METEOR GARDEN (2018, CHINESE ADAPTATION)

Episode 19 Daoming Si's Birthday Party and The Introduction of The Woman That Brings the Pain to her son and Shancai...MRS. DAOMING FENG

In all adaptations from the anime to the latest Thai Version (which I won't speak much on this version, just my personal choice if you liked it I love it...for you) there was the evil mother of the male protagonist

She was a mean stuck up woman that did everything to prevent her precious son from dating the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She hated Shancai (SHEN YUE) on sight merely because she was poor.

It is the birthday of Daoming Si and all of F4 and many wealthy people are in attendance giving Si gifts that would break the bank of an average human.

Shancai is made to look elegant by F4 as Daoming Si (DYLAN WANG) wants to introduce the girl he loves to his snobby mommy Daoming Feng (WANG LIN)

Side Note: Wang is obviously a popular name in China since at least 8 to 9 people in this series have this surname including the series star DYLAN WANG.

Nervous, when Si grabs her hand to take her to his mother she yanks away and falls spectacularly on the floor in front of everyone as Daoming Feng walks up literally looking down on her from their first meeting. (I smell a metaphor)

Ultimately Daoming Feng requests the removal of the "weed girl" but instead Daoming Si ends up leaving with Shancai as his angry mother watches.

So begins more obstacles for Shancai and Si than a maze.

@pose4photoml

PLUS (featuring: BLOCKBUSTERS sorta)

Movie: HANA YORI DANGO [BOYS OVER FLOWERS]

This title has spawn many a remake. However a perhaps lesser know version was the Japanese Movie Adaptation in 1995.

Actor: SHOSUKE TANIHARA took on the lead role of DOMYOUJI TSUKASA.

And his MAKINO TSUKUSHI was played by this short haired cutie YUKI UCHIDA.

This film took a different approach than all the series and anime leaving out DOMYOUJI's beautiful sister and his evil mother. Instead focusing on Makino being in love with RUI HANAZAWA and later falling for DOMYOUJI.

Non-anime Asian TV Shows that I liked

This is just a short list of some Asian TV shows I liked, list is not exhaustive. Thank you  @cautionworksstuff​ for encouraging me to do this since you wanted to know more about other foreign TV shows other than anime. 

When I say non-anime, it means shows that are not Japanese animated series. 

1. Kingdom [Netflix] (South Korea)

This series hits HARD. It’s an original Korean Netflix series. Now, there’s a lot of shows/movies that are named “Kingdom”, so let me clear about this one: this is the one that is set with a Zombie apocalypse during the Joseon period. 

It follows the story of the Crown Prince who is being framed for treachery by his evil stepmom (the Empress) and her clan, as soon as his father died. In the midst of that, a disease outbreak happens that turns everyone into zombies, and the Prince struggles to avoid being defeated by the corrupted government officials as well as to save his people from the zombie apocalypse. 

What makes this one stand out from series/movies like The Walking Dead are two things: 1) the political setting - while there is a zombie outbreak, it’s also the battle for power, 2) the historical setting - the guns used here are very limited, and the science/medicine explained behind this outbreak is not like “oh due to biotech experiment gone wrong”, 3) unlike Walking Dead, they actually explained the cause of the illness, the cures and the weaknesses. 

They are going to come up with a new one-episode spin-off(?) this month. 

2. Girl from Nowhere (Thailand) 

This is also available on Netflix. This series follow a character named Nanno, who goes to various schools as the new girl. In the second episode, she’s revealed to be some sort of immortal entity that goes on to expose the sins and wrongful acts of parents, teachers and students. She then punishes them as some form of karma. Beware, some episodes are downright disturbing and only for mature audience. 

I don’t have a confirmation of this, but according to Wikipedia and actress Chicha Amatayakul, the character Nanno draws inspiration from Junji Ito’s Tomie, and the similarities are very obvious. From the way the people react to her, the hairstyle and the even to the beauty mark near the eye, the similarities are very obvious. 

One difference though, I must say, is that Nanno is an extremely charming character as compared to Tomie. You will really root for her and can’t help but like her presence, even if she’s a little scary. When I read Tomie, I didn’t exactly felt the same magnetic pull as Nanno did for me. Season 1 was really good. Season 2 was more brutal but I think Season 1 was slightly better. 

