Saturday, February 26, 2011

Crime Scene Investigation -- Sign

I am watching a Korean TV drama currently, it is the story about the medical and mystery cases. The title of the drama is called "Sign". I think it is similar to the US TV series "CSI - Crime Scene Investigation". "Sign" is a medical investigation drama about forensic doctors solving murder cases. This is the first Korean drama about the story of the coroners. This drama is airing on the Astro One HD Channel (channel 393) at every Monday and Tuesday from 9pm to 10.10pm.

Revered actor Park Shin Yang (Lovers in Paris, The Painter of the Wind) returns to dramas as a brilliant forensic investigator in crime thriller Sign. Kim Ah Joong, who shot to stardom in the film 200 Pounds Beauty, is his rookie love interest, while Uhm Ji Won (The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry) and Jung Gyu Woon (Dr. Champ) round out a solid cast. The drama, with its unusual crime investigation storyline (paired with a little romance), hit the ground running with high ratings and has been called the Korean C.S.I.


Title        : Sign / 싸인
Genre      : Drama, Medical, Mystery, Romance, Action, Thriller
Episodes : 20
Story       :
"Sign" covers the lives and difficulties of forensics doctors at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation. Go Da-Kyung (Kim Ah-Joong) is frequently scolded by Yoon Ji-Hoon (Park Shin-Yang), but still is tenacious in her purpose. A hidden truth also prevails in a mysterious case surrounding them and their organization.
Go Da Kyung (Kim Ah Joong) has been successful working as a forensic doctor at a coroner's office, but what she really wants to do is investigate the crime scenes themselves, not just the bodies. She manages to get a job as a rookie investigator paired with famed forensic doctor Yoon Ji Hoon (Park Shin Yang). The eager newbie and prickly veteran initially struggle against each other as they strive to solve crimes through the tiny details they find, utilizing science to solve murders.
Jung Woo Jin (Uhm Ji Won), a ruthless prosecutor and Ji Hoon's ex, attempts to use their findings for her own ends, while Da Kyung clashes with impetuous police officer Choi Yi Han (Jung Gyu Woon). Da Kyung and Ji Hoon must balance personal entanglements with professional life in their quest to uncover the truth behind murder, and the two develop a complex relationship.

Cast :

Park Shin Yang as Yoon Ji Hoon
Kim Ah Joong as Go Da Kyung
Uhm Ji Won as Jung Woo Jin
Jung Gyu Woon as Choi Yi Han
Jun Kwang Ryul as Lee Myung Han
Song Jae Ho as Jung Byung Do
Jang Hyun Sung as Jang Min Suk
Ahn Moon Sook as Hong Sook Joo
Jung Eun Pyo as Kim Wan Tae

Park Shin Yang
Kim Ah-Joong


Uhm Ji-Won

Jeong Kyeo-Woon

Jeon Kwang-Leol
OK, let us take a preview of the exciting scenes of the drama.













So, interested to catch this Korean CSI?! Personally, I do enjoy this drama. If you would like to catch this exciting CSI drama, please click into Sign, then you would feel the excitement!

Enjoy watching!!! ^.^

Monday, February 21, 2011

Lives at Emergency -- Code Blue

Konnichiwa minasan! It is been a long time that I did not introduce for Japanese TV drama. So, it is now the time for me to recommend a J-drama to you. It is a medical TV drama, called "Code Blue". This is a TV drama of Year 2008 with 11 episodes.

This TV drama is currently airing on 8TV at 3pm to 4pm on every Sunday. The story is centering on lives of medical staff in an emergency medical service unit using a helicopter. This is an exciting and heartwarming TV drama. The story has assembled a group of young stars and experienced ones. Based on a national proposal for an emergency helicopter system, the series revolves around a service called Doctor Heli that quickly brings medical aid to those needing immediate medical attention.

The actors and actresses are Tomohisa Yamashita (from the TV drama Beat Buzzer), Yui Aragaki (from the movie Koizora/Sky of Love), Erika Toda (from the TV drama BOSS), and Yosuke Asari. These are the 4 main characters of the drama.


Title        : Code Blue / コード・ブルー -ドクターヘリ緊急救命- / Kōdo Burū: Dokutā Heri Kinkyū Kyūmei / Doctor Helicopter Emegency
Genre      : Drama, Medical
Episodes : 11
The "Doctor Helicopter" system was legalized in Japan in June 2007. A medical team is dispatched to the patients on a helicopter to provide medical care in the field as soon as possible. One day, four young physicians are assigned to this latest medical system. The doctors experience traumatic medical situations, deal with personal ambitions, witness the fragility of life, and they grow personally and professionally.
If it can be treated one second earlier, the heart might start beating again. If there is one extra helicopter, another life in danger may be saved. If one more life can be saved, the Japanese medical community may regain trust. There are more lives in this country that can be saved.

