The right time to announce your marriage if you are a Japanese celebrity

This article from Real Life offers an interesting view why Japanese celebrities like to announce their marriages during the year-end and March in case you are wondering why there's a series of such announcements in this month alone. Now, will we get any more surprises in the last few days of March?

As the sakura blooms in spring, the entertainment world is also seeing a series of happy marriage announcements.

On 1 March, Tsutsumi Shinichi who has been tagged as the "co-star killer" by entertainment reporters and widely reputed as the extraordinary playboy of his time, announced his marriage through his agency's website. His wife is an ordinary woman who's 32 and 16 years his junior who he met four years ago.

Spring has also come to the rakugo world where Kokontei Kikinojou and NHK announcer Fujii Ayako announced their wedding to the media via a fax statement on 13 March. The couple met during a programme on NHK-BS and dated for three years before getting married.

Naka Riisa and Nakao Akiyoshi who were first FRIDAY-ed last year, announced their marriage on 21 March with a joint statement and that she is already three months' pregnant. In response to this, there were many disappointed comments online from fans.

On the following day, another bombshell came from Sakai Masato and Kanno Miho who met through the movie "Ooku" and it was met with bewildered frowns from entertainment reporters who had never found out about their relationship until this marriage announcement.

On 25 March, Amano Kousei and Hinagata Akiko got married and it was especially sweet for the latter who had gone through a divorce in the past.

The following day, the horse racing world also saw jockey Fukunaga Yuuichi announce that he is going to marry FujiTV announcer Matsuo Midori. Their relationship had already been known in the racing world so it wasn't a surprise after all. Matsuo will leave FujiTV in September to support her husband so this news was met with happiness and sadness from her fans/

On the same day, Yoshizawa Hisashi who is a familiar face to longtime drama lovers, also announced his marriage to model Kiriyama Maki even though the actual marriage registration took place on 3 March.

*Note that on the same day this report came out, comedian Yabe Hiroyuki announced that he is going to marry former TBS announcer Aoki Yuko in April.

Why is that marriage announcements seem to be following one another recently? Actually, there is a perfect reason for this trend.

According to an insider in an entertainment agency, marriage announcements tend to be concentrated during the year-end and end of fiscal year i.e. March and this has been a longtime practice. During this period, everyone will be busy with various things thus public concern about the marriages will generally be low. Especially if we are talking about shot-gun marriages, sudden marriages (short dating period) or even marriages where someone is a third party (i.e. one party snatches the man/woman from a longtime partner), it will be more desirable to announce their marriages during this period so that the media won't have time or interest in digging for more information which can hurt the celebrities concerned.

At the same time, this has brought about another interesting trend where entertainment reporters are very free during this period. In the past, they may have to spend a lot of time to do research but during this time of the year, the celebrities would be the ones announcing their marriages and offering the information to the media so they effectively have nothing much to do.

Spring Kyushu Fair 2013 @ Tampines Mall

If you are a lover of Japanese food and prepared to pay for premium products straight from Japan, you should pay a visit to the Spring Kyushu Fair which is currently being held at Tampines Mall. The pre-sale was held today from 3pm onwards where there are a lot of stalls selling various foodstuff products from the Kyushu region. Most of the stalls are located in the lobby on level 1 but there are some stalls spread out on the second floor. You may just miss them if you focus on the main area only so be sure to check out those "outlying" stores as well.

Just to give you a feel of what's on offer: roll cakes created in conjunction with Sakai Hiroyuki (second Iron Chef French), ramen, seasoned seafood, deep-fried seafood, croquette, fruit jelly, ice-cream, puddings in dorayaki, Yame tea, grilled squid, karage, mini taiyaki and the list goes on and on. However, be prepared to shell out good money for the food here because coming straight from Japan would mean that there's a premium to be attached to such products. Besides, some of the products aren't common here so it's no wonder that the prices tend to be on the steep side due to their rarity. Frankly speaking, I like Japanese food but biting the bullet to pay top-dollar for the best food can be a huge dent to my pocket so I tend to be very selective about what I buy at such food fairs. In the past, there was only the Hokkaido food fair which was an annual event but in recent years, Isetan has brought in food from other regions of Japan which is good for us because it brings the local produce to us rather than us having to fly all the way there to try everything.

Despite it being a pre-sale today (the official event begins tomorrow), there were loads of people around probably due to it being a public holiday tomorrow so I didn't get to buy anything. In fact, the crowds were so "intimidating" that it was difficult for me to squeeze in so I only managed to check on the stalls on the fringes rather than those situated right in the middle. The picture on the right was taken when the crowds just started to flow in at 3pm but an hour later when I returned to check out the stalls, the aisles were really packed to the brim. It always strikes me that the atrium area here isn't that suitable for such food fairs because it is too cramped and the aisles always end up to be jam-packed with people. Looks like the crowds might get worse over the upcoming long weekend but for those game enough to brave the sea of people and willing to pay top dollar for your food, you will definitely be handsomely rewarded! ^__^

Eguchi Yosuke saying "No" to another installment of "Kyuumei Byouto 24 Ji"?

Came across this article from Cyzo Woman which analysed a recent article from Shuukan Bunshun about Eguchi Yosuke reportedly saying "No" to another installment of "Kyuumei Byouto 24 Ji".

