It’s a drama that I got crazy before it broadcast. I can’t wait to watch this drama because of the cast. The cast are so gorgeous.
Sekarang yang juga bakalan heboh (atau sudah?!) adalah versi lain dari F4 yang akan segera tayang di salah satu tv swasta kita. Judulnya adalah Boys Before Flowers.
Dengan mengusung bintang-bintang segar nan muda, ganteng selangit…uhuy….(pakai acara operasi plastik gak ya?) Boys Before Flowers tampil lebih pol-polan. Pokoknya jet set abis dah…
Pakai scene naik jet, helicopter,balapan kuda,golf,pulau pribadi,mobil-mobil super keren yang kayaknya limited edition atau bahkan bisa jadi mobil itu eksklusive untuk drama seri ini.
Saya sudah menikmatinya hingga tamat (dapet pinjeman DVD punya temen..:P). Kalau yang versi Meteor Garden ada 19 seri, yang versi Korea ada 25 seri.
Jika di versi Meteor Garden yang jadi San cai cenderung ‘lemah gemulai’ dan terkesan ‘tidak bisa apa-apa’. Yang versi Korea ini, si rumput liar adalah gadis tomboy yang kuat. Secara karakter saya lebih menyukai yang versi Korea ini. Di sini Geum Jan Di (diperanin Koo Hye Sun) alias si rumput liar, lebih kuat, jago renang dan tubuhnya juga terlihat ‘tertempa’.
Sementara yang jadi ‘Hua Che Lei’ saya lebih suka Vick Zao alias versi Meteor Garden, lebih pas baik secara kegantengan dan karakter. Yang versi Korea malah terlalu ‘lemah gemulai’ bahkan kalo boleh dibilang sangat ‘kecewek-cewekan’.
Dan F4-nya diperanin:
Secara akting, menurutku sih biasa-biasa saja, bahkan cenderung kurang. Kalau tidak karena ganteng dan ceritanya sudah begitu mengakar (mulai dari komik Hana Yori Dango, Meteor Garden) mungkin akting mereka bisa dibilang jelek. Salah satu aktrisnya dikabarkan bunuh diri, yang jadi Sunny salah satu anggota kelompok trio gadis pengganggu Jan Di di drama tersebut.
Tapi yang jelas selain menikmati wajah-wajah mereka yang so cute dan aduhai, kita akan menikmati atraksi balap mobil keren, tempat-tempat wisata yang bikin ngiler…
Bagi yang belum liat, silakan tunggu saja di tv swasta kita…:D
Koo Hye Sun (Geum Jan Di)
Lee Min Ho (Goo Joon Pyo)
Kim Hyun Joong (Yoon Ji Hoo)
Kim Bum (So Yi Jung)
Kim Joon (Song Woo Bin)
Posted by syipoh on May 24, 2009
Hoa, mungkin bagi para kpop lovers serial yang satu ini emang sinetron wajib yang kudu harus ditonton. Tau semua lah kalo serial ini emang top bgt dan keren banget. Meskipun sinetron nya stripping (beda sinetron stripping Indo ama Korea). Kini, mereka hadir di Indonesia. Tepatnya di salah satu stasiun tipi yang kalian so pasti uda pada tau dong? Yupz, serial ini bakalan tayang di stasiun tipi Indosiar yang mulai meninggalkan sinetron harry potter jadi-jadiannya dengan naga terbang mereka dan beralih dengan serial korea yang jelas-jelas lebih menguntungkan dari segi rating pemirsa. Dan akan ditayangkan setiap senin dan selasa tiap jam ½ 10 malam mulai 1 Juni! (pas tes pula!) Hwoa, jam malam lagi. Mentang-mentang baru keluar. Langsung kebagian jatah malam hari. But, it’s no problem. Buat para penicnta Korea abadi pasti nggak bakal ngelewatin. Soal cerita lengkapnya, kalian pasti udah lebih pinter dari syipoh untuk menjelaskan kepada teman-teman kalo pada tanya gimana ceritanya. But, yang bener-bener nggak tau (kebangetan!) daku ceritain deh…
Cerita bermula dari Jan Di (Gyo Hye Sun) yang naik sepeda ke sekolah Shinwa, tempat sekolah anak orang kaya sekaligus pemilik beberapa perusahaan vital negara. Nah, pas dia nyari seseorang yang dituding sebagai langganan Jandi’s Dry Cleaner alias tukang cuci made by Jandi’s family ada ribut-ribut gaco gitchu. Ternyata eh ternyata anak yang dicari adalah korban kekerasan dalam rumah tangga F4 dan sudah mau bundir alias bunuh diri. Pas mau loncat Jan Di dengan spontan langsung narik baju tu anak dan nggak jadi bundir. Jan Di pun jadi terkenal dan mendapat julukan wonder woman Korea. Hoho. Pimpinan grup Shinwa yang tak lain dan tak bukan adalah ibunya Goo Jun Pyo langsung masukin Jan Di ke sekolah Shinwa.