3. Trese (Philippines)

This was actually based on a Filipino comic series, with the same name. I had actually waited for this series to be animated. This series features Filipino supernatural beings. I had always wondered how it’ll be like if there was a cool anime about Filipino mythological creatures, such as the manananngal, aswang, tikbalang etc. I think their designs and stories are interesting and not very talked about in the media. 

I had once complained about this. We have so many interesting Filipino mythological creatures, but why do we focus on mostly drama series on love and family, and not come up with a horror series featuring them? 

This one’s available on Netflix as well, and it’s in three audios: English, Filipino and Japanese. I do recommend the Filipino audio because the pronunciation of the creatures are better. But that might be just me listening to my native language. 

Although, just a tiny criticism - there are only six episodes so far. All in less than 30 minutes. This was an issue for me and also my family who had watched it because we felt the pacing was too fast. They didn’t explain what the creatures were, what they do, which can be confusing for people who are not familiar with the mythology. Yeah, I really think it’s because the pacing was fast due to the small number of episodes. If they slowed down, it would be great. Hopefully we get more episodes the next season. 

4. Meteor Garden (Taiwan) [2001] OR Boys over Flowers (South Korea) OR Hana Yori Dango (Japan) 

This was adapted from a manga called “Hana Yori Dango” (Boys over Flowers). It has been adapted in numerous shows, with Japan doing the first live action film in 1995. 

The one that I had watched is the Taiwanese drama version, Meteor Garden (2001 version). There was also a Korean drama adaptation called “Boys over Flowers”. I didn’t watch that one but quite a number of my friends did. There was also the Japanese adaptation, as well as Thai and Chinese adaptation of it. I can’t say for sure which one is the best because I only remember watching the Taiwanese (2001) version and it’s close to my heart. The Taiwanese (2001), South Korean and Japanese drama versions are often being compared. I’ll let you guys decide based on this information.  

I don’t remember much from the plot, although it was this drama was very hyped back then.

This was the summary on Wikipedia: 

It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl from a middle class family, whose mother enrolled her in an elite high school to compete with the families from her husband's company. While at Eitoku, she encounters the F4, a gang of four young men who are children of Japan's wealthiest families, and who bully anyone that gets in their way.

5. The Little Nyonya [2008] (Singapore)

Saving the last for the one that resides a special place in my heart, and perhaps for a lot of people in Singapore. 

Words cannot describe how much this was well-liked in Singapore. I remember everyone praising this. This was hands-down one of THE BEST drama ever produced in Singapore. I remember coming home, waiting at I think 8pm? Just to tune into local TV and then watch this show for a good 40minutes. I know they did a remake in China, which I didn’t watch, but I highly recommend the Singaporean version (since it’s the original and the setting is in Singapore/Malaysia anyway). 

This series really introduced the Peranakan culture to the Singaporean audience. I like to think this story has two parts where it follows the story of a Nyonya (Peranakan Chinese woman). 

The first part’s setting is during WW2. Huang Ju Xiang, a woman born into a Peranakan family and her mother was a 2nd wife. Because of her mother’s status, she’s been ostracised by her family and is tasked to do the household like a servant. She meets a Japanese man and yeah, since it’s in the midst of WW2, their love story was kinda “forbidden” too. The first part is actually my favourite. 

The second part follows the story of their daughter, Yue Niang Yamamoto. This story is longer and Yuening has to face the same type of ostracisation her mother had endured by the Huang family. 

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is one of the leading actors in Hollywood, known for films such as ' Woman, Interrupted, ' ' Salt ' and ' Maleficent, ' and high-profile relationships such as her former marriage to actor Brad Pitt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4VozF9DKFs Angelina Jolie, Who is? Angelina Jolie was born on 4 June 1975, in Los Angeles, California. She portrayed the HBO biopic Gia until she won the Academy Academy Awards for Actress. Jolie became one of Hollywood's stars, with movies like Wanted, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Salt and Changeling as starring roles. Earlier, with Disney's Maleficent, she had a large international hit, which created a continuation. In Blood and Honey, Unbroken and By the Sea, she also directed movies where she then married BradPitt co-starred.

