Legend of Xiangxi/ 血色湘西

I have contemplated whether or not to do a synopsis of this as I'm not sure if anyone subbed this yet. This is a Chinese drama that was really touching but bloody at the same time. This takes place during the Japanese invasion. But they aren't affected by it till towards the very end. This drama mostly just dealt with love, family problems, tradition, and also the fear of the Japanese invasion. The actors had a lot of chemistry together and that is the main reason I thought this would be a good drama to write about.

Also RIP Bai Jing, the girl who acted as Tian Sui Sui. She had passed away in 2012. She was murdered by her husband who committed suicide afterwards. Rest in peace.

Synopsis:
         The girl's name is Tian Sui Sui. She's an only child raised by her father. Her mother had passed away when she was born. When she's finally old enough, during a Chinese festival, she wears their traditional clothes and goes out to have her fate read. It was tradition for the girls that when they turn a certain age to go and do so. It also shows that they are allowed to be courted. The boys, there, wear an earring on one side of their ear to show that they are of age to date also. That day, Sui Sui catches the eye of the young master of the Long family (a well-esteemed family there). His name was Long Yao Wu. She also catches the eye of Shi San Nu who goes to the extremes to know her name and to meet her. At her cousin's house, she meets the second master of the Long family, Long Yao Wen, and also catches his eye. The second master likes to read and is more about literature, whereas his older brother, liked to fight and was much more tougher.
          Sui Sui didn't have any feelings for the Long family masters. Instead, she found herself thinking of Shi San Nu. At the dragon boat race, he promised her that he would win and give the prize (which was a knife in this leather case) to her. He won the race, steadily, and gave the knife to Sui Sui. Little did these two lovers know that they would not be able to be together, due to their families. They were sort of like Romeo and Juliet where they could not be together.
          They went through several separations though the two were awfully depressed without one another. Though Sui Sui began to move on, Shi San Nu never forgot about her nor loved another girl. The Long family was also experiencing family problems of their own. Long Yao Wu, the older brother, was given an arranged marriage with Sui Sui's cousin, Yue Yue. Yue Yue always liked Long Yao Wu. However, when he tried to kill Shi San Nu for his younger brother to have a chance with Sui Sui, he got shot by San Nu's father and ended up being paralyzed for life (below his waist).
          Yue Yue still cared for him. However, he began to suffer emotionally. He used to be the head of the household with everyone taking care of him and respecting him. Now he was paralyzed and basically useless. The little brother takes over the original job that the paralyzed brother once had. Yao Wu began to feel more and more upset with himself and ended up letting out that anger and frustration on Yue Yue.  He felt useless and because he can no longer have kids, he yelled at Yue Yue saying she couldn't have kids. To prove him wrong, she got pregnant with the second master when Long Yao Wen was drunk. Long Yao Wen thought of her as Sui Sui and this incident happened. Little did she expect to actually get pregnant and deal with the consequences. She only did that to prove him wrong but she still loved Long Yao Wu. They went through a lot. Thankfully, the young master still cared for the boy that was born. They lied to the kid saying that Long Yao Wu was his father. Meanwhile, Long Yao Wen became a soldier. He was always a good-natured, easily scared kind of kid but became a hero overtime.  Yue Yue was locked away in the house, not allowed to be near her son, but she was thankful to know that Yao Wu loved her son.
         
Then the Japanese invasion began. Sui Sui is a nurse and Shi San Nu helped in delivering the medicine upon knowing she was there. They already had no hope with one another as their parents died due to the family feud.  However, their love was still strong. When the Japanese invaded their hometown, Sui Sui and Shi San  Nu and many others fought on the battlefield (which resulted in a lot of tragedies). Yue Yue went to go find Long Yao Wu immediately when Japanese soldiers began to run around in the streets. She saw him being played around by the Japanese soldiers in the manor because he was paralyzed. Together, Long Yao Wu and Yue Yue fought many Japanese soldiers before dying together. They died happily and had a sweet ending. It was a tragic ending for most though. This was a great series that showed tradition, love, and also with some history. I liked analyzing the relationships that Sui Sui had. It was fascinating. It also left you feeling emotionally attached to some of the characters.

