走出五月 - Goodbye May - Upcoming

走出五月 (Goodbye May) is an upcoming film being released in Taipei in a couple of days on Friday, May 6, 2011. The movie stars Alan Kuo and Serina Fang.

Seems to be a love story between Alan Kuo and Serina Fang that includes a love story of Alan's grandparents. Influenced by music and the potential to be what you're suppose to be. The movie does look very interesting. I am in mainly because of Serina, but hey, the story looks good to.

Taiwan, go support your local filmmakers!

轉角*遇到愛 - Corner * With Love

轉角*遇到愛 (Corner * With Love) is a 2007 drama out of Taiwan. The two main stars are Show Luo and Barbie Hsu. There's a large supporting cast, but they too many to list.

Lang, played by Show, is a oyster egg cake cooker at a restaurant in Shanghai serving Taiwanese style dishes. Lang is there because he got tricked into coming here. An agent told him that someone wanted to but his comic strip. Xin Lei is a piano playing daughter of a rich Taiwanese family in Shanghai . Xin Lei has the world at her heels along with a "perfect" fiance.

How in the world can these two meet and eventually fall for each other? Its a little thing I like to call drama magic. Because in real life, it could and would never happen. Xin Lei's family business goes under and she's literally kicked out into the streets to fend for herself. In a strange turn of events, both lead protagonist head to Taiwan for the remainder of the series.

The version I watched was a China version and the episodes were like 22 minutes long. It was quite annoying to skip the opening and ending titles so often. Had I know this before hand, I would have rented the Taiwan version with only 19 episodes. The China one broke it up into 40 episodes.

The like the series for the most part and would recommend it. There was rumors of a sequel, but Barbie's been busy with a movie career of late.

Catch for a good glimpse of Shanghai and for two of more appealing leads in Show Luo and Barbie Hsu.

籃球火 - Hot Shot

I finally finished the 16 episode Taiwanese drama 籃球火 (Hot Shot) starring Jerry Yan and Alan Luo. This is one of those series that I relegated to watching when I am washing dishes and when I am waiting for a Netflix DVD.

The series is about Alan trying to play basketball. Alan eventually lands on a college team and falls for a girl that reminds him of a friend from his childhood. Jerry is a basketball star in Taiwan and has recently transferred to the same school. Jerry and Alan end up on the same team and going after the same girl. Jerry and Alan soon become good friends, but the affairs of 2 generations before affect their lives.

The basketball is paired with the logic of wuxia quite liberally. The references to these guys playing in the NBA are used to emphasize that skillz are abundant. It was a novel concept and quite annoying at the same time. As a baller since my junior high days and religiously watching the Lakers. That whole basketball mixed with wuxia didn't enhanced the story for me. Instead, it made is more unbelievable and cheezy.

The story was quite interesting away from basketball and the comedy was ok. The hype for this series was quite high. I don't think it lived up to the hype.

Not the best of dramas for Jerry and Alan. There are better Jerry and Alan dramas.