Solo Camping for Two

So...I'm holding off on the Betrothed to my Sister's Ex until they are all released. I'm all caught up on Silent Witch (which I am enjoying a lot). I should finish Miss Night and Day but I've been in the mood for short episodes and not long ones. Not sure I'm going to finish Cinderella's Closet (or, if I do, it'll be after they are all released). And there's a few in progress ones that are up to the angsty bits and I've been putting them off. So...I started Solo Camping for Two. Which I just realised isn't fully released either. Sigh.

I honestly almost didn't go on after the first episode because the female character is really quite whiny and entitled. But let me go back to what it's about first...

Gen, the dude, loves to go camping by himself. It's how he escapes the humdrum of life in the city. On this particular fateful camping trip, he returns to his campfire to find a half dressed woman drying herself on his campfire (she fell in a river). She came to camp but got lost, showed up after the camping office was closed, and didn't bring a tent with her. Yeah. She's kinda useless, but she gloms onto him and complains when he's grumpy. 

Then she somehow convinces him to go with her another time so she can properly learn how to solo camp, hence the solo camping for two thing. In the first two episodes, I can't say I like her much. She demands a lot of a total stranger and whines. A lot. If it weren't for her cooking, I can't imagine why he agrees to any of it.

She gets a bit better (am starting on episode 4 now) as she learns. This show reminds me a bit of Laid Back Camp except it's obviously more adult (though not much, really...just has older characters) and the probability of some romance is high (her friends are pushing that button...I mean, fair, who starts camping one on one with a total stranger of the opposite sex?). It's a bit of slice of life and somewhat educational (I'm learning a bit about camping, which is not something I've ever done really). 

So I'd say it's getting better, but not that I love it. There does appear to be a live action version as well, so it must have been a fairly big hit. I wonder if she's any more palatable in the live action? Or if it's worse? I've not had great luck with Japanese live action shows.

I will, however, note that this might be the most apt casting I've seen compared to the anime art.

Right vibe, unlike the live action of Takane and Hana.

Officer Black Belt

Thought I'd do something different and watch a movie. I'd thought Officer Black Belt with Kim Woo-Bin was a drama series but saw it was actually a movie and figured it would be a good foray into something different. I've always heard good things about him, but hadn't really seen him in anything. He's well known for Uncontrollably Fond but I know he dies in it and it's a sad ending, so I haven't seen it. He's also in one that's just releasing that I'm more likely to watch now (as I liked him in this) called Genie, Make a Wish. He does make an appearance in A Gentleman's Dignity, but I didn't make it all the way through that one and looks like he was a smaller part in it and I don't remember him (honestly, I've mostly tried to put that hackneyed series totally out of mind). 

I'd say my only quibble about this film at all is that he's 36 and, while I'm not sure how old the character is supposed to be, I'm pretty sure it's a lot younger than that. Not that he looks old or anything and he can definitely kick ass, but he doesn't look like he's in his early 20s. 

But let me start over. He plays Lee Jung-Do, a prodigy at martial arts (3rd dan in, like, everything) and he delivers food for his dad's chicken restaurant and plays games with his friends. His nickname is Diarrhea, though thankfully they never explain why. His friends are "Moisture" and "Earthworm" and "Writer Kang". 

He happens to come upon a probation martial arts officer fighting an ankle-monitor wearing criminal and steps in and saves the day. So impressed with his abilities, the office recruits him. He's a bit unsure at first but quickly becomes gung-ho. He's a nice guy and helping people out fuels him. He's also intuitive, brave, and once this other world is revealed to him he can't go back to just having fun.

Long story short, there's some good bits with his older partner (Kim Sun-Min, played by Kim Sung-Kyun), a lot of kick-ass intense (and realistic) fight scenes, and he gets onto a task force tracking one particular horrible criminal who has just been released. This dude (played by Lee Hyun-Geol) is as bad as they come--he preys on children and he also gets right back to business once he is released. That actor has been in about a billion things and I feel like he's often a bad guy.

