Musings of the Obsessive Kind

I was going to do a post on cool drama guys with swords but then I thought...ehhhh, everybody's done one of those. I want to do a cool post on kickass drama GIRLS with swords or guns. And why they are awesome.

So here goes:

( Like your girls elegant but kickass? Enter here )

I was going to do a post on cool drama guys with swords but then I thought...ehhhh, everybody's done one of those. I want to do a cool post on kickass drama GIRLS with swords or guns. And why they are awesome.

So here goes:

( Like your girls elegant but kickass? Enter here )

OMG OMG OMG OMG

Du Gu Cheng, the Master Assassin and the trainer of the heroine, Hong Bi (as well as other assassins of evil minister) was whaaaaaaat?

An officer in love with the Empress!!!! OMG. And they were going to run away together, but were caught and she died (I assume with help) and he was going to be beheaded but Evil Minster said he will save him if he will become his and since his heart was dead he agreed. OMG.

But now Hong Bi is his sole weakness (not sure romantic or paternal, whatever), OMG.

Also, did I mention how much I adore the OTP of this, Li Jing and Hong Bi???? OMG. Because she is the tough, soul-weary assassin, with too much blood on her hands, and self-hatred (not only did she have to kill, for years, but at night she'd be Minister's whore, when he wanted it) and he is the idealistic, a little unworldly scholar, who is just genuinely good.

And she is the one who defends him and he doesn't want to be a burden, and I love that they have genuine clashes about mercy versus eye-for-an-eye and OMG the staring and OMG OMG OMG I love them. And he feels guilt not about her murdering the recent batch of attackers, but because he didn't kill anyone then, and so was useless and OMG he is basically the hope for her. And I love.

OTOH, evil minister's son is so annoying. Was he dropped on the head as a baby? Maniacal laughter only takes you so far...

I watched the first three episodes of the Chinese period/adventure/romance (alright, alright, wuxia) drama, Romance of Red Dust.

Our heroine, Hong Fu Nu (the gorgeous Shu Qi) is the pet assassin of the evil minister. The evil minister (EM) has a whole squad of assassins, male and female, to take out anyone who opposes him and Hong Fu Nu, picked up from the streets when a child, is one of them. (There is a subtext of a past relationship of some sort between her and Du Gu, the assassin trainer, who is kinda hot).

In between assignments, she is EM's plaything, and has to submit to him in his bed (there is actually a pretty horrid flashback, which basically shows that he took her virginity as well).

She hates the killing, she hates her boss, she hates having to be a whore. She is dead inside. Until one day her paths cross with Li Jing (Wallace Huo), an enthusiastic, idealistic scholar who sees her as a person. So when she is ordered to assassinate him, she saves him almost on impulse, and they go on the run...

I've been promised OTP, angst and other awesome things.

So far I love it. It might be my fave wuxia except for Return of the Condor Heroes.

I just love the unusual take in this story, which is so far heroine-centric, and is about the redemption and growth of the heroine. Who is the jaded one, the soul-dead one, the non-virgin. When Hong Fu Nu saves Li Jing's life instead of killing him as ordered, it's not love, not yet. It's just she has seen him be kind to a pair of starving children, and has seen him be a good, enthusiastic, warm person. Something wakes up in her that is long dead: she loves his idealism and sweetness so far, not him yet.

Which is so awesome, because she is the damaged one, the more experienced one, and he is the wide-eyed innocent. Though I've read that's going to change and he is going to be able to kick butt super-well, which is awesome as I prefer strong heroes :) But as of now, I think she is slowly falling for him, as much for his belief that she is good as for the fact that Wallace Huo is hot :)

Here are some pics:

( Pics here )

In other news, I am up through ep 14 of Tenjou Tenge. Oh my. Shin (Maya's brother) is SCARY. He is a psychotic, incestuous freak. Yikes. I have to say the families in this give me the creeps: we have Maya's family, with the psycho, incestuous-codependent brother (and somehow, I still find him fascinating) who killed their parents (!!!!) And Mitsuomi's family? In the past, we have the super-psycho father who is OK with ruining people in order to turn his son into an ultimate fighter (as he thinks he is too kind) and now we have Mitsuomi beating on his brother to toughen him up. Yikes. I have to say that in TT, I find the backstory a lot more interesting than in the present story. So cool and so messed up. Also, the adviser dude? So made of awesome. The characters I love are adviser guy, Maya, Mitsuomi and (in a weird way) Shin.