Early life and acting history of Angelina Jolie Actress and activist Angelina Jolie Voight was born to actor Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand in Los Angeles, California, on June 4, 1975. She started playing at a young age, training in her early teens at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Jolie attended the University of New York later.

The films of Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie became a popular actor in the 1990s. In the 1998 television film Gia, she gave a star-making performance based on model Gia Marie Carangi's brief, tragic life, for which she won the best actress Golden Globe. Her rapid ascent began with Woman, disrupted (1999), as the defiant member of a group of institutionalized teens, her performance leading to an Academy Award win for the best actress to help.

Tomb Raider movies Jolie continued to play a variety of interesting positions in the new millennium. In the Tomb Raider movies (2001 and 2003), she played adventurer Lara Croft, an FBI profiler in Taking Lives (2004), and a squadron commander in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004).

Jolie played a neglected, depressed socialite girlfriend in The Good Shepherd (2006) after teaming up with Brad Pitt to play married assassins in the sexy action flick Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005), and then a vengeful, hideous mother in Beowulf's adaptation (2007). She also performed brilliantly that year as Mariane Pearl, Wall Street Journal reporter's pregnant widow Danny Pearl, in A Mighty Heart. The film was based on the account of Mariane's abduction and murder of her husband.

Jolie joined Kung Fu Panda In 2008, as Master Tigress, Jolie joined the voice cast of the animated comedy Kung Fu Panda, a role she later took up for multiple sequels. She also played an assassin in Wanted that year and appeared in Changeling, a thriller directed by Clint Eastwood, as a mother investigating the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of her son. The role led to her first nomination for Oscar in the category of best actress. Jolie went on to take the lead role in the action-packed Salt (2010), about an agent of the CIA, Evelyn Salt, on the run after being suspected of being a Russian spy. That same year, along with Johnny Depp, she played the enigmatic Elise Clifton-Ward in the spy film The Tourist.

Throughout 2014, the actress enjoyed the benefits of creating a big blockbuster, making Disney's Maleficent both starring in and director. Jolie portrayed the character of the witchcraft name, with the film taking the animated classic Sleeping Beauty (1959) from a woman-centered revisionist viewpoint to the main villain. Nonetheless, with U.S. critics divided on the merits of the Maleficent, the film delivered on box office magic, receiving around $240 million domestically and an estimated $517 million overseas. The sequel, Maleficent: Evil's Mistress, hit October 2019 theaters.

Jolie began to improve her skills as a director as well. With 2011's In the Land of Blood and Honey, she made her feature-length directorial debut, looking at a friendship that was badly affected by the Bosnian War. This was followed by Unbroken in 2014, a biopic telling the story of the survival of Olympian Louis Zamperini in a Japanese POW camp. The film was based on the same name's bestselling book by Laura Hillenbrand, earning over $163 million worldwide.

In 2016, in the art film by the Sea, a slowly-paced Mediterranean tale about a married couple and the strains of their marriage, Jolie directed and co-starred with Pitt. She concentrated on directing for First They Killed My Father the next year, based on the autobiography of being trained as a child soldier by a Cambodian activist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJJFN_sGGH0 Kids and Marriages Jolie was three times engaged, renowned for her off-screen romances. In 1995, she married Jonny Lee Miller, a co-star of Hackers. In 1999, the pair divorced. The next year, Jolie married director Billy Bob Thornton, who won the Academy Award. Until 2003, the union continued.

When Mr. and Mrs. Smith was made in 2004, Jolie met Pitt. Pitt was then married to Friends actress Jennifer Aniston, and his relationship with Jolie caused their divorce, resulting in a Hollywood scandal that for years dominated tabloids. Jolie and Pitt became one of the most sought after Hollywood couples, known as "Brangelina."

Jolie adopted a Cambodian son in 2002 and named him Maddox. She took a daughter, Zahara, three years later. Pitt submitted paperwork in 2005 to adopt Jolie's two children. The first biological daughter of the pair, Shiloh, was born in 2006 in Namibia. Jolie, Pitt and their kids went there to avoid the media frenzy that seemed to follow them wherever they went.