Casts :

Yamashita Tomohisa as Aizawa Kosaku (Flight doctor-in-training)
Aragaki Yui as Shiraishi Megumi (Flight doctor-in-training)
Toda Erika as Hiyama Mihoko (Flight doctor-in-training)
Higa Manami as Saejima Haruka (Flight nurse)
Asari Yosuke as Fujikawa Kazuo (Flight doctor-in-training)
Kodama Kiyoshi as Tadokoro Yoshiaki (Emergency Unit Chief)
Katsumura Masanobu as Morimoto Tadashi (Flight Doctor)
Ryo as Mitsui Kanna (Flight Doctor)
Yanagiba Toshiro as Kuroda Shuji (Flight Doctor)


Tomohisa Yamashita stars as a young training "flight doctor," Aizawa Kousaku who is a talented doctor and appears arrogant at times while Yui Aragaki (Shiraishi Megumi) , Erika Toda (Hiyama Mihoko), and Yosuke Asari (Fujikawa Kazuo) play his fellow "flight doctors" in training and "rivals".

Yui is an observant and caring doctor but she lacks the confidence that Aizawa has and always supresses her emotions. Hiyama is a straight forward person and one scene that touches me in the earlier episodes was when she was not afraid to admit that she could not cope alone with the injured pregnant lady and seeked help from her mentor. After the incident, she acknowledged her failings and works hard to fulfill her dream of being a "flight doctor". Among the 4 of them, Fujikawa appears to be the weakest in term of his medical skills. However in episode 1, he was assigned to take care of Kuriyma, a 15 old year girl who was suffering from kidney failure and diabetes and has to go through dialysis daily. She had to amputate one of her hands and Fujikawa was very caring towards her and identifies with her fear and encourages her not to give up on life. I'm sure lot of viewers were touched like me :>


The training "flight doctors" are guided by a skilled team of "flight doctors," played by Toshiro Yanagiba (Kuroda Shuji), Ryo (Mitsui Kanna), and Masanobu Katsumura (Morimoto Tadashi). Kuroda is a strict mentor and believes that only the best (meaning talented and observant doctor) is qualified to become a "flight doctor" and encourages rivalry among the training "flight doctors" so as to bring out the best in them. Mitsui believes in letting the training "flight doctors" explore and giving them opportunities to be independent so that they can learn through their experiences and become real "flight doctors" .

Besides the casts above, there are also many guest stars in this drama. Eg. Kawashima Umika, Kunimoto Shoken, Kurose Tomomi, and many more in every episodes of the drama. Personally, I like all the 4 training doctors of the drama as they are having different characters in each of them.

Let us take a preview of some scenes from the drama.














If you are interested to catch this exciting and heartwarming medical drama, please click Code Blue.

Enjoy watching! :)

Friday, February 18, 2011

Love in Magic -- Happiness!

Konnichiwa minasan! It's been awhile that I did not update my blog. :P This is due to some personal matters that I did not do it. SORRY!


Anyway, I am introducing an anime series with 12 episodes called "Happiness!" this time. It is the story about the happy and heartful school life. Happiness! (はぴねす! Hapinesu!) is a Japanese adult visual novel originally for the PC. Later is was made into manga.



Title        : Happiness! (はぴねす! Hapinesu!)
Genre      : Romance, Comedy, Magical, School-life, Fantasy
Episodes : 12
Story       :
Happiness! centers around Yūma Kohinata, who is a high school student attending Mizuhosaka Academy's regular section of the school, along with his close friends Jun Watarase and Hachisuke Takamizo. The other section, aptly named the magic section, was founded in order to train mages in the art of using magic.
The story begins with Valentine's Day coming up in just a few days and there's a rush for all the girls to get the chocolate they want in order to give it to the boys they like, in accordance with Japanese custom. Haruhi Kamisaka, a mage in training, is out with her friend Anri Hiiragi, also a mage in training, in order to do just this. While walking outside in the park, after buying the chocolate she wanted to give to a boy she met when she was a child, Haruhi meets Yūma, who stops some younger boys bullying a young girl, and Haruhi thinks that he may be the boy she's been searching for all this time. The next day is Valentine's Day and at school, all the girls are giving their gifts to the boys of their choice. Later that day, Anri challenges Haruhi to a magic battle in order to take the chocolate she has by force for the reason that Haruhi wouldn't tell her who she was going to give it to. Before long, Anri loses control of her magic and it is flown outside, almost falling onto Yūma and his friends. Ultimately, Haruhi gives him the chocolate she had bought, and in turn Anri does the same, which was her plan - to give her chocolate to the same boy as Haruhi and see who would win his favor more. The next day there is a gas explosion at the magic section of the school and all the mages in training must transfer over to the normal section for the time being. Coincidentally, Haruhi and Anri are placed within Yūma's class. Now Haruhi and her friends must adjust to the transfer into the normal section of Mizuhosaka Academy.