However, there were some scenes in this drama that I thought should have been different. I felt that the relationship between Sui Sui and San Nu were too deep for them to really keep a distance, even towards the end. I also felt that the war scene should've been more detailed. I know they were trying to incorporate some tradition as they used some weapons that their ancestors left behind, but I still felt it could've been improved in many ways.

Waking up Love

This drama has the same story as The Prince Who Turns Into a Frog because it is a remake. It was still very nice with Roy Qiu and Tang Yan acting as the main roles. 

Synopsis: 

      Liu Xiao Bei is a lively girl who lives with her mother and little brother in a village called Tao Li. She always dreamed of her own fairy tale love story. She decides to enter a competition to be the princess of the Hao Li Corporation.The competition prize was money which she wanted to win to give the village school a piano. She always dreamed of meeting her own prince. The first guy that she meets and befriends is Ji Ru  Feng. At first, she feels like he is her prince. 

       Meanwhile, she had a lot of arguments and bad encounters with the CEO named Xiang Tian Qi. However, after a bad event, he loses his memories and stays in Tao  Li with Xiao Bei. Xiao Bei adopts him for the meantime and falls in love with him. They become a couple. However, when he regains his memories, he forgets about her. The two are faced with challenges both in love and in business. They must work together to save themselves, their homes, and problems start arising. It was a really sweet drama. 

        Ji Ru Feng, also known as Eric, is the spokesperson for Hao Li. He is handsome, easy going, and loves Zhi Qing. Zhi Qing is a girl that grew up with Tian Qi and Zhi Qing. He never revealed his feelings for Zhi Qing knowing that she is devoted to Tian Qi. But slowly, he begins to open up towards Zhi Qing expressing his feelings. Zhi Qing is a clever manager of Hao Li and wanted to be Tian Qi's wife at a young age. But over time, she begins to accept  Ru Feng's affection. 

The main thing that irritated me about this drama were the dubbed voices making them sound all fake. But the acting wasn't that bad. The character Liu Xiao Bei seemed too naive too me and I wish there were some improvements to her character. However, other than that, I actually enjoyed this fairy tale story. 

Home, Sweet Home/ Wo Jia You Xi/ 我家有囍 &非常有囍

Synopsis:
      This was a very interesting drama that I enjoyed watching. It is a Chinese drama.
It showed all sides of a family, the good and the bad. In the Bai family, the father was a soldier. He has four daughters and he raised them all in military style. They had to exercise, train, and also be taught the virtues of being a soldier. However, as the daughters grow up, their personalities became more and more distinct and they began to lead different life styles.
         The oldest, Bai Jin Xi, was a goody-goody. She listened to her parents and went to go meet other matches through blind dates. She was also very good mannered and very kind. In the end, she married a good guy. Bai Mu Xi and Bai Shui Xi are "twins" but have absolutely different personalities. Bai Mu Xi is the good daughter with good grades and following her father's wishes of being a soldier. Bai Shui Xi wants to be someone in the entertainment world and does a lot of naive things that can bring trouble. Bai Huan Xi is the youngest and had a relationship with her tutor (a college student) and got pregnant at a young age. Thankfully, the guy was responsible.

          In this family, though everything seems to be in order: the name roll calls, the discipline, and everyone fearing their father, it was still dysfunctional and funny at times. It showed all sides of what a family could experience as the daughters grow older. The father began to realize that his children will have to live their own lives instead of following what he wanted of them and began to accept that overtime. Bai Jin Xi faced some problems and misunderstandings in her marriage. Bai Mu Xi liked a guy named Chen Shu Hang, only to find out that he was starting to like her twin sister. However, a guy that was six years younger than Bai Mu Xi liked her and was very good to her. Bai Shui Xi, after causing a lot of problems, got a job at a company and became a model and then an actress. She married  Chen Shu Hang and had a lovely relationship. However, to get away from his ex girlfriend trying to ruin their love, he left the company and went to search for a new job. They began to experience problems as Bai Shui Xi gets more famous. Chen Shu Hang begins to feel like he wasn't really supporting her in any way and he also constantly misunderstood that she has an affair with another male actor (but that actor was only a friend). They had a lot of arguments and all of the arguments seemed really realistic. Bai Huan Xi had no problems in her marriage as her husband cared for her. She had a daughter. But her mother-in-law makes life a bit hard for her.
          However, as these problems spring, one by one they all get resolved. They all end for the better. It was a great drama to watch because you see how they overcome misunderstandings and hardships together. It truly was touching for them to realize that they shouldn't hurt each other when they both love each other. It was also touching to see how they all found their match throughout the drama. I highly recommend this.