According to the 28th March issue of "Shuukan Bunshun", FujiTV is faced with another last-minute loss of its drama lead following rumours that Oda Yuji who had been scheduled to appear in "Machigaware chatta Otoko" said no at the last minute. This time, it is Eguchi Yosuke who reportedly refused to appear in the latest installment of his hit series "Kyuumei Byouto 24 Ji" even though he and Matsushima Nanako are scheduled to be co-leads in the drama. Filming is supposed to begin in April and the drama due to be shown in July. However, Eguchi was said to have said "yes" initially but rejected the offer in mid February despite the fact that the first episode's script is ready and negotiations with sponsors are in progress. As it is impossible to cancel the production nor postpone it, it is said that Tokito Saburo will take over the lead role in the drama.

According to a weekly magazine's reporter, it appears that Eguchi's rejection was due to his agency packing his schedule too tightly. As his colleague Matsu Takako had recently left their agency to manage her career on her own, it was said that the agency had to make Eguchi and Eita work harder than before in order to maintain the income. Similar to Oda's case where he rejected the offer because of conflicts over production fees and his proposed ideas for the drama, Eguchi's case was also due to his own circumstances rather than uncontrollable issues. Being the lead would mean that there is added responsibility but in a lot of situations, even though the agency may say OK, the actor or actress is ultimately the one to make the decision so there are many examples like this where the actor or actress rejects the offer in the end even though it is accepted earlier.

Source: Cyzo Woman

It is alarming to hear that Kyuumei will be without its lead possibly because of a reason like overwork. Remember how Eguchi got into a traffic accident and had to cut down on filming for Kyuumei? And that the TV station cut the number of episodes and screened fillers in the middle of the season just to wait for Eguchi to return to work? I'm sure this series means a lot to both sides and Eguchi wouldn't have thought of dropping it so easily unless there was a serious problem. I'm not too sure how true this report is but artists being worked to their fullest because of the loss of another profitable artist from the same agency is commonly heard of in the J-ent world. In fact, I think it's probably the same in any other countries. It's just that such issues don't tend to be brought up in the open for discussion, not at least for such big names. There was a similar issue in the K-ent world when an actress simply escaped from the filming mid-season and went overseas to protest over overwork. She had her reasons for doing that because the situation didn't improve after she kept talking to the people concerned but the backlash that came was really something to reckon with.

If Eguchi is indeed overworked (considering he just finished "dinner" on FujiTV and may have other film projects waiting at the sidelines thus cannot get any rest before Kyuumei's filming starts), I'm sure there will be people who understand his difficult situation. On the other hand, there will also be those who will be less forgiving of him to reject the offer at the last minute and what's more, to a series which has helped him built up his career over the years. Think of it this way, if Ito Hideaki rejects Umizaru for whatever reason one day (which is extremely unlikely because the problem now with Umizaru is that its author refuses to let FujiTV do another movie or drama), imagine the controversy and pressure he will have to bear with especially nasty comments like turning your back on your benefactor! Besides, I also pity Tokito Saburo (if he really has to take on the lead role, perhaps not as Shindo but another character) because he has big shoes to fit and will be blamed if the drama flops. He's a great actor but can surely do without such a blemish on his CV, really. And Matsushima Nanako who counts this series as a signature work too may be badly affected if her longtime partner really says no this time due to no fault of hers.

Let's hope that more news will come soon before the summer 2013 season so that we get a clear answer as to whether we'll see Shindo in Kyuumei again!

Review of "Les Miserables"

I first heard of "Les Miserables" when it came to Singapore as a musical but at that time, I didn't manage to catch it because I was still a student then and frankly speaking, theatre productions were pretty much out of reach to most people with the high ticket prices.   As such, it is great that there is a movie version of "Les Miserables" which I think will be more accessible to the public in general and perhaps have a wider reach compared to musicals performed in designated venues. Having said that, my knowledge of the story was very limited before watching this movie. I haven't read the novel before so I only knew a sketchy outline of the story. Prior to watching the movie, I did some research online to get a feel of what to expect and realised that there seemed to be a lot of material in the original novel. How was everything going to fit into a  2.5 hour movie without feeling like it was disjointed? How can this very long movie keep people engaged because seeing a musical on stage is probably going to be very different from watching it on a cinema screen? In a way, I'm glad that I did not read the novel first because that actually made this movie a lot more palatable. I think I would be trying hard not to make comparisons if I knew the story very well so this helped me to enjoy this movie for what it was worth.

The story seemed to flow through rather quickly because it had to cover a lot of ground spread over a long period of time. As such, there were a few times when I felt that the time transition was rather abrupt because while you were still immersed in the previous moment, the scene changed so rapidly to the next development. However, I can understand why this had to be done because if not, the movie would be much longer than it currently is. There were some parts of the story which I enjoyed very much: Jean Valjean trying to escape from Javert (Russell Crowe) both physically and emotionally over many years (Valjean was still scared when he saw Javert after he became a factory owner and mayor even though the latter didn't recognise him at first), Fantine's downward spiral in life after she gets sacked and how she lamented her fate, Eponine's (Samantha Barks) one-way feelings for Marius (Eddie Redmayne), the Thenardiers describing how they con people in their inn (that was really funny) and the revolution scenes (especially towards the end when everyone was singing together). Surprisingly, or should I say unsurprisingly, the romance between Cosette and Marius didn't strike a chord with me at all and I was secretly hoping that the movie could get through that quickly. Maybe it's just me but I really couldn't bring myself to care for that love-at-first-sight relationship or rather those two characters. Nothing against the actors though.