After the poor dude Jung-Do had saved the first time is killed and his partner has his neck broken (but survives) and Jung-Do himself is stabbed and beaten (not without taking out an absolute herd first), he goes a bit rogue with some help from his posse and succeeds in tracking down the escaped bad guy.

Some things are a bit light on plot and development -- but it's essentially a buddy cop movie where the good guys win and kick a lot of butt but also bad stuff happens. Kim Won-Bin has an easy charm about him and I can see why he's talked about so much. I'll definitely try some of his other stuff, though not Uncontrollably Fond. I don't enjoy tragedies, no matter how good the story or acting is. Officer Black Belt was a solid movie, especially if you like gritty, realistic fight scenes and seeing justice served.

Cinderella's Closet

Ok, so I'd been watching Ascendance of a Bookworm, where I'm up to episode 26. But I was getting a bit overloaded on it and I honestly do not love the High Priest character all that much as he just seems like he's scheming to get as much out of her as possible...and Main herself...she was a grown woman supposedly before but she feels more like a kid. It's, like, get a CLUE please. Also, you now know you have so much mana you're practically a mana battery and can do spells, basically, so why don't you do anything with that??

Anyway. All that to say I had to take a break. And I have just 4 episodes of Miss Night and Day left, but for some reason I didn't want to go back to that quite yet. So I thought I'd try a short episode JDrama called Cinderella's Closet. Maybe that was the deciding factor, actually -- the episodes are only about 20 minutes long. I've watched 5 of them now.

So...Haruka is a country girl gone to the big city for university (or maybe just to live? I thought it was for uni but looking back, I don't think I've seen a single scene where she's in class?). She was sporty before and thought moving there she'd have a chance to get more "girly" and experience all kinds of things -- like getting a boyfriend.

She has a crush on Kurotaki (sp? ...too lazy to look it up) who works with her at a cafe. He's kind of an "every dude" and handsome enough, though he's weirdly very connected for someone who also works at the same place she does when she's constantly complaining about how broke she is.

She winds up running into Hikaru, who is a cross dresser and equally beautiful either when dressed as a woman or a man. She doesn't actually realise at first that he is male. Through reasons, he winds up helping her with her makeup/confidence. And, at this point in the drama, she's dating Kurotaki but Hikaru has his own painful crush on her. Complicating matters is the reappearance of Kurotaki's old girlfriend, who is now a successful YouTube or whatever makeup artist personality. She obviously still has the hots for him. 

They've not particularly made Kurotaki out to be a bad guy; he was reluctant to date her when he thought she was putting him on a pedestal (she was). He was actually pretty self aware -- and he realises quickly that Hikaru's crush is Haruka. There's a brief plot bit where he runs into Hikaru as a guy and doesn't realise it's Hikaru--and Hikaru gives his name as Keisuke (or something like that), but they didn't prolong that deception for very long at all. I imagine that's because of the shortness of the episodes.

It's obvious that H&H will wind up together, though things will conspire against them for a while first. I am not entirely sure I'm going to finish it, but I might since it is so short (though it isn't all released yet). Matsumoto Leo as Hikaru is the biggest bright spot. He shines no matter what he wears and other than particularly loud and frequent exclamations of surprise, his acting is nice. Good expressive eyes. 

Ichika Osaki as Haruka is a bit more painful as it's that kind of flailing over-act-y style. When she has to show real emotion, she does good, but in a lot of the other moments, you kind of want to shake her. I guess, all around, the acting is a bit more unpolished? It'll be fine for a while and then there's bits where you just cringe. And she screams a lot. And when I say "a lot" I mean all the time.

That said, it's charming enough and I like the way they're handling Hikaru's character. Though he may be sharp tongued, he's a walking green flag.

It's been shit

I've been crying a lot today. It's been a lot. Mostly to do with the little dude and I don't want to get into specifics but I'm just at the end of my rope. I am lonely. I am lost. I've just had enough. I am unseen.