Characters :

Yūma Kohinata (小日向雄真 Kohinata Yūma)
Yūma is the main protagonist in the story. He has a nice, helping personality and is not afraid to help girls in need. His two close friends are Hachisuke Takamizo, and Jun Watarase, who seems to have a crush on him. When he was younger he was able to do some magic in order to help Haruhi who was being bullied, but now he professes that he cannot use magic (though in reality he still can). Additionally, he seems to be put off by the notion of using magic whatsoever, even if it is able to help people. Eventually, he realizes that magic can bring happiness if used in the right way and transfers to the magic section. In the end, he learned that his real mother is Suzuri Minagi (a teacher in the magic section). He is actually one of a kind and one of the most powerful and quickest of learners when it comes to magic, although he doesn't use it because of a few accidents when he was younger and because his mother erased his memory when he was young. He eventually started to harbour feelings for Haruhi Kamisaka.



Haruhi Kamisaka (神坂春姫 Kamisaka Haruhi)
Haruhi is the main heroine in the story. She is a mage in training and is seen as very skilled amongst her peers, who have been known to think of her as a genius when it comes to using magic. When she was younger, Yūma was able to use some magic in order to help her from some bullies which made her want to become a mage herself. Her magic wand is named soprano (ソプラノ Sopurano), which owes its form from a trumpet that Haruhi used to play before she started to study magic. She harbours feelings for Yuma Kohinata. She was mistaken by Ibuki Shikimori to be the daughter of "that" woman (the woman who stole the Shikimori treasure) and even tried to control her to break the barrier that seals the treasure in the Shikimori Forest. In the end, she got together with Yuma when he was transferred to the Magic Section.

Anri Hiiragi (柊杏璃 Hiiragi Anri)
Anri is Haruhi's close friend and also her a fellow mage in training. She tends to have a very strong-willed type of personality which she uses to try to get the things she wants. It can also make her reckless when it comes to her using magic, due to her being overconfident and underskilled compared to Haruhi. She is left handed according to the seventh anime episode. Her magic wand is named Paella (パエリア Paeria) and was formed from her favorite feathered pen. She applied for a part-time job as a waitress in the Oasis cafeteria to save some money for her to be able to go abroad and study at a Magic Institution. Eventually, she begins working for Otoha Kohinata in the school's cafeteria.




Koyuki Takamine (高峰小雪 Takamine Koyuki)Koyuki is a friend of Haruhi and Anri who is one year above them and is also in the magic section. Her magic wand is named sphere Tom (スフィアタム Sufia Tamu) though it is also known to be nicknamed "Tama-chan" (タマちゃん). It takes the form of a staff with a small green spehere on the end that floats on the staff. Unlike the other magic wands featured that can speak spiritually, sphere Tom has a face from which to voice its opinions. Koyuki inherited the craft of making "Tama-chan"s and puts a lot of effort not only into their creation but going as far as to remember the order in which she made each one despite them appearing all to be relatively similar in appearance. As this dedication to magic has shown, she seems to be very skilled in her use of magic, especially divination magic or fortune telling.




Hachisuke Takamizo (高溝八輔 Takamizo Hachisuke)
Hachisuke, otherwise known simply as Hachi, is one of Yūma's close friends and hangs out with him and Jun Watarase constantly. He seems to be desperate for any affection from girls, as the closest chance he has at getting a girl is with his friend Jun, who, despite his feminine appearance, is in fact male. He is often very perverted as well.




Jun Watarase (渡良瀬準 Watarase Jun)


Jun is another of Yūma's close friends. Despite his feminine appearance, he is in fact an androgynous okama boy who crossdresses like a girl. He himself says he does this because the female school uniform suits him better and does make him popular among male students. Also, he has the desire to date Yūma himself, but Yūma being entirely heterosexual strongly refuses. He often says or does things that would be seen as ironic, such as saying how perverted men are, when he himself is male. Jun's signature attack, the Patriot Missile Kick, is a flying side kick, normally used as a means to keep Hachi under control.

There are many other characters are in the series, but those above are the main ones. Although this story also has the manga series,  I did not read it. Anyway, I like the anime due to I think it is nice to watch, and the girls are cute!

Let us preview some of the scenes of the anime series.









Provide herewith the links for the anime series and manga series.
Happiness! Anime Series
Happiness! Manga Series

Enjoy watching and/or reading! :)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Love is In the Air -- Happy Valentine's Day!!! :)

Today is 14th February, the Valentine's Day! Love is in the Air!!! :) I am wishing everybody Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Since it is the Hearts Day, let us review some of the sweet and romance scenes from the mangas/anime series.

Maid-Sama








Special A (S.A.)





Ouran High School Host Club






Candy Candy      



Dengeki Daisy




Skip Beat





Faster Than A Kiss




Hapi Mari







Vampire Knight







Romeo x Juliet




Lovey Dovey









Kyou, Koi wa Hajimemasu


















Well, hope you enjoy all these sweet scenes! :P