( A few caps, of course Maya/Mitsuomi-centric )

I watched the first three episodes of the Chinese period/adventure/romance (alright, alright, wuxia) drama, Romance of Red Dust.

Our heroine, Hong Fu Nu (the gorgeous Shu Qi) is the pet assassin of the evil minister. The evil minister (EM) has a whole squad of assassins, male and female, to take out anyone who opposes him and Hong Fu Nu, picked up from the streets when a child, is one of them. (There is a subtext of a past relationship of some sort between her and Du Gu, the assassin trainer, who is kinda hot).

In between assignments, she is EM's plaything, and has to submit to him in his bed (there is actually a pretty horrid flashback, which basically shows that he took her virginity as well).

She hates the killing, she hates her boss, she hates having to be a whore. She is dead inside. Until one day her paths cross with Li Jing (Wallace Huo), an enthusiastic, idealistic scholar who sees her as a person. So when she is ordered to assassinate him, she saves him almost on impulse, and they go on the run...

I've been promised OTP, angst and other awesome things.

So far I love it. It might be my fave wuxia except for Return of the Condor Heroes.

I just love the unusual take in this story, which is so far heroine-centric, and is about the redemption and growth of the heroine. Who is the jaded one, the soul-dead one, the non-virgin. When Hong Fu Nu saves Li Jing's life instead of killing him as ordered, it's not love, not yet. It's just she has seen him be kind to a pair of starving children, and has seen him be a good, enthusiastic, warm person. Something wakes up in her that is long dead: she loves his idealism and sweetness so far, not him yet.

Which is so awesome, because she is the damaged one, the more experienced one, and he is the wide-eyed innocent. Though I've read that's going to change and he is going to be able to kick butt super-well, which is awesome as I prefer strong heroes :) But as of now, I think she is slowly falling for him, as much for his belief that she is good as for the fact that Wallace Huo is hot :)

Here are some pics:

( Pics here )

In other news, I am up through ep 14 of Tenjou Tenge. Oh my. Shin (Maya's brother) is SCARY. He is a psychotic, incestuous freak. Yikes. I have to say the families in this give me the creeps: we have Maya's family, with the psycho, incestuous-codependent brother (and somehow, I still find him fascinating) who killed their parents (!!!!) And Mitsuomi's family? In the past, we have the super-psycho father who is OK with ruining people in order to turn his son into an ultimate fighter (as he thinks he is too kind) and now we have Mitsuomi beating on his brother to toughen him up. Yikes. I have to say that in TT, I find the backstory a lot more interesting than in the present story. So cool and so messed up. Also, the adviser dude? So made of awesome. The characters I love are adviser guy, Maya, Mitsuomi and (in a weird way) Shin.



( A few caps, of course Maya/Mitsuomi-centric )

My next wuxia? Because of meganbmoore's evil posts, is likely to be Romance of Red Dust.

It has angsty lovers, fights, eeeeeevil bad guys, and I have been promised battle injuries, prisons, and gangrene. And all that, only in the beginning!

Set in some distant Chinese past, RoRD is about a sexy young revolutionary who wants to end the reign of evil local nasty(call him 'Villain' for short). Well, he is not the first, so for such eventualties, Villain has a trained squad of assassins to take out the reformers. One of them, the best, and trained by villain since childhood, is the Heroine. So she is sent to off our Hero, but ends up falling for him instead, and off they go, adventuring, rebelling, and angsting at each other. Heh. What's not to like.

