Musings of the Obsessive Kind

I think I have decided to watch Ne rodis krasivoy ('Don't be born beautiful'), a Russian version of the same telenovela 'Ugly Betty' is based on (did I mention that we saw posters for UB all over Buenos Aires with the slogan 'in English, it is more ugly.' :P)

Best friend got hooked on it, and we usually have very similar tastes. Plus, she sold me by saying this serial has a version of my very favorite scene ever. You know that scene where I went all flaily/incoherent in Delightful Girl Chun-Hyang, where Mong-Ryong thought Chun-Hyang didn't love him and was all in despair, but found her diary and realized she loves him and she rejected him for his sake, and went to find her? NRK has this too!!!!!

Here is a MV. EEEEEEEE! Looks so neat. And the male lead wears glasses which is just...guys in glasses are HOT. When they are kissing and both are in glasses? SQUEEEEE! I like the way she looks. And I think he is totally hot, in a rumpled intellectual kinda way. (Also, what is with all the recent hot Russian actors? What happened? When I was living in the USSR, there weren't that many and now they seem to be proliferating). I have my next crush.




( A few more vids )

In other news, I am almost done with Lovers. Three eps left. God, they finally got together and they are so compatible, so alive together, so perfect. When they spent the whole night sitting together on the floor of their hotel room. Or when she is cold on a mountain and he gives her his coat and is all 'it's weird you look so good in men's clothes' and she plays hwith his wallet. OMG. And then they both give to their exes everything they ever gave them back. Which on her part includes the cell-phone and LSJ freaks out something is wrong with her because she isn't picking up the phone, and runs over there and finds out why. And EEEEEE! His quiet delight she did that and her quiet delight he was worried.

I adore them so much.

I think I have decided to watch Ne rodis krasivoy ('Don't be born beautiful'), a Russian version of the same telenovela 'Ugly Betty' is based on (did I mention that we saw posters for UB all over Buenos Aires with the slogan 'in English, it is more ugly.' :P)

Best friend got hooked on it, and we usually have very similar tastes. Plus, she sold me by saying this serial has a version of my very favorite scene ever. You know that scene where I went all flaily/incoherent in Delightful Girl Chun-Hyang, where Mong-Ryong thought Chun-Hyang didn't love him and was all in despair, but found her diary and realized she loves him and she rejected him for his sake, and went to find her? NRK has this too!!!!!

Here is a MV. EEEEEEEE! Looks so neat. And the male lead wears glasses which is just...guys in glasses are HOT. When they are kissing and both are in glasses? SQUEEEEE! I like the way she looks. And I think he is totally hot, in a rumpled intellectual kinda way. (Also, what is with all the recent hot Russian actors? What happened? When I was living in the USSR, there weren't that many and now they seem to be proliferating). I have my next crush.




( A few more vids )

In other news, I am almost done with Lovers. Three eps left. God, they finally got together and they are so compatible, so alive together, so perfect. When they spent the whole night sitting together on the floor of their hotel room. Or when she is cold on a mountain and he gives her his coat and is all 'it's weird you look so good in men's clothes' and she plays hwith his wallet. OMG. And then they both give to their exes everything they ever gave them back. Which on her part includes the cell-phone and LSJ freaks out something is wrong with her because she isn't picking up the phone, and runs over there and finds out why. And EEEEEE! His quiet delight she did that and her quiet delight he was worried.

I adore them so much.

Oh MAN. Perect timing. I've gotten interested in a show, just in time for a strike.

I think I've been persuaded to watch Moonlight. The vampire detective, who falls for a human, seems to be the selling point.

Even if Forever Knight, Buffy and Angel have already done this, I am such an easy sell. Just check this one for why. Angst, UST, super hotness, co-ed showers:



( Another one )

OK, I can't help it.

It's the cheesiest song ever, for this vid, but it's incredibly appropriate, seeing that the MV is for the cheesiest thing ever, in itself: Russian telenovela Bednaya Nastya.



It has no redeeming intellectual value (though it really brings my Russian back even fresher, which makes it my default language, which creates a minor problem :P) but it's so irresistable.

You might remember me going crazy over Baron Vladimir Korf the telenovela, a few months back. I got about halfway back, and got sidetracked. But I restarted. Heeee. Vladimir is just as noble and sarcastic and clueless about women as ever. And Anna is just as busty and pushy and bird-witted-thus-requiring regular-rescuing. YES.

(For those who just tuned in, BN is a 120ep Russian serial set in 1830s Russia, with our heroine Anna a serf actress, and sexy Vladimir her noble OTP. There are evil families, politics, murder plots, and cool costumes).

OK, I can't help it.

It's the cheesiest song ever, for this vid, but it's incredibly appropriate, seeing that the MV is for the cheesiest thing ever, in itself: Russian telenovela Bednaya Nastya.



It has no redeeming intellectual value (though it really brings my Russian back even fresher, which makes it my default language, which creates a minor problem :P) but it's so irresistable.

