inspiration is the key..

As I haven't been keeping a proper count of the films & shows I've recently watched I thought it might be a good idea to revive this community for the purpose.
And I'm going to start with the new Star Wars film which I finally saw today.

First of all, let me tell you about my background with Star Wars. It is the big epic tale of my life (together with the Lord of the Rings book) and I swear I've seen the New Hope at least 100 times. I used to watch it several times a year when I was a child and I considered myself a big fan. I was very happy with the remastered versions that came in the 90's. I thought they brought a little bit extra to the great films but did not steal from them. I even somewhat liked the episodes 1-3, even if many true fans found them disappointing. Ok, I did hate Jar Jar Binx and was not too fond of chibi Anakin and all the Disneyesque stuff in the new films but there were some really good things as well like the siths and jedis and we learned much more about the world.

When this new film was announced I was quite interested at first. It sounded very nice to have Mark Hamil, Harrison Ford & Carrie Fisher in the cast. I have never read any of the books or any sort of fan fiction stuff on Star Wars so I had no expectations about the film. Then everyone who saw it kept praising it and writing great reviews and I started to get more and more anxious because I feared my own expectations would get too high and I would be disappointed.

For some reason I managed to remain spoiler free until the end which is a good thing. I also had very neutral expectations for the film. I told myself it's entertainment and I should not watch it through too strict lenses. And now I have seen it, what can I say. I like Star Wars and I found the film to be ok. I will go to see the next one BUT...


SPOILERS!!!!!


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I've got back to watching Korean & Japanese dramas after a few months break.

The last drama I watched was The King of Dramas which was very good. It's a bit satirical drama about the drama making industry, weaknesses and passions of people and what is meaningful in life. I truly loved it. The last 3 episodes were a bit too gloomy for my taste and the story might have worked better without some plot twists but all in all I still see the point of them all. The best thing about this drama was of course Antony Kim (played by my all time favourite Korean actor Kim Myung Min <3 <3 <3). Again Kim Myung Min made an absolutely awesome role. He's such a talented actor and I fall for him every time! I also really liked the female lead character Lee Go Eun (played by Jung Ryeo Won) as there was nothing annoying about her and she was in every way very likable (which is not always the case with the female characters in Korean shows). There was lots of humour too especially from Choi Si Won's character who was an obnoxious and utterly silly actor called Kang Hyun Min. This drama is very much worth watching!!!



Another Korean drama I recently watched was "You who came from the stars".
It was about an alien who had lived on Earth for 400 years and was now looking forward to getting back to his planet until he met an actress who reminded him of a girl from his past. What was interesting about this drama was that the main character had super powers which of course made the drama quite different from the other romantic ones. Also the lead female character was quite different this time. She was a very spoilt actress full of herself but also rather vulgar and silly in her private life. Usually the main female characters are more like Cinderella or some tomboyish, eccentric girl who falls for a rich & obnoxious boy. This time it was the girl who was rich and pretty and a bit obnoxious.

I liked this show a lot. It's not probably the best I've seen but good entertainment nevertheless. :)

I watched this Japanese drama during this weekend and it soon became one of my favourites. It is a drama about friendship and how difficult it is to be honest about your feelings for many different reasons. It is a story of five people who become friends via twitter and who end up affecting each others lives in a profound way. This was a drama that made me cry. It's sad and full of human drama but not too melodramatic. What made this drama special was the people in it. None of them was perfect but every single one was likable and I truly came to care for them while watching this. The cast is great. I never knew Eita is such a great actor. I liked him well enough in his minor role in Nodame Cantabile but in  Sunao ni narenakute he really won my symphaties. I also want to see many more dramas with Tamayama Tetsuji!

This book was lavishly praised as one of the best classics of gay literature. It is a about a posh young man in the 80's London and how he makes friends with an elderly gentleman whose memoirs he sort of agrees to write.

Even if Alan Hollinghurst is a masterful writer and I really like his style, this book was really disappointing to me. It is all about sex obsessed gays who search for casual sex relationships. That's pretty much it. I don't think there was any depth in this book, nothing much to be learned or an epiphany to get. It made me feel alienated and sick at heart. It could have been a great book but it wasn't.

I couldn't help comparing this book to another gay book I recently read. It was a book called A portrait of a friend by Finnish author Pentti Holappa. Even if I had difficult time liking the main character of the story the book was really interesting and beautifully written and had much more depth.

I was so excited about this book; a dark version of Peter Pan. And yet it took me forever to read and in the end I can't say I loved it like I had hoped for. It is a very violent and bloody tale and I guess I understand why the author wanted to make it so as Peter Pan is a fairly immoral and violent creature but somehow it could have been much better. I got very tired of all the violence and bloodshed which sometimes seemed to be the whole point. It was interesting how the author had mixed Avalon mythology into the tale but quite unfulfilling the way it all played out. I was hoping for deeper meanings instead of people and the faerie being just egoistic. If anyone wants this book I'm willing to send it to you (maybe in exchange for another book?)

