NEWS: The HEIRS on its way this October!

October can't come soon enough for kdrama fans! Much buzz has been going around since the announcement of a new posh-school themed drama. Many fans claim to be sick of this same old drama plot but STILL can't help being excited. I can totally relate.

He Who Wishes To Wear the Crown, Endure Its Weight – The Heirs, or simply HEIRS, appears to have the feel of Boys Before Flowers and... well, not much else is known. While the several synopses I've read online are unoriginal and bland, the cast sure aren't.

Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye

Topping the list are Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye. If you've been a kdrama fan for quite some time, you wouldn't need to click on the names I hyperlinked because you'd know how adored these two are. I'm not sure which one has the larger fan base but I know both have huge following. I don't go crazy over Lee Min Ho but I love, LOVE, Park Shin Hye. Personally, I can't imagine the chemistry but I hope their loveteam works. As main leads, LMH plays the rich guy and PSH the poor girl. We know how that usually turns-out so I'm hoping some twists will make the drama standout.

HEIRS also has two of my favorite actresses from the seriously underrated (in my opinion) kdrama What's Up.

JDrama Review: 100 Tales of Horror

1, 2, 3... shall we start?

By the way, no. It's not a hundred-episode drama. Don't want to tempt fate and actually invoke a spirit at the hundredth now, do we? I'm not sure I want to see a Sadako-like creature crawling out my screen.

		100 Tales of Horror Kaidan Hyaku Monogatari  怪談百物語 Episodes:11 Broadcast: 2002, Tuesdays, Aug-13 to Dec-03 Network: Fuji TV Directors: Kawake Shunsaku Hayashi Toru Kobayashi Kazuhiro Tsuruta Norio Tajima Daisuke	Rating:

Period drama = samurai, geta, andon and no-wind-can-ruin-my-hair. Those plus a touch of eeriness and I'm sold.

Kaidan Hyaku Monogatari is a collection of some of the most popular “ghost tales” from Japan. The title is from a popular game where people take turns telling supernatural stories and extinguishing a candle after each. As the room gets darker and darker, the atmosphere becomes more inviting for spirits to join in. It is believed that after the last candle is put-out, spirits present will be seen if they are willing. That's putting it mildly considering some say ancient samurai loved using the game as a test of courage. *smirk*

The 11 stories feature a central character played by Naoto Takenaka, who I found absolutely commendable. He can really act the part of Dosan, an onmyouji. He, together with his daughter and, in some episodes, his disciple Jinta, finds himself involved or a witness in the stories.

<3 

Though the tales are popular, the re-telling here put some very nice twists. Some became more cruel, some became more sentimental. I found them more endearing than most adaptations.  

Rolling-in my list of stuff that captured my attention... I'll assume the stories are already familiar so the following shouldn't really be considered spoilers. I think.

Hell is Waiting (or at least a soul-shredder)

Shotaro in Ugetsu Monogatari

My main problem with him is nobody forced him to marry Isora AND to swear to heavens he'll take care of her forever, but he did both...and then he replaced her with another woman. After all her sacrifices, he left because he accuses Isora of faking her kindness and making his lover leave, without telling him. Yeah,she should've made a letter to what she did. Pssh. There are major differences here compared to the other versions of Pot at Kibitsu I've read before and one of those is that they made Shotaro more relatable with his struggle between doing good and doing what makes him a jerk, I mean happy. As much as I value fidelity, I rarely hate a person for deciding to leave. Here, I hated Shotaro. I didn't understand how his weakness overtook him when his wife is portrayed loving and kind..even to his mistress.