P.S. But personally, I thought  Bai Mu Xi's wedding dress at the end was really ugly. It was a red dress with components of a soldier uniform. I didn't like the dress all that much.

Also, if any of you watched the new version of HZGG aka My Fair Princess, a lot of the cast were in here.  Although the actors of Zi Wei and Er Kang in that drama were not together in this, they did say in an interview that the make up artists still call them: "Zi Wei" and "Er Kang."

(I watched it somewhere where they combined both seasons together. I think there were two seasons that linked with one another in this drama.)

HZGG/Princess of the Returning Pearl (NEW VERSION)

There was a drama series called Princess of the Returning Pearl (HZGG) and it was made when I was a lot younger. They made a newer version of this drama and it is called (in Chinese) The New HZGG. It has the same story line and everything. I watched this online and it had another name like (New) My Fair Princess. So this is the modern version, if you want to see the original version, you can read the synopsis I wrote of that. 

You can probably find this by the name of New My Fair Princess

Synopsis: 

      The story is basically the same thing, so I'll just use the same synopsis. But you guys can check out both versions. Of course the original version will always be better but the new one has its own charm. It had new characters that they added to make it better. So I would recommend you watch the original version first and then watch the new version so that you can see the differences of these two dramas.   

So the synopsis is the same as the other! 

            Xiao Yan Zi  is a common girl who is good at martial arts. She is feisty and full of spunk and a little bit crazy in her own way which makes you laugh. She uses her martial arts to earn money and sometimes even steal. She acts like a tomboy and is like a boy as she brags about things that she is good at. She has mainly street smarts and has no bad intentions at all except for earning/getting money to survive. She is a very care-free and childish character. 

              One day, she meets a elegant young lady with her servant. This young lady is Xia Zi Wei. Her mother had had an affair with the emperor and she was the result. So she had come to the capital city to find her father after her mother passed away. Her father just happened to be the Emperor, with the evidence of the poem he wrote to her mother and everything, she sets out to find him and be with her father. However, no one listened to her or took her seriously and shoved her aside. She doesn't know what to and her loyal servant looks after her young mistress well. Then, they met Xiao Yan Zi and they talked for a while, helped one another, and they become friends. 

           For the time being, Zi Wei and Xiao Yan Zi got very close and pledged to be like sisters from then on. The two had completely different personalities; one was wild and like a boy and the other an elegant and young lady. Xiao Yan Zi decides to help Zi Wei get to her father. Xiao Yan Zi believing Zi Wei's story decides to help her. Xiao Yan Zi finds a way to sneak into where the Emperor hunts by climbing through a mountain.. However, Zi Wei and her servant couldn't handle the tiring and dangerous mountain climb. Xiao  Yan Zi took Zi Wei's evidence of being the daughter of the emperor and said that she will go explain for Zi Wei and sets off. However, the Emperor was hunting and Xiao Yan Zi got shot by an arrow by the fifth prince. She was unable to explain her story and it made the Emperor mistaking her for being the princess. He takes care of her after her wound is taken care of which makes Xiao Yan Zi feel loved as she never felt fatherly love before and did not reveal the truth and even labeled as the princess that returned resulting in the name of "Returning Pearl Princess/Princess of the Returning Pearl." 