You might remember me going crazy over Baron Vladimir Korf the telenovela, a few months back. I got about halfway back, and got sidetracked. But I restarted. Heeee. Vladimir is just as noble and sarcastic and clueless about women as ever. And Anna is just as busty and pushy and bird-witted-thus-requiring regular-rescuing. YES.

(For those who just tuned in, BN is a 120ep Russian serial set in 1830s Russia, with our heroine Anna a serf actress, and sexy Vladimir her noble OTP. There are evil families, politics, murder plots, and cool costumes).

I find Bollywood such an interesting and different beast. Not just because the movies themselves are different (most are musicals, with long run times and a bit of everything thrown in) but because in a way, the way it's run is entirely different: the crazy cult of stars (think old-time Hollywood times 100), the informality of a lot of business arrangements, the fact that a lor of actors/actresses film movies simultaneously, sync sound is rare, etc etc. Oh, and Bollywood is run by families. Most current actors/actresses are either children of previous stars, or former models or beauty contest winners. Very very different to me. Sometimes you luck out and get Kajol (duahgter of Tanuja) and sometimes you don't and get Esha Deol (daughter of Dharmendra and Hema Malini, but IMO the worst actress ever). There are very few exceptions. Interestingly both the biggest male star, Shahrukh Khan, and the biggest until she retired female star, Madhuri Dixit, are exceptions. I wonder if it's a hint to Bollywood to take in new blood. If it's a hint, they are happily ignoring it.

So because of it, and because Saawariya is opening this week, with tons of fanfare, and it's the debut movie of Ranbir Kapoor, the fourth (!!!) generation of the Kapoor family to be a movie star, here is a bit of a look at the most famous family of Bollywood: the Kapoors. More stars per capita than anywhere else :)

( Kapoors, Kapoors, Kapoors )

Meeeeeeep!

Mike He is making another drama, with Hebe (of S.H.E.) and Li Wei:



Called Bull Fighting. Hebe plays a hot gangster girl. Li Wei likes Hebe but in Hebe eyes, there is only Mike.

Do you know, Mike He and Hebe really look almost anime. It’s not the fact that they are good-looking (e.g. Lee Wan or Kame are gorgeous but I don’t think anime), it’s the ‘look.’ I can’t explain it but they do.

( A couple of pics of them )

To be aired staring November 18, 2008. YESSSS!

Short little teaser:

Meeeeeeep!

Mike He is making another drama, with Hebe (of S.H.E.) and Li Wei:



Called Bull Fighting. Hebe plays a hot gangster girl. Li Wei likes Hebe but in Hebe eyes, there is only Mike.

Do you know, Mike He and Hebe really look almost anime. It’s not the fact that they are good-looking (e.g. Lee Wan or Kame are gorgeous but I don’t think anime), it’s the ‘look.’ I can’t explain it but they do.

( A couple of pics of them )

To be aired staring November 18, 2008. YESSSS!

Short little teaser:

The fact that people are making Robbie/Cecilia vids is making me gleeful.



Oh God. I am going to cry worse with this movie than I did with the book, right?

*stabs Briony HARD*

( Huge, gorgeous leaflet for the movie )

Somebody talk me out of checking out I am sorry I love you (MISA).

MISA is a super-super famous, super-super popular Korean drama from a few years ago. It's also so depressing, by the sound of it, that it makes What Happened in Bali seems like a joyful walk through the park (I've seen Vic Zhou's Silence compared to it, and if you were around when I watched Silence, you remember that a. I cried like a baby and b. I skipped all the middle part because I was too upset).

MISA stars So Ji Sub (does he ever get to live in his dramas? Seriously. This, Bali, and his upcoming one, Cain and Abel, which I really want to see, but he plays a mob assassin, so I don't think he has good living prospects in that one) and Im Soo Jung.

But the story sounds like such emo crack. As kitsune714 put it, it's all these horrible things happening at once to this one very good-looking woobie (paraphrase).

Our poor hero:

(1) He was abandoned by his parents as a kid. Now he is in Australia, as a small-time scam artist.
(2) He meets our adorable heroine, Song Eun Chae, when she in Australia with her long-time friend and crush, a Korean singer (who doesn't see her that way). The heroine gets robbed and SJS saves her and returns all her stuff and she spends the night with him (not that way).
(3) At an ex-gf's wedding, our poor hero is shot in the head (!!!!!!!) by accident. It can't really be removed, so he has only a year to live.

Let's sum it up: he is an ex-gangster, he is dying, and his gf married someone else. Think it's going to get better? Nope.

(4) He goes to Korea to find parents who abandoned him. His mother is a famous actress who has a son who is...the Korean singer in (2).
(5) He decides to plan and bring revenge on them but he falls in love with Eun Chae, instead.

Did I mention that his 'brother' needs a heart transplant? This is pure, pure, pure crack.

I mean, we have evil families, heroic and doomed hero, revenge, angsty love etc etc? Perfect. lesbiassparrow, this promises to be chock-full of screaming manpain. Are you in?

Here is a MV:




( A couple other vids )