Angelina Jolie has added a new addition to her family in March 2007. She took from a Vietnamese orphanage a 3-year-old boy and named him Pax Thien. On July 12, 2008, in a seaside hospital in southern France, Jolie gave birth to twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. The rights to the twins ' first pictures were sold to People and Hello! $14 million magazines— making them the most lavish pictures of celebrities ever taken.

In 2012, Pitt and Jolie became involved. Slipping under the paparazzi radar, they tied the knot secretly in a private ceremony in France on August 23, 2014, surrounded by their family and friends. Brad Pitt's Break

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016, calling for sole physical custody of their six children, sparking another tabloid frenzy. Their controversial battle for custody played out publicly with claims that Pitt had become "verbally abusive" and "aggressive" with Maddox while drinking on their private plane. The Children and Family Services Department of Los Angeles and the FBI launched an investigation but found no signs of abuse; the pair made a joint statement that they worked together to settle their divorce. In a cover story during Vanity Fair in September 2017, Jolie opened up about their split. She said in the interview, "things got tough" in their relationship by the summer of 2016, but she defended their lives together. Our lifestyle] wasn't negative in any way," she told the newspaper. "That wasn't the problem. That's and will continue to be one of the great opportunities we can give our kids. ... We are six people who are very strong-minded, reflective, worldly. I'm so proud of them.

Entertainment Tonight revealed in March 2018 that the actress and humanitarian secretly dated a "beautiful, older-looking man who is a real estate agent," although at that point the relationship was not thought to be significant. A few months later, it was announced that after stopping them from seeing Pitt during their continuing divorce, Jolie was in danger of losing primary custody of her six children. The judge found the children's lack of a stable relationship with their father "harmful" in their case, according to court documents, and threatened to grant Pitt primary custody if things didn't change. The judge recommended a few steps that could be taken by the estranged pair, including presenting Pitt with each child's cell phone number, and proposed a summer visitation schedule to meet with Jolie in London for Maleficent 2. Jolie's legal team filed court documents in August alleging that her estranged husband had "received no substantial child support after a divorce," an allegation denied by Pitt's side. Humanitarian assistance In 2001, Angelina Jolie, a committed humanitarian, was named Goodwill Ambassador to the UN Refugee Agency. She made headlines to get aid for refugees in Sudan, Darfur, and Jordan, just to name a few. In 2005, for her work on behalf of human rights, Jolie received the International Humanitarian Leadership Award from the United Nations Association of the United States. She has continued to draw attention to issues around the world. Health issues and the prevention of cancer Jolie suffered a great personal loss at the beginning of 2007 when her mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56 after many years of fighting the disease. Her aunt died of cancer as well. In May 2013, in a New York Times op-ed article titled "My Health Option," 37-year-old Jolie revealed that she was having a double mastectomy in an effort to prevent possible breast cancer. After learning that she carries a gene known as BRCA1, which increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, the actress said she decided to undergo surgery. "My doctors determined that I had an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer, although each woman's risk is different," Jolie said. "I wanted to be cautious to minimize the risk as much as I could because I knew this was my reality." By the end of April 2013, Jolie said, she had undergone several months of medical procedures, including a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery.

On March 24, 2015, Jolie wrote in another New York Times article that the previous week she had removed her ovaries and fallopian tubes to further reduce her cancer risk. "I didn't just do this because I'm carrying the BRCA1 gene mutation and I want to hear this from other people," Jolie wrote. "A successful BRCA check is not a surgical leap. I've been talking to a lot of doctors, surgeons, and naturopaths. Many options are available. Many women take birth control pills or, combined with regular tests, rely on alternative medicines. There is more than one way to address any health problem. The most important thing is to learn about the choices and actually choose what's right for you. The actress said she was going public with her decision to help "all women at risk learn about the choices." Jolie announced in her September 2017 interview with Vanity Fair that she had developed Bell's palsy, damage to the facial nerve that fell one side of her face. Acupuncture, she said, helped her recover completely from facial paralysis. Read the full article