          However, Zi Wei believed that Xiao Yan Zi had betrayed her. As Xiao Yan Zi gets used to the life in the palace for she lacks in having proper manners and knowledge of books, she ends up befriending the fifth prince. On the other hand, Zi Wei is confiding in Er Kang who is friends with the fifth prince and much admired by the emperor. She explains her story and he decides to help her. When Xiao Yan Zi finally was able to get in touch with Zi Wei, she explains the situation and Zi Wei forgives her and decides to continue with the plan in order to save Xiao Yan Zi from death for pretending to be the princess. Xiao Yan Zi forms a relationship with the fifth prince and Zi Wei with Er Kang. Zi Wei works as a maid for Xiao Yan Zi and because she looks much like her mother, the emperor even starts to like her for her looks and elegance.This drama is about people getting their proper places, possibility of getting a death sentence of anyone lying to the emperor, an evil Empress who is suspecting of Xiao Yan Zi pretending and will do anything to torture Xiao Yan Zi about it, and a lot of jealousy as Zi Wei was constantly hurt by the Empress because she was believed to be liked by the emperor. How things resolve will be up to you to watch as I thought this drama was really good.

The addition of Benjamin is very fresh and new. He likes Xiao Yan Zi but Xiao Yan Zi only viewed him mostly as a friend.

So far I am loving this! It's humorous and light hearted with a good story line and unique characters. 

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge

This is a Japanese drama and it was based on the manga called The Wallflower. I'll jump to the synopsis first and then tell you my feelings on the drama itself. 

Synopsis: 

         The girl is called Sunako. She confessed to her high school crush and he replied, "I don't like ugly girls." Upon that, she was scarred and heartbroken. She began to shun all forms of beauty including within herself. She begins to become obsessed with things like vampires, torture devices, skeletons, horror films, and so forth. While, Sunako was living like this, there are other characters to talk about that are also important as to how this story plays. 

         Takano Kyohei is blessed with good looks and is
a college student. He gets fired from his part-time job and he also looks at personality instead of looks. This is because many girls fangirl over him but they don't like him for who he is but what he looks like. He also has a hot temper and is good at fighting. He was renting a mansion with three other good looking guys. They had a lot of fangirls but they lived in that mansion together. With his job gone, Kyohei wasn't sure how he was going to pay rent. Then the owner of the mansion, offers the guys free rent in her mansion if they can turn her niece Sunako into a "perfect lady." Her son was living with these four good-looking students and would help them get used to Sunako (that little boy is so cute and cheerful.) 

     The first meeting was scary as they did not expect Sunako to look so scary. Sunako was scared of "bright creatures" and kept head butting these guys whenever they had this light shining around them. She preferred dark places and avoids all of them except for her cousin (the little boy). In this drama, you see the girl slowly start coming out of her shell. You also see the friendship of the other guys form. They also had a lot of different problems throughout this drama and it was really interesting as to how they dealt with it. It was comedic and entertaining to watch them as they tried to turn Sunako into a perfect lady. Little did Kyohei expect to slowly fall in love with Sunako. The other guys all began to form close friendships with one another and also Sunako. You also see how they become moral support for one another and help one another with all the problems that they faced.

Sunako also gets amazing fighting skills when they call her ugly because it triggers past memories, makes her angry, and she just rages. So whenever they face trouble and need backup, they all call her: "Ugly Sunako" and she immediately starts fighting alongside them.

The ending was very cute and throughout the entire drama, you get the message: You are who you are and that makes you beautiful. And the reason why Kyohei liked Sunako was because she was who she was...loving her figurines, skeletons, skulls, blood, vampires, and her horror. 

Opinions: 

This was very entertaining. I personally thought that it was entertaining. They did a good job in acting and it was often very comedic. However, I loved the opening song because all the main actors in this drama were dancing together to the song. They had a lot of cute moments and you can see how isolated the girl is from the real world. She loves vampires so much, she sleeps in a coffin.  Her best friends are these science models of the human body that she found in someone's trash. You also see that the pretty boys have their problems. Like on Valentine's Day, they had to have curtains up and stay inside in fear of getting attacked by their fan girls. 

This is not entirely realistic. There are a lot of interesting moments. The way the two main characters fight is kind of interesting because the girl always pushes him around and they yell at one another. They faced a ghost in their mansion, wicked fangirls, and so forth. I would recommend this to all my friends.

Besides, what is better than watching a drama with four good looking guys?