Local Romance

How did you spend your Valentine's Day?

Dinner with your someone-someone? Hang out with friends? Visiting on 5th day of CNY? Movies with family? Or in front of the laptop like foreveralone me? 

Well for the foreveraloners like me, the consolation would be to watch romantic movies (so that the movies could raise the bar of real life romance and made me have higher expectations and eventually become single for the rest of my life) with a 200g bar of chocolate at my hand. But nope, I did not watch any romantic movie on Valentine's Day. In fact I watched the romantic comedy movie the day before Valentine's. 

When it comes to romantic comedies, all the Hollywood movies like Just Like Heaven, Maid in Manhattan, Pretty Woman, The Ugly Truth, What Women Want, etc would surely cross our mind. I think Hollywood romance comedies are much overrated at some point (except for Just Like Heaven and The Ugly Truth which were very nice). So I opted for local movies instead, or specifically telemovie. 

Guess what telemovie I watched? Cik Paris Diva Kampung! Lol. 

This is a simple film with funny scripts and comical characters - and the thing that I liked the most in this telemovie was Liyana's portrayal of the main character, Zulaikha. She really portrayed the role of a spoilt brat very well until you would think that she is as divalicious as Paris in real life. 

Zulaikha (right) and her BFF Sara (Amirah Nadia) arrived at Mersing, a village somwhere in Johor. 

To summarize it briefly (with no spoiler), this movie is basically about a spoiled rich girl named Zulaikha and her BFF spending two weeks in a Malay village in Mersing just to prove to her fiancee that she is not a spoiled brat (sounds familiar? Remember The Simple Life Reality Show by Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie? That was where Zulaikha got her inspiratoin lol!)  While at the kampung, she captured the attention of a humble young man named Sufian (Izzue Islam) who eventually became her friend. Can they be together - an urban spoilt rich brat and a humble village orphan? 

Izzue Islam as Sufian. He is kinda cute but for some reason, people dubbed him as Malaysian Johnny Depp. What do you think? 

It has a simple storyline but the acting and the dialogues are very amusing. The portrayal of Sara, Zulaikha's BFF by Amirah Nadia is also very convincing. The way she speaks, ugh, gedik sesangat but very funny and amusing that I could not help but to laugh everytime she opens her mouth. If you are looking for some light-hearted local movie then you can definitely watch this. 

It is no box office but it definitely can entertain you. :)

Photos courtesy of Google Image. 

Dramaniac - Rooftop Prince!

You want drama? Check.

Comedy? Check.

Romance? Check.

Suspence? Check.

Original storyline? Check.

This Korean drama series indeed has it all.

Yeap, it's Rooftop Prince y'all!

Starring Park Yoo-Chun as Lee Gak/Tae Yong and Han Ji Min as Bu Yong/Park Ha. Photo grabbed from blogspot.

This drama is one of the rare series that could play with my emotions, causing me to laugh, tear up, angry and also made me think - all at the same time. It seriously got me glued to my laptop from the first episode to the last - and I finished this 20-episode-drama in just two days plus, while at the same time still maintaining my daily regular 3pm's Legacy (Filipino series) and 7pm's Beauty Knows No Pain (Hong Kong drama). I am such a dramaniac now, but my biggest obsession was towards this drama out of the three, and I almost give up watching the other two tv dramas just because I wanted to speed up knowing the ending to this series.

  

This story somewhat reminds me of "Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih" - perhaps Korean version - but it is definitely and obviously more interesting than that. It is like a mixture of everything - sibling jealousy, reincarnation, memory lost, property fighting among family members, etc. That is what that makes this story not cliche like most of the dramas on tv nowadays.

 And guess what, I found a new child idol. Tadaa!  



Her name is Jun Min Seo and she is playing the character of young Bu Yong/ young Park Ha.
Picture grabbed from blogspot. 

This child actress is very natural and sweet in her acting. She is so adorable that I could become a lesbian paedophile! She portrayed young Bu Yong/ young Park Ha so well. Okay, before I digress with more stories on this little girl, here is an introduction to this romantic/melodrama/suspence/comedy drama series.