People may have doubts over the cast's ability to sing in this movie but as far as I'm concerned, I think they all did pretty well especially for those who have some stage experience e.g. Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Samantha Barks. Even Russell Crowe sounded OK to me and he wasn't jarring to the ears or anything. I must say that I liked these three actors' performance the most. I believe the cast would have gone through a certain degree of training to practise for their scenes especially since I read an article that said the sound recording was done on set rather than in a studio.

Here is a selection some of the best performances (in my opinion) from the film:

I dreamed a dream - Fantine (Anne Hathaway)
This has got to be what got Anne Hathaway her supporting actress awards. Actually, Fantine wasn't in the movie for a long time but during the limited time Hathaway was on screen, she showed a lot of development and depth in Fantine's role as she suffered a terrible fate after being losing her job at the factory. This song is a great summary of Fantine's life as she goes from a young girl who believes in a bright future and everlasting love to one who is kinda cynical now about the things she used to believe in, full of helplessness (cannot raise Cosette on her own openly since she was unmarried) and despair about her present and future circumstances. Hathaway's rendition of this song really hit close to heart as she sang her heart out so it's no wonder that she managed to shine so brightly despite having limited appearance time (although I must say that her role was a meaty one after all).

On My Own - Eponine (Samantha Barks)
Apparently, Samantha Barks played the role of Eponine in the musical version of Les Miserables in London before so it won't be surprising if she knows the character inside out. Her singing and expressions show how much she was pining for Marius but she knew very well that he was in love with Cosette and she stood no chance with him. There is a similarity between Fantine's song and Eponine's because they had an identical theme of despair and not being able to do anything about their situations. However, Fantine's despair was more about not being able to control what life had in store for her while Eponine's despair was not being able to make the man she loved to take a good look at her no matter what she did because he was obsessed with another woman. Just like what Hathaway did with her song, Barks also impressed me a lot with this song. Despite a small role, Barks really showed a lot of potential in a 3-minute song which made me sit up and take notice of her.

Do you hear the people sing?
Compared to the two songs above which were more on the sentimental side and emotionally heavy, this song is extremely uplifting and full of hope and promise for the future. Although the revolution didn't succeed for the first time and resulted in heavy losses, those involved were so confident about their cause that they didn't seem to think of the what ifs when things did not go their way. Especially towards the finale when the "dead" come back to sing this song together, it was a nice way to end the movie on a positive note rather than focus on the "fairytale ending" of Marius and Cosette.

Meeting the right person at the right time? - Sakai Masato and Kanno Miho

Sakai Masato and Kanno Miho getting married?! Imagine my shock when i first saw this flashed across the screen on TVBS News (a Taiwanese news channel) as a headline. For something happening in Japan to be treated as a new flash item and highlight outside of Japan, that signified how important this news item was. I seriously thought I was seeing things when that headline appeared on screen that I immediately went to my regular news sites to see if this was true. When I confirmed that this was true and not some far-fetched rumour, my first thought was, when on earth did they start dating? There were no rumours at all about them being romantically linked and from the news reports on Friday, they gave the impression that Sakai and Kanno had only started dating 3 months ago so strictly speaking, this is a whirlwind romance (although it was said that Sakai had wooed Kanno since January 2012).

I came across this article from Nikkan Cyzo which I think would be quite useful in explaining why they want to get married only after a few months of dating. Since there are some rumours/speculations which were not confirmed, I thought it was better to post this here with my views rather than on the Dorama World site:

Sakai Masato (39) and Kanno Miho (35) are getting married soon after a mere 3-month courtship as confirmed by their respective agencies. It is said that they may get married as soon as next month and will hold a press conference once the marriage registration is completed. However, as some insiders reveal the details, the marriage plan wasn't supposed to be in such a big rush.


"The two of them aren't young idols who are having a shotgun marriage. What's more, they are both adults with flourishing acting careers. As such, getting married on the spur of the moment may hurt them in future as actors if things do not work out later. Besides, they have to think of the impact of their marriage on their work schedules and CM deals thus there had been advice from people around them to reconsider whether they should take things a bit slower." 

The two of them had only started dating last December as a result of Sakai's aggressive wooing of Kanno. An insider revealed this, "When Sakai confessed his feelings to Kanno, she had accepted him on the condition that their relationship had to be built on the premise of marriage. With response to that, Sakai agreed to it immediately. In addition, Sakai even went to Kanno's agency personally to ask for permission to marry Kanno, not just to date her."

It has been known for a long time that Kanno has a strong desire to get married but she has not been seeing anyone of late. During filming of her dramas and movies, she would proactively talk about her views about love and relationships. According to an entertainment reporter who had been following Kanno's career and interviewing her for a long time, it is believed that Kanno suffered a traumatic experience due to her ex-boyfriend Inagaki Goro's indecisive attitude towards her.