The Previews cancellation pages used to be full of reason codes 2 and 6. That’s “will resolicit” (which I usually took to mean “the creators are running later than we expected, but you’ll see the book eventually”) and “sold out” (never a bad reason). Now, it’s all 4s (”cancelled by publisher”, which sometimes means “we can’t afford to do it with those numbers”) and the dreaded 3s (”cancelled by Previews”). That last one means “we didn’t get enough orders to make Diamond enough profit”, and even knowing that they were cracking down this year, I had no idea it would grow this quickly.
Take, for example, Hope Falls. The miniseries, written by Tony Lee, had a collection planned for release this year, but it fell victim to “not enough orders”. Yet Markosia is still publishing it — they’ll sell it through Amazon, Diamond UK, and direct themselves.
That’s just one of many. Rumor has it that Diamond’s in trouble, like most companies in this economy, and it’s understandable that they need to tighten up, but driving customers to other venues doesn’t do Diamond’s customers, the direct market comic shops, any good. And having to stay on top of the status of various projects individually in order to figure out who you’ll get it from and when … that’s no fun. It defeats the purpose of centralized orders, whether from retailer to Diamond or reader to retailer.
Bwa ha ha! Wizard is plugging an article on “How to Get Your Girl to Read Comics”. Leaving aside the assumption that all of their readers are heterosexual males… I’m not sure I believe anyone immature enough to read Wizard magazine would *have* a girlfriend. But the picture shows her holding a huge stack of Marvel, DC, and Image collections. I don’t really think most women are going to be as interested in The Punisher, Invincible, and Green Lantern as they might be in something, oh, non-superheroish. What about indies? Art comics? Manga? Works in other genres, like science fiction or romance? Heck, if you must show superheroes, what about Birds of Prey or Wonder Woman? And if you’re going to be that terribly cliched, go with Sandman and Strangers in Paradise.
Eh, enough griping. Let’s go to things I’m positive about, starting with Venus Capriccio Volume 2. It surprises me no end that, just when I’m ready to give up on all DC publications, I’ve found a couple of their CMX manga series I really like, this one and The Name of the Flower.
If you haven’t read it before, be sure to check out Jim Ottaviani’s Suspended in Language (GT Labs), a true-science graphic biography of Niels Bohr, the father of quantum mechanics. The art is mostly by Leland Purvis with additional work by Jay Hosler, Roger Langridge, Steve Leialoha, Linda Medley, and Jeff Parker, talented artists all. It’s a fascinating example of just how wide-ranging comic storytelling can be.
I’m looking forward to The Big Kahn, by Neil Kleid and Nicholas Cinquegrani, from NBM. When a respected rabbi passes away, his family finds out that for 40 years, he’s been lying to everyone: he’s not even Jewish. It’s a story about grief and faith and family and finding one’s own way. An online preview is available.
My gracious, how the mighty have fallen. Tokyopop has two pages of Previews, that’s it, with 12 listings. It’s a far cry from the days where they’d have page after page, one or two books per.
Top Shelf is preparing for the late September debut of The Surrogates movie with a re-release of the graphic novel with a new cover; a new prequel story, Flesh & Bone; and a super-deluxe hardcover containing them both. Good for them!
The Middleman graphic novel The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse (Viper Comics) promises to serve as conclusion to the much-missed TV show. I want to read the comic, but it will only remind me of how much I miss the series.
Peter David’s book about Writing for Comics (Books section) is updated and revised. I don’t know about specific changes, but I thought the first one was pretty good, so I’ll still recommend this version.
What are you anticipating?
(It’s late for ME, anyway.)
My friend Steve Saffel would like you to know that The Best of Simon and Kirby is now out and “everyone who’s seen the book has raved”. Previews are available.
Gina Biggs has created a set of zodiac illustrations featuring bare-chested men in a manga-influenced style. What’s your sign?
New CBLDF President Chris Powell has resigned from the Board of Directors of ComicsPRO due to time conflicts. Calum Johnston, owner of Strange Adventures in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been added in his place. Johnston is the first non-U.S. director of the group.
You can now subscribe to this blog on the Kindle if you’re so inclined.