Here's a little list of Japanese dramas I have watched so far... + little review (1-5 stars)
*Hana Kimi: funny, anime-like show 3
*Hana Yori Dango 1-2: romantic, funny, exciting 4+
*Nobuta Wo Produce: brilliant! My first and my all time favourite jdorama. 5 <3
*Kimi wa petto: funny, interesting 3 1/2
*Gokusen 1-3: school drama 3
*Zettai Kareshi: funny 3 1/2
*Nodame cantabile: very funny & interesting music drama 4 (didn't like the 2nd film though)
*Tatta hitotsu no koi: sentimental, romantic 3
*Proposal daisakusen: nice 3 1/2
*Yukan Club: interesting 3 1/2
*Otomen: sweet and funny 3 1/2
*My boss my hero: funny 4
*Yokai Ningen Bem: fantasy monsters, silly but awesome, 4 1/2 <3
*Love Shuffle: love stories going weird 3
*Hungry: food & music 3 1/2
*Bambino: food drama 4
*Kami no Shizuku: passion for wine, silly but entertaining 4
*Yamada Taro Monogatari: sweet 4 <3
*Akumu-chan: funny drama about dreams & nightmares 3 1/2
*Densha Otoko. sweet 4
*Bartender. Funny... 3
*Akihabara @ deep: different 4
*Princess Princess D: weird 3
*Yaoh: hosts 3
*Dare yori mo mama wo aisu: family stuff, funny 3 1/2
*Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge: silly but quite nice 3 1/2

After watching Faith, I needed something a bit lighter, and since I wanted to watch all dramas with Philip Lee, I decided to watch Secret Garden. It's the story of Kim Joo-Won, CEO of a luxurious department store that belongs to his family, and Gil Ra-Im, a stunt woman, with whom he falls in love after getting to know her by accident. It did sound like the typical "rich guy falls in love with poor girl" story at first, and so I was surprised I liked it a lot more than I would have suspected. It also helped that I really liked the character of Joo-Won's cousin, the famous singer Oska. Somehow this character was so funny, childish and careless and made me laugh a lot. Altogether I laughed a lot during this drama! There's also some body-switching involved and some interesting twists as we find out in the end the connection between the different characters.

Another show I've recently watched. It's about the life of a group of New Yorkers in their early/mid 20's. In some ways this show is quite one sided. I'm not sure if the characters are really likable but they do seem genuine in their pettiness and selfishness and search for happiness and fulfillment. The biggest minus is how this show is very sex centered (quite graphic too) and underlines the assumed differences between men and women (which always bothers me because I do not believe in the Venus & Mars bullshit at all). However, what is great about this show is the complexity of relationships and the way it portrays the main character Hannah. She is quite awesome role model to any woman living today because she is so at home in her body even if she does not look like a supermodel. Actually, i think this might be the only American show about young women where the main character is a bit roundish, has very small tits and is not afraid to be seen naked. I feel it is great therapy for anyone traumatized by all the stupid beauty ideals because despite the fact that she isn't like all the other model thin girls in youth shows, she is liked & desired and accepted the way she is and that isn't questioned in the show. The point of the show is not making excuses or showing how to change oneself. It's about enjoying life and finding your place as you are.

I've been looking for carefree but good shows for a while and then I found Bored to Death. At first I wondered if it would be somehow annoying and trying to be too witty (because the danger is always there with this kind of shows) but it turned out to be quite hilarious in a way I was able to relate to. The characters are silly but likable and the situations they got into are funny and interesting. Well, they do smoke a lot of pot in this show but somehow I let it pass. Recommended to people who like comedies that aren't too obvious and forced.

When I heard there was going to be a 3 episode TV show about gays in 80's Stockholm, written by one of my favourite authors Jonas Gardell, I knew I had to see it. Fortunately they showed it in the web TV I've started to watch ever since the media tax became true. Torka Aldrig Tårar Utan Handskar was very good indeed. Sad, humane, funny and beautiful. It is not a fairytale; some of the images about the AIDS are horrible and haunting to see but somehow this show seems authentic and real in a way not many AIDS related gay stories are. Maybe because this one is actually written by a gay author?

I have a feeling that Benjamin, Rasmus, Paul and others will be in my mind for a long time. I truly want to read the novels the show is based on. Gardell has a certain magic to write about very difficult and painful subjects in a way that makes it a bit more bearable. There is forgiveness and such strong will to live.