"A Johnny's artiste would have to go against the agency's objections in order to get married or else marriage is out of the question for them. However, Inagaki could never bite the bullet and kept Kanno waiting during their 8-year relationship. Kanno even went to the extent of leaving her former agency which wanted to stop her from getting married and joined Ken-on later. Despite this, Inagaki kept brushing her off by saying that his agency wouldn't agree to let them get married so they went their separate ways in the end."

In stark contrast to Inagaki, Sakai's decisive stand towards marriage was probably what made Kanno budge in the end although she didn't accept him initially. "Actually, from the time Kanno broke up with Inagaki till she started seeing Sakai, there were rumours of other celebrities who wanted to woo her but they all gave up upon hearing her marriage premise condition. Apparently, comedian Jinnai Tomonori was one of them who tried to use his divorce from Fujiwara Norika as a reason why he didn't want to get married so Kanno didn't give any of these people a chance at all."

Kanno is said to be very interested in books about astronomy these days and her interest is in line with Sakai who's of the indoor type and likes reading. Although it looks like a sudden marriage on the surface, it could be a long-awaited spring for Kanno after all.

Kanno and Sakai's relationship seems to be a great example of meeting the right person at the right time. This other report from Cyzo Woman mentioned that ever since Sakai broke up with Tomita Yasuko after a five-year relationship, he had been romantically linked to a number of actresses all these years e.g. Takeuchi Yuko, Tabe Mikako and Aragaki Yui but there was no concrete proof that he was in a serious relationship with any of them. On the other hand, Kanno's famous on-and-off relationship with Inagaki for a long 8 years seem to place her in stark contrast against Sakai's "colourful" dating history. It almost seemed as if they were so different and they were like parallel lines which did not meet at all.

However, I think why things worked out for them in the end had a lot to do with the fact that they met each other at the right time. If it had been that Sakai was much younger and wasn't sure about getting married, he would not have accepted Kanno's condition (assuming if she did set this rule before dating someone) and she would not have agreed to date him. On the other hand, if Kanno did not have a strong desire to get married and had not suffered a long wait to get married in her last relationship, Sakai might not have won her heart with his decisiveness and "aggressive wooing". It does appear that Kanno did not respond to Sakai favourably at first if he really did tell her about his feelings back when they were filming the Ooku movie. It could be that Kanno thought that he wasn't serious then and only became convinced about him after seeing Sakai in a different light when they were doing the promotions.

Frankly speaking, I don't really think that Johnny's Jimusho is the sole reason why Inagaki didn't agree to marry Kanno. Sure, he may not be like Kimura Takuya who literally "forced his way through the barriers" to get married to Kudo Shizuka but there are other Johnny's idols who still managed to get married i.e. Yamaguchi Tatsuya from TOKIO who married his girlfriend after dating for 8 years and Inohara Yoshihiko who married Seto Asaka after they broke up once. Inagaki may have his difficulties then for not being able to get married (perhaps the traffic offence?) but now that Kanno has finally found her man, there's no point anymore harping on the reason why he couldn't bite the bullet when they were still dating. Just that I think the tabloids would probably have a field day following Inagaki around to see how he reacts to his former girlfriend's wedding news.

Although Sakai and Kanno's courtship period is indeed short, I guess for a couple in their 30s who have already taken their fair share of hard knocks along the way when it came to love, if they are sure that the other party is who they want to live with for the rest of their lives, there's really no issue of getting married after just three months. And the fact that they are not doing a dekichatta-kon really does help in making sure that people won't ridicule them for getting married for the sake of the baby. Frankly speaking, a dekichatta-kon usually takes a little lustre off the wedding news announcement especially if we are talking about young idols. This couple would have gotten to know each other quite well during the filming and while going on the promotion trail together so the dating period's length is not really the key indicator of the right time to get married. It certainly doesn't mean that dating for 5, 8, 10 years will definitely lead to marriage.

Now, the next thing the media is eagerly awaiting will be, when the couple will register their marriage and what they'll say during the press conference. I'm hoping to see them appear together and give their side of the story instead of fax statements a lot of celebrity couples issue. Perhaps they may not open their wedding ceremony to the press but I'm sure Kanno would want to have a proper wedding rather than go low-key or have no ceremony at all because this is after all the day she has been waiting for a long time. Sakai on the other hand would probably be smiling so much that his eyes can't be seen. ^__^

Looks like spring is a wonderful time for love with all these romance/marriage reports coming one after another! Any bets on who will be the next one to continue with this trend?

Japanese Variety Showcase - Himitsu no Arashi-chan

It may seem strange to do this post now because Himitsu no Arashi-chan ended its run on 21 March i.e. yesterday after a 5-year-run. Frankly speaking, 5 years is a rather long time in the variety world when programmes get cancelled easily due to poor ratings and that's precisely the same reason which did Arashi-chan in. However, this programme isn't as bad as it seems as the low ratings suggest. At least that's what I think.