Not comics, but interesting to me: Via Journalista comes word that the San Jose Mercury News will begin charging for online content. I find this ironic. My first job out of a grad school was as a user interface developer and website designer for a newspaper database company. We were trying to sell our clients on the idea that we could help them put their newly computerized “morgues” online, and they could sell access to subscribers. (Bear in mind that this was back in the day where DIALOG access to certain online databases cost $60 an hour.) But few newspapers could make it work because papers like the Mercury News and the Raleigh-Durham News and Observer, located in tech-heavy areas, were doing amazing work online for free. Now, I can’t even find a NandO online site — it’s the flat newsobserver.com.
I don’t think trying to “make” customers pay for what they were used to getting for free is the way to go, because you’re not providing any additional value to justify them giving you money. I’d like to read more local news, myself, but the local paper keeps cutting what makes them special and unique in favor of protecting fat cats. Anyway, found it interesting to see San Jose’s paper try and reverse the effects of that decision made over 15 years ago.
The high concept of this book — 10 successive annual meetings between Superman and Batman, showing how their relationship has changed over the years — sounds wonderful until one realizes how many stories about the two have been written, and forgotten, over the years.
Companies like DC have a habit of wanting to keep their characters ageless, which requires story erasures or history restarts every so often. As a result, no one knows how many adventures Superman has actually had, or whether a favorite Batman story officially happened, or how many years either of them have been adventuring. Thus, the impact of seeing the “first meeting” of these two heroes is lessened; it’s just another story that will later be overwritten by someone else’s attempt.
Dave Taylor draws a strangely skinny Superman in a generic world, missing the chance to better distinguish the characters’ homes of Metropolis and Gotham City. The key characters look like mannequins, and they’re given some truly odd poses that ruin dramatic moments.
Obvious parallels are drawn between the two heroes to make the similarities and distinctions stand out, even though the alert reader has already recognized most of them. Certainly, anyone drawn to this book for the premise is well familiar with the symbolism, not needing it spelled out in this clunky detail, and the in-jokes and revamped versions of obscure characters don’t make up for the writing.
The hostility between the two heroes is a slap in the face to anyone who remembers the much longer history of them working together and contrasts badly with the chapter that attempts to evoke the sillier aspects of the heroes’ histories. Light-hearted stories about magical imps from other dimensions need heroes with a sense of humor, not these grim sticks.
By the time all the stops are pulled out in the end, the reader’s likely to come away realizing the task was impossible (when they’re not wondering why Batman’s rogue’s gallery is so classic while Superman’s is so forgettable). The book works best as a record of how wrong DC has gone in trying to keep its flagship heroes relevant by using substitutes and spinoffs and having Superman kill and insisting people think Batman is an urban legend. It’s lost sight of the appeal of the world’s best known superheroes.
I’ve really been enjoying the Dr. Thirteen backup story in Tales of the Unexpected, and it concludes this week in issue #8. The skeptic and his motley band of misfits fight a group of empty superhero costumes (a rather lovely metaphor, from my point of view) before finally confronting the Architects in a setting that combines the Batcave, the Fortress of Solitude, and Captain Marvel’s subway tunnel.
Maybe I’m seeing connections just because I’m taking a larger view these days, but I thought the panel where Genius Jones makes a terrible pun, complete with character feet in the air, stunned by its awfulness, was a nice allusion to an older genre of comics, the gag panel. The characters seem a bit wackier in this final go-round, winking at each other and wisecracking, perhaps in a salute to the Silver Age of superhero battles. And I loved the button marked “plot device”. Of course, that’s what every fun team-up story needs.
I do wish a little more care had been taken in the details: The second caption box has a rather glaring typo (”heals” instead of “heels”) and later on, there’s a “hust” that should have been “must”. Overall, though, a triumph from Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. I strongly recommend purchasing the eventual collection just to read an involving story that takes the refreshingly big-picture view that “this too shall pass”. The unusual characters should be seen as an asset, not a liability to be eliminated. Plus, they’re fun on a more literal level, making for an involving team with distinctively unusual voices.
Tom Bondurant has a more in-depth analysis.
Also enjoyed this week: two Spider-Man comics, which is odd, because I normally don’t care for the character.
I expected to like Spider-Man/Fantastic Four #2 because it’s written by the talented Jeff Parker. (Art is by Mike Wieringo with inks by Wade von Grawbadger and Andy Lanning.) What confirmed it for me, though, was the first page scene, when Peter’s Aunt May won’t let him go back out to fight the aliens until he has lunch. That’s what our loved ones are for, always looking out for us.
I like the way Parker so nicely sums up characters in short bits true to their personalities. The Fantastic Four have never been for me so much a family as when Sue and Reed, bailing out of their flying car ready for action, are also telling their kids who’ll be babysitting them and how many cartoons they get to watch.
