Kdramas are not so bad themselves as they are moving away from the typical love-quads and moving onto more modern, everyday, portrayals of reality. i will always admire series like dal-ja's spring - such a fine piece of art if i can call it that!
i've just started to explore the world of asian dramas and there's just something about tvb that seems to fall short of the jdramas and kdramas. it's always the same plots over and over again, and not only that - the same actors and actresses - over and over.
yet, it is BECAUSE of the choice of actors and actresses that I actually bother to watch TVB series! you like certain actresses/actors that you've been watching with your parents since i dunno... kindred spirit and older shows... and you can't help but want to keep watching them! there's just something about seeing familiar faces on the chinese shows and will always make you want to watch the show, regardless of the plot! some of these actors and actresses are seriously in consecutive shows one after the other... i don't know of north american television ever being like that!
i kind of prefer the way asian dramas are filmed though. one series in ~20 episodes, give or take, and then that series is done! no more. no less. even if you WANT more, you won't get it... maybe you'll get a sequel if it's really that good!
anyhow, back to the latest marathon i had: war of the in laws II, starring Liza Wang, Myolie and Bosco (yes, i'm finally starting to put names to all these cantonese stars who I could only recognize by FACE all these years... it'd be even better if I got to know their Chinese names so that maybe I can have a conversation with my parents about them!).
this series was suprisingly good - and even more pleasant is that it was from TVB! it was original, and new, and the Devil Wears Prada-ish take makes this series unique from all the rest! this is probably the first cantonese series i would HIGHLY recommend hands down! dicey business would be my second, although that might have too many episodes for most people to bother with.
Liza Wang did an awesome job... i felt she played her pseudo-villainess role even more effectively than meryl streep - but of course, how can you compare a movie with a tv series? and a hollywood film compared to a tvb series...??? i can't.. and i shouldn't since it's like comparing apples and oranges, but really, liza wang really did do an amazing job. she shone the most, and from all the characters, i actually think her and joyce tang portrayed their characters most realistically! the variety in expression, and exaggeration just when necessary, and gentleness at the perfect time... i really did feel they were the characters as defined, and embraced the role as their own. i mean... can there really be such outrageous people in this world who have their characteristics? they convinced me they were! that's for sure! it's like, they acted so well, that they proved the existence of those characters - that they became REAL to me. O jei and Coco. "real people"... as opposed to bosco and myolie - while they did act well, i still saw them as the actors and actresses acting a ROLE.
i'm not sure if that makes sense, but i just felt that the roles of O jei and Coco were portrayed exceptionally well by the two acctresses Liza and Joyce respectively.
And the fashion... i LOVED it. the wardrobe for the series was beautiful to watch! it definitely satisfied my cravings to look at clothes and shop and figure out a more sophisticated style to pursue - although of course, they were so outrageously unique and only the characters could have the guts to use those random styles. so believable, so amazing. i'm glad i got my little snippet of watching before cracking down hard on the studying! i could go on but it's time to stop.
rating: 5/5 hands down!
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