e rush of the korean craze....

gosh must admit it man... everything that we see on tv nowadays is from Korea... "Stairway to heaven", "Da Chang Jin", "My Lovely Samsoon", now "Goong"...

and everything's making everyone go crazy all over again...

well mainly its e obasans lah... but then there are also young girls going crazy over korean dramas all over again...

that leaves me with one question...

where have all the japanese dramas gone????

i dun even see them in the stores anymore... at least not those by popular artistes...

and all they promote are the korean dramas...

being an avid tv buff, i've basically seen all sorts of dramas on free-to-air tv here... even those that have gone straight to box sets and were never shown here at all...

generally i think that a good and sustainable drama should be less than 20 episodes, ideally it should end around 16, cos usually by then the plot gets too draggy... which is the problem with many korean dramas... they drag and drag in order to make you watch everything, but basically nothing much happens in the episodes after 16, and are just stalling time before the dramatic ending...

for someone who cries easily while listening to ballads and watching soapy dramas, i realised that those shows where the cast (eg female lead) cries every episode will not be able to touch me at all... it gets a bit too regular, too common, so its not strong anymore...yeah we know she has a pathetic life, but do you need to make her cry about her pathetic life EVERY SINGLE EPISODE????

on the other hand, when a male lead that is obnoxious throughout most part of the show, and suddenly shows a softer side by crying so immensely that he is gasping for air, it works for me... my waterworks will immediately start too...

and i think the music helps a lot to create the mood too... even if i dun understand a word of korean, i can still feel the music, and it can make me want to start crying too... but i do realise that most of the songs from korean dramas sound very similar... all very soapy... u hear it you feel like crying...

recently i noticed on tv a advertisement for this group who sings in japanese. the first time i noticed was the way the higher-middle vocal lead Xiah (Junsoo 金俊秀) looked, cos he reminded me so much of Hideaki Takizawa 龙泽秀明, affectionately known to fans as Takky (even both e names have a same character 秀）. having only seen them on tv briefly, cos i was always doing something else when e ad came on, i only know they were called 东方神起, and had an album called "Rising Sun". so i did a search on them, thinking they were a japanese group. in e end to my surprise, they were a korean 5-part harmony acappella group, and can sing in korean, japanese, chinese and english.... and it doesn't hurt that the lead Hero (Jaejoong 金在中) looks like another idol of mine from Taiwan, Roy Chiu 邱泽...

but they are not a new group though, they've been around since the Christmas of 2003. it's jus that there wasn't any promotion or publicity over here. but after checking out their music, i can say that theire vocals are really strong... acappella songs definitely are not a problem, cos they oso have mtvs for the acappella versions of their songs!!! thats a very impressive feat, cos its not cheap to make a mtv, especially when they are shooting on film... not to mention the extra cost to record the acappella versions...

i love ballads... so their pitch-perfect harmonies definitely does it for me...
check out the mtvs for:

"Believe" (Midoyoh in Korean) 2004



"Tonight" (Korean) 2005



"My Little Princess (Acappella Version)" (Korean) 2004




"Whatever They Say (Acappella Version)" (Korean) 2004



and you'll understand what i mean...

personally the first mtv i saw was "Believe" which they have two versions, i saw the one where they are singing in front of a Coca Cola billboard, i think it suits the song more than the other version.

BUT the other version has shots of Hero (Jaejoong 金在中) sleeping...


AND....

its common knowledge that usually when you got the voice, you ain't got the looks... but for them it seems to be a different story... cos they DEFINITELY got both...

AND...

BOY...

CAN...

THEY...

DANCE...

check out the mtvs for:

"O" (Korean) 2006



"Rising Sun" (Korean) 2005



"Rising Sun" (Japanese) 2005

*Note: Jaejoongie looks absolutely HOT on the motorbike!!!


Here's a video teaching ppl how to dance "Rising Sun"!



"Stay With Me Tonight" (Japanese) on "MTV Japan Recommend" 2005




"Somebody To Love" (Japanese) 2005

* Note: I love the way Jaejoogie looks in this MV, he really looks like Roy Chiu 邱泽!!!


and you'll understand what i mean by TOTALLY SYNCHRONISED DANCE MOVES...

now i can only say that i am in a craze.... my cousins think i've gone mad... its just one of those things that happens once in a blue moon... i get too bored with routine life, and search for alternative routes to relieve stress or boredom... i indulge in a new group.... and pester everyone i know about it...

trust me its happened before...

and it'll pass...

but not so soon....

cos they can sing, dance, and look too fab for it to be a short fad for moi...

it's just a phase, like how the japanese drama craze was taken over by the korean drama craze...

but meanwhile...

those that are affected...

bear with me...

TVXQ RAWKS!!!!

Cheerio,
Same Old