Here is a MV for it:

I have installed GOMPLayer last night (MPCPlayer went weird recently and refused to play .rm and .rmvb files. I am going to uninstall and reinstall it, but I needed a quicker fix last night) thus bringing the total of vid players on the computer to five. I have RealPlayer (came with the computer and is most useless. I think I used it once). Windows Media Player (came with computer but I updated it to the newest version. I don't generally like using it, but I need it for the hardsubbing program), VLC Player (is OK as a backup for avi files playing), MPCPlayer (my favorite until it acted up, as it would play partial files even) and now GOMPlayer (which I checked and is awesome and does play *knock on wood* every file known to man). I think I am running out of players :D

Last night we watched two more Doctor Who eps, which were even more awesome: ‘Tooth and Claw’ and ‘School Reunion’ (Queen Victoria one, and the supernatural school one). (We were discussing Dr. Who on the way to dinner and the only reason we didn't watch more eps as soon as we got home was because I was installing computer stuff above. I think I have passed geek-territory a few miles back and entered even nerdier waters :D)

( spoilery thoughts on Dr Who )

In completely other news, LOL, this is what I got from Drabblematic (you plug in names, nouns, adjectives etc, and it gives you a drabble). http://www.prillalar.com/drabbles/. It’s rather oddly fitting for Hana Kimi. Why, yes, I have Hana Kimi on the brain:

Tenderly Tripping

( Craziness )

Oh, and because I am incapable of ending without vids it seems, here is an unspoilery MV for my next period drama, Romance of Red Dust, which is an adventure/romance about enemies (he is a rebel and she is an assassin sent to kill him) falling in love with each other. Vid’s worth watching even if you have no interest in the drama, as is very pretty. Rather Bollywood looking.



( Another vid here )

Also, because calixa posted about it, Sound of Colors, about a spunky blind radio host (she) and a gentle manga artist (he) moved hiiiigh on my list. Romance and cuteness and angst. What could be better? Think ‘Silence’ only somewhat less depressing.

( Spoilery but awesome MV behind cut )

I have installed GOMPLayer last night (MPCPlayer went weird recently and refused to play .rm and .rmvb files. I am going to uninstall and reinstall it, but I needed a quicker fix last night) thus bringing the total of vid players on the computer to five. I have RealPlayer (came with the computer and is most useless. I think I used it once). Windows Media Player (came with computer but I updated it to the newest version. I don't generally like using it, but I need it for the hardsubbing program), VLC Player (is OK as a backup for avi files playing), MPCPlayer (my favorite until it acted up, as it would play partial files even) and now GOMPlayer (which I checked and is awesome and does play *knock on wood* every file known to man). I think I am running out of players :D

Last night we watched two more Doctor Who eps, which were even more awesome: ‘Tooth and Claw’ and ‘School Reunion’ (Queen Victoria one, and the supernatural school one). (We were discussing Dr. Who on the way to dinner and the only reason we didn't watch more eps as soon as we got home was because I was installing computer stuff above. I think I have passed geek-territory a few miles back and entered even nerdier waters :D)

( spoilery thoughts on Dr Who )

In completely other news, LOL, this is what I got from Drabblematic (you plug in names, nouns, adjectives etc, and it gives you a drabble). http://www.prillalar.com/drabbles/. It’s rather oddly fitting for Hana Kimi. Why, yes, I have Hana Kimi on the brain:

Tenderly Tripping

( Craziness )

Oh, and because I am incapable of ending without vids it seems, here is an unspoilery MV for my next period drama, Romance of Red Dust, which is an adventure/romance about enemies (he is a rebel and she is an assassin sent to kill him) falling in love with each other. Vid’s worth watching even if you have no interest in the drama, as is very pretty. Rather Bollywood looking.



( Another vid here )

Also, because calixa posted about it, Sound of Colors, about a spunky blind radio host (she) and a gentle manga artist (he) moved hiiiigh on my list. Romance and cuteness and angst. What could be better? Think ‘Silence’ only somewhat less depressing.

( Spoilery but awesome MV behind cut )