It’s an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type scenario, with the heroes needing to work together to stop and reverse alien possession. Since it’s part 2 of 4, by the end of the issue, things are looking grim, as Reed concludes they need more research to more intelligently fight the symbiotes. (And how refreshing that is, to see a measured, thoughtful response.)
My enjoyment of The Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1 can also be credited to the writer, superstar-to-be Matt Fraction. He’s created a nice done-in-one story that’s a great choice for movie fans to sample the characters while still nodding to current Marvel continuity and acknowledging the characters’ history.
Mary Jane’s talking with an old friend at the Coffee Bean, but there’s more to the reunion than meets the eye, given Peter’s status as a wanted criminal post-Civil War. The best part of the book for me was the way it demonstrated how cool a partner Mary Jane is for Spider-Man.
One of the reasons I don’t personally care much for the character is the discrepancy between his original concept (schlubby “normal guy” with big contrast between powers and his everyday life, which doesn’t go so well) and what he became (supermodel wife, well-known photographer). Much as I disliked what the Civil War crossover event became, I do like the way it gave Peter a new, valid excuse to complain: he made some bad decisions and is on the run.
Another big plus: no feeling left out. I got everything I needed to know to understand and, more importantly, enjoy the story IN the story. (And a giggle at them making fun of the classic “tiger/jackpot” line, which really is cheesy and unrealistic.) The dialogue’s both solid and creative, too, and Salvador Larocca’s art is classic comic book in an excellent way. It’s a wonderful portrait of what stands behind a solid marriage: belief in each other to rescue you.
I caught up on a month’s worth of superhero comics this afternoon, and boy, was that a mistake. Put me in a grumpy mood all evening. There’s just too much mediocrity out there, too much stuff that would have been satisfying in bigger chunks, too much trying to make meaning from connections to other titles instead of their own stories (or using characters other people made mean something as shortcuts to provide weight), too much disappointment from well-respected names who should have known better, too much navel-gazing.
So what was good? First rule: look for Jeff Parker’s name. Even though it’s issue #7 of 8 of X-Men: First Class, he provides a story that means something on its own, without reference to previous issues. And it’s a classic type, one that most people can identify with, based on young love from opposite sides of a deep-seated divide.
It seems that Angel has been sneaking out of class to meet the Scarlet Witch. Her brother, the speedster Quicksilver, accidentally attacks the X-Men while looking for her, leading to misunderstandings and eventually a shared search. Meanwhile, the two dating heroes are in that “should this go any further?” phase of getting to know each other.
Through well-chosen scenes and bits of business, I was reminded of the characters’ personalities, motivations, and powers, such that I didn’t have to look elsewhere to put names with costumes. I know this seems like congratulating a master chef on making sure the salad’s cold and the entree’s hot, but you’d be amazed at how many comics come out from DC and Marvel where those basics aren’t established. Or worse yet, other comics can pay so much attention to emotional drama that they forget “hey, these kids have powers, maybe they should use them!”
Artwise, I knew what was happening (again, covering the basics admirably), thanks to Roger Cruz. They seem like teens in their attitudes and dialogue, too. I think this title was meant to “fill in the blanks” around previously published stories, but I didn’t much care, because enough was happening “present day” that the occasional “remember when” didn’t bother me even though I didn’t.
I was also glad to see something to take away at the end I agreed with, when they address the issue of how controlling family members should be, even out of good intentions. I wanted to call up a friend of mine, one with a daughter about to graduate high school, and read it to him, because it was a message that could have important meaning in real life, too.
Also by Jeff Parker, the fun and even silly Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #11. How can you not have fun with such classic villains as It the Living Colossus and a bunch of guys with snakes? And I loved seeing Spidey say “Will anyone ever remember that I’m really, really smart?”
On the other side of the aisle, I’m still enjoying Darwyn Cooke’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit #4. He’s so creative in his updating — Silk Satin becomes a CIA agent chasing the terrorist Octopus. It’s pure comics: imagination and skill put down in words and lines. I can get lost in individual panels, marveling at their construction and subtleties.
(If you want to know more about his modern take on the classic character, be sure to find issue #3, which retells the Spirit’s origin.)
I never got the appeal of Eisner’s women — they were nicely drawn stereotypes, in many cases, and maybe it was surprising just seeing them be smart and devious in that era — but this one, in this version, I am with 100%. She’s tough, beautiful, and still a three-dimensional character. She even saves the day — just check out that cover! Bless you, Cooke.
Update: I see that this issue is getting plenty of blog attention just because Girl Hero Saves Day. Which is cool, but disheartening, that such a basic role reversal is still so unusual as to be worthy of widespread comment.
