agency. She soon grows attracted to his innocence and sincerity. Xiaoli is happy but worried over Sky's success, and wonders if they would drift apart.
Emily gets herself a Facebook account and meets Sean, a young boy looking for a girlfriend for his father Clement. Sean is full of disapproval for Emily; Clement on the other hand thinks she'll be great taking care of children. However, Emily wonder if Clement wants to find a wife or a maid...
Slacker's review:
I'm glad to see "Perfect Cut" again. The sequel might not be as good as the previous season, but there's more emphasis on the main characters, how they faced difficulties in their work & relationships. So overall, I think "PC2" was still not too bad, and I don't mind to see "PC3" in the future. Haha!
The individual cases in the drama were excellent, touching on various topics. One of the case was a continuation from season 1, featuring Stella, who likes to find younger men. I thought her case was a pretty sad one, and I didn't expect that ending to happen. The last case was quite interesting - a teenage guy was bullied by his classmates as he had developed breasts and had to cover it up...and his parents later thought there's fairy goddess inside him & refused to let him seek help from doctors. Well, superstition cld be a scary thing sometimes.
On relationships, the side plots of Sky-Xiaoli-Joey & Emily-Clement-Sean were not too bad. I didn't really like Alex-Kelly-Win's part though. Maybe I was kinda annoyed with how Kelly was treating Alex, and how Win kept testing Alex's limits.
Generally, the original cast did a good job. I thought Julian Hee improved quite alot, probably becoz' there's much more depth given to Sky this time round. I always find Sky too innocent & naive, and it was so true when he entered the modelling world. (Quite unrealistic in reality...) I enjoyed the moments b/w Sky & Xiaoli too, like the scene where Sky gotta piggy-back Xiaoli..laughed like crazy. Haha! I can't say much abt the chemistry b/w Julian & Michelle Tay, since they didn't seem to match. Btw, Xiaoli's mum & bro were so annoying! Hahaha! The way Cruz Teng spoke in the drama was like a DJ speaking sia...sounded odd to me.
Liked the inclusion of Phyllis Quek. Joey is a woman who's ambitious & tough on the outside, but actually she's a lonely woman. Phyllis is quite a veteran actress by now, so acting wise I thought she handled pretty well.
And the next fella who's new in this drama is Edmund Chen. I seriously didn't like his acting and his character Win. Firstly, Edmund tried too hard to speak like someone who was working in US for sometime. I couldn't stand him faking a weird American accent when he spoke in mandarin & english. Secondly, Edmund's acting seemed to be the same all these years. Compared to Thomas Ong, his acting seemed to be stiff or overdoing at times. Win is quite an interesting fella- he's ambitious, didn't like to lose, and he seemed to be like a flamboyant guy on the surface, but actually he did used his brains before he acted. Ha! While Alex was kinda restricted with his title "Doc with a soul", Win shared his opinions in another way, and honestly, his thinking was very true in reality. That's a nice contrast between them actually. Well, though I didn't like Edmund's portrayal of Win, I thought this character was quite interesting as he challenged Alex and pushed him to his limits, thus making Alex to discover something else as he went to Thailand later on. As for Win & Kelly, I didn't like how Win wanna steal his buddy's gf, but at least he didn't use any dirty methods.
Thomas Ong...he was great here. Maybe there's nothing "new" to his character, but I think there's more depth given to Alex as we see how Alex dealed with his relationship b/w his bro, buddy and gf. There's lots of emotional scenes for Alex-enraged, sad, satisfaction etc. Thomas chemistry with Edmund was quite nice here, it's fun to see them "battling" sometimes. However, this time round, I thought his chemistry with Michelle Chia was kinda lacking. Their relationship was practically on the same level until they broke off, and later got back together. Most of their interaction seemed to revolve around the patients or with their families. I didn't like the ending of the drama, though Kelly finally accepted the ring. In fact, the last epi was kinda boring with Kelly texting Alex everyday, like writing a diary. They only shared a few scenes at the last few mins! What a waste!
Michelle Chia was pretty much the same, and we got to see the flaws of Kelly. I agreed with what Kelly's mum said to her...she was so patient and understanding to her patients, but not to Alex. And shouldn't she be more sensitive as Win was clearly "too close" to her? I couldn't believe that she didn't sense anything from Win lo.
Zheng Wan Ling was still funny as usual...Emily's romance with Clement was kinda bittersweet, and I really couldn't stand the Sean! Horrible little fella! Don't let me see such a child in real life ah. Hahaha!
Themesong was "Fang Le Ai" by Guo Mei Mei...I preferred the insert song which was sang by her too..but I couldn't find the title of that song. Also, the previous season's themesongs were also played throughout this series...nice songs!