JoleCole's Station

MBC's cur rent Wednesday and Thursday drama Arang and the Magistrate While I was watching the Korean drama Arang and the Magistrate, I found one of the theme songs to be awfully familiar but couldn't pinpoint it in my memory where I had heard it before. I later realize it was Hawick Lau's Thousand Mountains in Sealed with a Kiss. Go figure. Somehow I'm surprised and not so surprised about the Korean adaptation of this theme song. Not surprised because the song was originally written by a Korean composer 刘英锡 or Yoo Young Suk. Hawick Lau also purposely went to Korea to get trained for the song and did the recording there too. Surprised because I did not expect MBC to use previously existing music material for their drama series.

I have a strong habit to "ship" people together. This involuntary desire to ship couples can range from real life celebrities, characters in dramas or movies, characters in manga/books to famous historical figures! Fortunately, I have no interest to ship individuals I know in real life. PHEW! There are quite a few historical couples that I shipped, but my ultimate favorite is the Tang Dynasty Emperor Taizong 唐太宗 (personal name Li Shimin 李世民) and his Empress Zhangsun 长孙皇后. I'm not sure if you've heard of this couple since many existing Chinese period dramas tend not explore their relationship. They are often written as major characters in a series but Li Shimin ALWAYS gets paired up with some fictitious female character. -_-

A drought has once again descended upon my land of dramas and I have nothing substantive to post besides the occasional picture spurts. My eagerness for October 1 has all but dissipated. I highly doubt Female Prime Minister will get to air next month. It seems the unspoken ban on costume series from September to November during prime time hours (7 pm to 10pm) is taking effect. For the past two months and will probably continue till November, Hunan TV has been airing nothing but modern series and idol dramas. I'm soooo sick of them. I want to see pretty people in pretty costumes with a good storyline. After Turbulence of the Mu Clan, I'm back on the hunt for series that can hold my interest.

Turbulence of the Mu Clan evolves heavily around family politics and revenge. The constant plotting and traps can get tiresome, but the series still provides enough surprises and excitement to make the story engaging, I'm mostly intrigued by the main love story and perhaps the development of the Mu Zeng's character. Though Aleqiu is the #1 central character that connects everything together, I feel her character can get too goody two shoes for my liking. She has both good and annoying moments, so I have mixed feelings about her in general. Anyway, I'm planning to do some recaps focusing mainly on the OTP.

Turbulence of the Mu Clan has an extensive ensemble cast and many complicated characters.  I hope this list of characters will help those who don't understand Mandarin very well  or those who would just like to know more about the drama before you invest your time into it. :-D

Title: Turbulence of the Mu Clan /Mu Fu Feng Yun/ 木府风云 # Episode : 40 Genre : Ethnic History, Family Politics, Romance Broadcasting Compan y: CCTV Cast: Choo Ja Hyun as Aleqiu, Zhu Xiao Yu as Mu Zeng, Ray Lui as Mu Qing, Yu Rong Guang as Mu Long, Pan Hong as Luo Shi Ning. Sun Wei as Mu Kun, Su Xi Wei as Azhao

Are you tired of dynastic Chinese history, palace dramas, or idol dramas in general? Turbulence of the Mu Clan or Mu Fu Feng Yun 木府风云 offers a good change of setting and some sugarcoated sweetness with the love story. This series traces the rise of a famous Naxi Chieftain and his beloved wife in 16th century southwest China. The highlight of this drama is the battle between hate and love. In sum, this is a classic Cinderella story mixed with Romeo and Juliet elements, except with some very different outcomes.

I suddenly got interested in this upcoming modern series after the heavy promotion by Hunan TV on weibo. The storyline is rather overused and cliche. Since I'm currently bored in dramaland and the trailer looks captivating enough for me,  I'll give this series a try when it airs Monday. 

 Title: Fairytale in 1/2  童话二分之一/ Tong Hua Er Fen Zhi Yi / Half of Fairytale # Episode : 26? Genre : Modern Romance Release Date : August 27 Broadcasting Compan y: Hunan TV Cast: Janine Chang as Zhao Tingxuan/Zhao Tingyu, Lee Joon Hyuk as Du Yu Feng, Zhu Zixiao as Jing Wei  

Okay. It's established fact that Gao Zhan is alive in this scene Today is Chinese Valentine's Day. To "celebrate" this special occasion, more pretty pictures from Female Minister just got released . Yay! These stills just shows the various romantic relationships between the major characters. They include: Gao Zhan and Lu Zhen; Lu Zhen and Shen Jiayan; Gao Zhan and Shen Bi; Gao Yin and Xiao Guanyin. I think the pairing I dread most is Gao Zhan and Shen Bi. Based on what I read and saw in the trailer, Shen Bi just looks like the typical jealous villain without any redeeming qualities. Hopefully, she won't be too bad in the actual drama.

While Chinese dramaland remains dormant with no exciting news, I will drift off to other random topics.  Though I sometimes pretend to be profound and philosophical in my drama rant, I certainly possess a superficial side, which makes me nonimmune to all things pretty, particularly pretty people in pretty costumes. Hence, you all understand my attraction to Female Prime Minister, which has two gorgeous main leads. I have always been a big fan of period dramas because I feel they offer more visual stimulation than modern series. In period dramas, more exquisite details are given to props, sets, and costumes.  Add some pretty faces to this formula and the aesthetic effect of the production automatically magnifies.

Before the advent of popular internet novels or even romantic "idol" dramas in general, Chinese television was once dominated by romantic series created by Qiong Yao.  She is a famous Taiwanese romantic novelist who adapted many of her novels into popular TV series and movies for decades. Her first movie screenplay brought major success in 1960s. She is also renown for hand picking countless beautiful women and bringing these aspiring actresses to super stardom. They include Bridgette Lin, Vicki Zhao, Ruby Lin, Fan Bingbing, Jiang Qinqin (Shui Ling), Chen Hong, Chen Derong, Qin Lan, Leanne Liu Xuehua and etc.These women were completely unknown to the general audience before filming Qiong Yao's TV series/movies. I don't think I know of any prominent writer who has as much monopoly or "power' over her TV series as Qiong Yao.