I didn't follow this programme right from the start and along the way, I stopped watching this when access to the programme wasn't readily available. Last year, I started to watch this again and caught up on some of the older episodes of which some were quite entertaining. Instead of trying to pinpoint why the programme didn't do well, I'll like to introduce some of the segments which I enjoyed a lot as a way to remember the good things Arashi-chan did:

1) Mannequin 5

This has got to be the highlight of Arashi-chan which typically shows 5 people coming up with their own fashion coordination based on a fixed theme. Usually, there will be 2 Arashi members along with a couple of special guests plus one or two comedians who gets paraded as models and four female guests will pick the person whose coordination wins their favour. The last one remaining will be left alone in the studio lamenting why he was not chosen. It's a relatively simple concept but what's interesting is that even with great looks or a good figure, it doesn't mean that you'll definitely be chosen by the ladies who have lots of scalding comments for these guys at times. Sometimes, what guys think they look in may come off as horrendous in the eyes of the opposite sex so this is a wake-up call for them of some sorts. At times, the comedians or guest stars manage to wow the ladies so much that the Arashi members get left behind with their "less-than-desired" fashion sense e.g. the double parka trademark from Sakurai Sho (wearing two parkas at the same time) or the Aiba-take from Aiba Masaki (three-quarter length pants). ^__^

There have been six Mannequin 5 SPs to date where all 5 members would fight against one another and head off to a shopping mall early in the morning to pick their clothes and accessories to match the theme. After they do that, the public was asked to vote for the best coordination and the loser would have to pose in embarrassing sets or poses for ads pasted on a trailer truck that went around Tokyo initially but later extended to other cities outside of Tokyo. I voted twice in this so it was fun as a viewer to see if your choice would win or be seen as horrible in the eyes of the majority.

It's a pity that they didn't end off with a Mannequin 5 SP in the final episode, I would have liked to see the Arashi members fight it out again with their fashion sense, or rather the lack of it at times.

2) Otona wa dekite touzen SHOW

In this segment, Arashi members and guests are asked to answer questions which are considered as common knowledge if they are indeed adults. There will be two teams who send out representatives based on the percentage of people in a particular category who manage to answer the question correctly and the losing team will have to drink bitter tea to help them "grow up" into adults. This segment can be rather informative and helps you know things which you might never have realised even though in terms of age, you are already an adult. There was once when it was really impressive to see Ohno get all the Kanji names of different types of fish correct. Frankly speaking, I know the names in Hiragana script but never really bothered remembering everything in Kanji which is commonplace in sushi restaurants. Being an avid "fisherman", Ohno really showed his knowledge about fish through this particular question. And you would be surprised that sometimes, the Arashi members have talents which you never knew about e.g. Nino being able to fold his clothes more neatly and faster than a married woman.

3) Arashi Sharehouse

The concept of this segment is that the Arashi members live together in this huge house and they will entertain female guests who come to visit them. Usually, there will be two members in each episode and depending on the combination and their interaction with the guest, this can be really entertaining at times. This is actually the newest segment which started barely a year ago and takes up about half the airtime. Sometimes, I find the editing a but choppy so the dialogue tends not to flow well when they switch topics too abruptly. Nonetheless, the fun part about Sharehouse is how you can hear interesting snippets about Arashi and the guests which you probably wouldn't know in the past. Some of the guests also cooked their specialties on the spot so it can be amusing to see how Arashi members are roped in to help at times but obviously, some of them are not very culinary-inclined. :-)

It's a pity that Arashi-chan has ended and Arashi are not back on TBS with their own programme as a group but rather Sakurai is teaming up with another comedian for a talk show. It remains to be seen if the new programme can do well (I'll check it out if there's an opportunity) but frankly speaking, one less programme to see the entire group together is sad news after all. I hope that Arashi will be back with a brand new programme on TBS soon and I stress, it's all 5 of them who have to appear together. ^__^

Lunch at the K-town: Sampo Korean BBQ Restaurant

Tanjong Pagar is known to be a place where there are many Korean restaurants around so it's an easy thing to find something decent and authentic enough if you are craving for some K-food. This is located at the Peck Seah Street Heritage Court just 5 minutes away from the MRT station and is usually packed during lunchtime. I try to go there after 1pm to avoid the crowd so that I won't have to queue up or share tables with others.

Anyway, back to the food here. Sampo serves a standard 6-piece banchan which changes depending on the day you come. Portions aren't big but you can ask for refills if you need. During my latest visit, I got the pork bulgogi lunch set and a pajeon (Korean seafood and spring onion pancake) to share so it was definitely a meal which satisfied my taste buds and made me full. Lunch set prices are generally on the low side so that's probably why it attracts the people working in the area. At dinnertime, if you are looking for Korean BBQ at your table, the prices will be slightly higher. I have never eaten here before at night so I have no idea how different the spread may be or if the taste differs. From what I observed during lunchtime, most people get the lunch sets which can be BBQ meat, soup or noodles so I guess the night crowd would probably order mainly BBQ meat with drinks to round up a hard day at work. And it does look like this place is serious about their meat because some of the better cuts can really leave a dent in your pocket. ^__^

Yoo Hae-jin to join 1n2d as new 7th member

The choice for the new 7th member of 1n2d has finally been revealed! Actor Yoo Hae-jin will join 1n2d as the new mat-hyung following Kim Seung-woo's impending departure later this month. Frankly speaking, I was expecting that KBS will get an actor to join the existing cast but Yoo is a surprise for me, really. I know that he's a pretty famous actor in Korea but I've not seen any of his movies or dramas yet. In fact, the first time when I saw him in action wasn't when he was acting but rather when he was appearing in a variety show i.e. Running Man. My impression of him then was that this goofy ahjusshi is quite funny on screen. It's still too early to tell how he will fit in with the cast but given time, I think things will work out somehow, just like what happened to the cast of season 2 when they first started.

Actually, I was secretly hoping for Tae-woong's buddy Lee Seon-kyun to join the cast because he showed how good he was in variety shows during the Best Friends special. However, agreeing to do this means a pretty long commitment because filming takes place every two weeks and that somewhat restricts the flexibility to take on other jobs while juggling 1n2d. As such, I hope that Yoo Hae-jin can stay around for at least a year or two to gel with his younger co-stars and forge new relationships with them. Viewers can certainly do without another shock in the form of cast or crew changes for the time being so if things stay the same for a while, that would be most ideal.

The Art of the Brick by Nathan Sawaya

There is this exhibition going at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore (until 26 May 2013 - extended again from the April deadline) where brick artist Nathan Sawaya showcases his unique creations using Lego bricks. For most if not all people, Lego probably means a childhood toy that you can spend hours toiling over just to build buildings, cars, ships etc. There is no limit to what you can make as long as you have enough bricks to do it. People usually stop playing with Lego when they get to a certain age and probably get into contact with it again when their kids start playing with it. For Sawaya who was a lawyer, he turned his hobby of playing with Lego bricks into a profession i.e. creating art pieces using these little building blocks of various colours. And I was literally blown off my feet when I saw how imagination truly has no boundaries and there were so many things you could create with the humble Lego brick.

The iconic symbol of this exhibition should be "Yellow" pictured above where a person in yellow opens up his chest and out flows a huge amount of Lego bricks. I find this very interesting for its striking colour and of course, the concept of opening up yourself to show others what is within you. No wonder this is considered as one of the signature works of Sawaya.

I won't post every single photo I took during the exhibition here though but I would still like to share a couple of shots of the works which I especially like:

This is titled "Everlasting" and the description says "Love lives forever. It outlives youth and a flat stomach and a full head of hair. And that's what makes it beautiful." It indeed is a great representation of what it means by growing old together because appearances would have changed after all the the years since a couple first got together and to stay devoted to each other despite the less-than-attractive physical appearances for both the man and woman is indeed not an easy feat. It always brings a smile to my face whenever I see an elderly couple holding hands while walking together slowly because most of the elderly couples I know are somewhat at each other's throats arguing over little things and never walking together, let alone holding hands. It feels as if being together all these years has sort of worn out the patience towards each other so seeing a scene like this where an old couple still behaves like a dating couple is really a joy to see. I also like the fact that the couple pictured here are holding hands rather than standing apart because it brought home the message of a couple still in love with each other.

This is titled "Mask" and shows a person taking off the mask but with a blank expression beneath. It's up to each individual to decide what lies beneath the mask so I think that's why Sawaya didn't set a certain expression or look for it.  It's interesting to see what he wrote to describe this work i.e. "I built Mask as a reflection of revealing our true selves. So often we put on a different face and then can no longer identify our own self. Mask identifies the facade we hide behind." because it's true that we have to adopt different masks when it comes to various settings. Sometimes, people hide their sorrows beneath a cheerful mask while some hide their insecurities and fears behind a strong appearance. To get to know a person beyond the image projected by his/her mask, that really takes a lot of understanding and patience because to shed that mask for someone is a major undertaking. If someone has to keep putting on a mask to deal with others, sooner or later, there may be a day when he/she loses track of who he/she really is. That's a pity and a great shame but somehow, it's something inevitable in this era and world we live in.

If you happen to be in Singapore or are here for a visit, do check this out if you have the time. It's a really interesting exhibition and one of the best in the recent ones I've seen. You might just get new insights into your life through these works and be really tempted to play with some Lego bricks again!

A taste of Korea - BBQ Chicken Singapore

Lunch on weekdays is usually simple fare for me but once in a while, a little treat is needed to keep the engine going for the rest of the work day. My first encounter with BBQ Chicken was when it first opened at Downtown East and I remember being impressed with what I ate then. In recent years, the franchise has expanded to other parts of the island so it's been much easier to get access to Korean chicken cuisine nowadays.

Since it was during the lunchtime promotion when I visited the outlet, I got the 1-for-1 offer which allows you to order a main dish and another salad/soup/side dish/pasta etc. This is the smoked duck salad with citrus sauce which I got that day as part of the offer. It was good that the vegetables were scrunchy while the citrus sauce didn't seem overly sweet and could take away a little bit of the saltiness in the smoked duck slices. Overall, this was a pretty good salad which met my expectations.

And this is the main dish i.e. jerk chicken with two sides. I chose mashed potato and coleslaw to go with the chicken. The coleslaw's quality can vary at times so it was a relief that this visit happened to be one of those where the coleslaw was up to standard. I usually order jerk chicken since I like it for its moist and flavourful meat. Once in a while, I would order the Korean fried chicken which somehow differs from the fast-food versions from chains like KFC, Popeyes or Texas. Maybe it was the spices used or the cooking method should be different. I've not tried the Korean fried chicken at places like Kko Kko Nara so I can't really tell if the fried chicken here is indeed authentic or has been modified to fit the local tastebud.

Something odd this time was that instead of the usual drumstick, it was a piece of chicken cutlet. I wonder if that had to do with the fact that I ordered an offer set compared to ordering it ala-carte. I think the texture of the meat does differ depending on the part used so I do pay attention to this when ordering meat dishes. Despite this hiccup, the dish still lived up to its usual standard and did not fail to disappoint in terms of flavour.

Upon leaving the restaurant, I was a bit surprised to see Cha Tae-hyun appearing in the promotional ads. Since when did he become the personality for BBQ Chicken? ^__^ I haven't been to any BBQ Chicken restaurant for a short while and I remember not seeing him during my last visit. The 1n2d exposure must have brought some new ads or jobs to the boys so it's a good thing after all to see Tae-hyun's ad outside of Korea. It's interesting to see his myriad of expressions on these ads just as what he shows in 1n2d. If you are a Cha Tae-hyun fan, you should head to any BBQ Chicken outlet and look at him for all you want while munching on Korean fried chicken.

Mixed bag of good and bad news - Mat hyung Kim Seungwoo leaving 1n2d with Bird PD :-(

The word is out, finally. Besides Bird PD who is leaving after this weekend's shoot, mat hyung Kim Seungwoo is also leaving his six brothers behind. :-( It's sad that we won't be able to see him regularly in variety shows for some time since Win Win also ended recently. It's understandable that he wants to concentrate on his acting especially since he has an ongoing drama now i.e. Iris II. However, right after he found his footing in variety and got over the initial awkwardness with his new brothers, he is bidding us farewell after one year which I feel that it's a great pity.

Kim Seungwoo must be commended for being a pillar of strength to his younger cast members and source of great laughter with his unexpected actions. Who can forget the butt-wrestling king and his Mr. Disruptive persona?  I've known him more as an actor who takes on serious roles prior to him joining 1n2d so the programme showed a very different side to him. I'm hoping that we'll get to see him in more roles now that he has time on hand to take on additional projects and if possible, come back to 1n2d for guest appearances in future! They should really think about having an alumni SP soon just for memories' sake.

I almost got a scare when I read today that Sung Shikyung was also rumoured to be leaving the show. Luckily, it was a false alarm, I wouldn't have been able to withstand two departure announcements within a single day! There is talk about new members being considered for the programme but I'm not too keen on this idea. It will take time for the existing group to build up a rapport with the new member and if the number of members turns out to be odd again, it will be troublesome when it comes to games. In recent weeks, they got around this problem with one guy being the referee after winning the pre-game instead of having different-sized teams. Depending on who they get to join the programme, it will be immense pressure for the newcomer too so I would prefer things to remain as status quo for the time being after mat hyung and Bird PD leave.

What a week of upheavals...I hope that there won't be any more surprises coming from 1n2d anytime soon!

Even if change is for the better, does 1n2d need it at this point?

Frankly speaking, I had not expected this to be coming...well, at least not so soon. It's only been a year since the last revamp, or should I say shakeup?

1n2d was the very first Korean variety show I watched and how I happened to come across it was very random or should I say, somewhat dramatic? I remember that I was channel-surfing on a Friday night and suddenly found myself on KBS World. Even though the programme had already started by the time I got to it, I still enjoyed watching guys who I didn't know at all playing games which seemed a bit silly. Then I found myself watching it for another week, and another week... Before I knew it, I was hooked, in a major way just like how you find yourself in love with someone before you realise that the person has been growing on you? Even when I was overseas for work and had to miss the programme for two weeks, I made sure that I got my family members to help me record the show. I watched this faithfully week after week since I started in 2009 but it was difficult to find the older episodes even though I tried too. Even when the revamp took place last year, I was determined to continue watching this despite the first few episodes suffering from fluctuations in quality.

Anyway, I was planning to write a proper post on my "love affair" with 1n2d but since this news came in rather out of the blue, I thought that I should write something now. 1n2d has been through a couple of rough patches in recent years with members leaving either voluntarily or against their own will due to unfortunate incidents, changes in the production crew and the competition catching up to them in the Sunday ratings race. I admit, there were some episodes which I found to be lacking. The charm of 1n2d is the interaction between the members and the crew. To me, the travelogue aspect is important too because it introduces the nice sights in South Korea to someone like me who's not located there. However, there were times when the focus was more on the sights rather than the 7 brothers having fun. I certainly didn't enjoy watching them walk around and do nothing except to gasp in awe at the things they saw so I think that could be a possible reason why things aren't picking up in the ratings department. I don't track ratings at all for Korean programmes but the competition with Running Man is heating up so much that 1n2d can't afford to be complacent.

However, as fate would have it, the changes did take its toll on the programme in one way or another. I have to admit, there are some changes which I think did the programme some good and some were not so desirable effects but whenever there's change, it takes time to regain that momentum. I am a regular viewer of Running Man too (more about my affair with them another day) and to be honest, I can't say that every single episode was interesting. Nonetheless, Running Man benefited from stability in a sense and that helped the cast to build up their team spirit over the span of more than 2 years. When they first started, things were kinda awkward too. To put it frankly, 1n2d may not necessarily be worse than its prime years, it's just that comparatively, the competition is shaping up nicely to give it a run for its money.

If Bird PD leaves and some new crew members join, it may give rise to new sparks so it's not necessarily a bad thing. Just that he took a bit of time to get used to working with the members and when things were finally looking comfortable, he's planning to leave due to health conditions? What a pity though but hope that he'll be healthy and well to do the things he wants to. Cast changes are something which I don't really look forward to so it will depend on how KBS is going to make this more palatable to the viewers. I seriously do not want any of the 7 brothers to go and if someone has to leave, the reason has got to be convincing.

Movie review: FLIGHT

Finally managed to catch this movie before it gets taken down. This film's trailer caught my attention while I was watching "Les Miserables" and struck me as something more than a film about a plane crash. (More on "Les Miserables" another day...)

Here is a brief summary of the storyline on Wikipedia:

On October 14, 2011, Airline captain William "Whip" Whitaker (Denzel Washington) awakens in his Orlando hotel room with flight attendant Katerina Márquez (Nadine Velazquez) after a night of sex, alcohol, and very little sleep. After using cocaine to wake up, he boards SouthJet flight 227 to Atlanta. After Whip threads the plane through turbulence at takeoff, copilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty) flies the airplane while Whip discreetly mixes vodka in his orange juice and takes a nap. Whip is jolted awake just before their final descent and the aircraft goes into a steep dive as a result of an apparent catastrophic failure of control systems of the aircraft. With no other choice, Whip rolls the plane upside down to bring it out of the dive and maneuvers the plane right-side up just before crash-landing in a field. He loses consciousness upon impact.

Whip awakens in an Atlanta hospital with minor injuries. He is greeted by his old friend Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), who now represents the airline's pilots union. He tells Whip his heroism saved 96 of 102 people on board. A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official informs him Katerina was among those killed, and that Evans has been put into a coma...

I won't go into too many details about how the story develops and ends since that would spoil the fun for those who haven't watched the film. The highlights of the film would definitely be the plane crash scene and the public NTSB hearing where Whip was being questioned about his role in the accident. If you've watched National Geographic's programmes such as "Seconds to Disaster" or "Air Crash Investigation", you would probably get the feel that these scenes seemed to be taken straight from these programmes. Very gripping as if you are in that plane and experiencing it first hand and it was horrifying especially to see the plane diving straight downwards and then flying upside down. Apparently, this part about the plane flying upside down was based on a true incident but in that plane crash, nobody survived.

The NTSB hearing was another engaging scene especially when Whip had to decide whether to save himself or taint the name of his girlfriend and lie to everyone again. It was plain that he was struggling emotionally and I think Denzel Washington did very well in this particular scene. I don't think he really loved his girlfriend that much because it felt more like a casual fling to me but when he was shown her photo and had to decide whether to lie through his teeth, I think that smiling image of hers made him realise that he just couldn't push the blame to her just to get away scot-free. To be honest, I had scant sympathy for his character Whip who was in denial about his alcoholism and thought that the plane crash was simply not his fault. Straight after the crash and being discharged from hospital, he did throw away all his alcohol but when he reverted to his old ways soon, I felt that he had no one to blame but himself for his state. True, his intoxicated state might not have caused the plane crash directly but being a pilot, he should know that he was duty-bound to be in a clear-minded condition to handle any emergencies.

I don't know if I was too tired due to the long work day or the middle of the movie was simply too slow-moving but I actually found myself dozing off several times. I think too much time was spent on describing his personal struggle with alcoholism. The movie would definitely benefit if that part was made a bit more succinct rather than having it overshadow the plane crash. On the surface, the title of the movie refers to the plane crash but I think that with the emphasis on Whip's journey to fight alcoholism, it seemed to suggest that the title was also in reference to how that flight changed Whip's life forever, be it in a good or bad way.

Just a side note though, the nudity scene in the beginning was a little uncalled for and too long. It probably didn't add much value to the story except to emphasize that the relationship Whip and Katerina had was probably built upon lust, booze and drugs.

Matsuyama Kenichi's first book - Haisha and other book updates

Finally got Matsuyama Kenichi's book "Haisha"! ^__^ Considering that it was released on 28 February and I got it just 2 days later at Kinokuniya, I must say that this was a shorter wait than I had initially expected. It was a process which I must say was full of twists and turns though because I had checked the Kinokuniya site since the release date but it kept saying that the book wasn't in stock. Even up to last night when I was checking the site, the status remained the same. With just 30 minutes left to the bookstore's closing time, I rushed down to Kinokuniya to try my luck but there were no staff members at the Japanese book counter then. Had to wait another 5 minutes for someone to come back and search the system. Thankfully, the Japanese lady there was extremely helpful and found that this is a new book which only came in on late Friday night before showing me to the correct place to find it. She even recommended that I take a look at two other titles which also came in at the same time i.e. Hotei Tomoyasu's book and Kato Shigeaki's 2nd novel "Senkou Scramble". Not exactly interested in Hotei's book though but did flip through Kato's book which seemed quite interesting. May consider getting it another time though. For those who are interested in buying the novel of "Platina Data" and a fan of Ninomiya Kazunari, you should probably get the latest version which has Ninomiya featured on the packaging. My version was bought last year with Ninomiya and Toyokawa Etsushi's names mentioned on the cover as leads of the movie version so too bad that their photos were not featured on the version I had.