The story started with the setting of about 300 years ago, during the Joseon dynasty, where the crown prince woke up from his sleep realizing that his wife, the crown princess, had disappeared, and he looked around the palace for her. 

Prince Lee Gak woke up to find his princess disappeared. Photo grabbed from blogspot. 

While searching, his guards came and informed him that his crown princess was dead - her body was found floating in the palace's garden pond with her body facing downwards. 

Crown Princess's body found facing downwards in the palace's garden pond. Image grabbed from  blogspot. 

Then the audience were brought back to the past, about two decades ago from the current setting to the prince's childhood.



A scene of young Lee Gak having conversation with the King.  Image grabbed from  blogspot. 



The childhood story started with young (perhaps 5 to 6 years old) Prince Lee Gak being asked by the King, his father, on what kind of lady he wanted as his wife, since the officials in the palace had asked him to pick his crown princess. In answer to his father's question, he said he wanted to beautiful wife that will make him want to see her everyday.  



Then the audience were brought to the story of two sisters, Hwa Yong and Bu Yong. As the elder and the more vain sister, Hwa Yong was confident she would be representing her household for the crown princess selection, however, their father decided to put Bu Yong's name on the crown princess application instead. While ironing the skirt for Bu Yong's selection day, which would be the day after tomorrow, an 'accident' occured - the hot iron on Hwa Yong's hand fell on Bu Yong's left cheek, causing her to be scarred for the rest of her life.

Hwa Yong (in pink) with younger sister, Bu Yong (in yellow and green). Image grabbed from  blogspot.

Due to the scar on her face, Bu Yong's initial application was replaced by Hwa Yong's name instead. And of course, Hwa Yong was chosen because the two sisters are very beautiful in their own rights. While Hwa Yong got to parade her beauty especially since she was the crown princess, Bu Yong on the other hand, had to hide her scar using the cloth as depicted in the picture below.                                      

Bu Yong (face covered) with her sister, Hwa Yong, the crown princess. Image grabbed from blogspot.

As the crown princess's sister, Bu Yong would always chaperon both Princess Hwa Yong and Prince Lee Gak during their outing and during a number of occasions, such as a walk in the garden. Bu Yong had good embroidery skill, thus she always made nice handkerchief  for the crown prince, but Hwa Yong would be the one who got all the credits for Bu Yong's embroidery skills because Hwa Yong lied to the crown prince that it was her who made it. Bu Yong loved the crown prince in silence and due to her ill fate, she could not become his wife, however, she was contented just by loving him from afar. 



Ok, back to the current problem at hand. Grieving over his dead crown princess, the crown prince was certain that it was a murder case and was determined to solve it. He recruited three civilians, each with their own talent, into his investigation team. Man Bong was a scholar, a genius which previously solved a murder case, Yong Seoul, the second member, a very talented swordsman and was hired as the prince's bodyguard and last but not least, Chi Son, who was a very resourceful information seeker - he knew about all gossips in town and the palace. These three civilians were eventually dubbed as Lee Gak's Plus Three.

From left, Chi Son, Man Bong, Prince Lee Gak (in black) and Yong Seoul. Image grabbed from  blogspot.

One fateful night, while the four of them were trying to look for the house of a witness, they were ambushed in the middle of the woods and were chased by the attackers. They rode their horses at a gallop to escape from the attackers and while riding their horses at full speed, they reached a cliff. Left with no choice,  the prince and his Plus Three prompted the horses until they leapt to the opposite cliff (as shown in the picture below). The horses landed safely on the opposite cliff but the riders were not. 

The prince and his Plus Three plus their horses leapt to the opposite cliff.  Image grabbed from  blogspot.

The four riders (Prince Lee Gak and his Plus Three), on the other hand, fell....jeng jeng jeng...to another era -which is 300 years later. They landed on Park Ha's living room, which was located on the rooftop of a rented house. Thus, the the name of the series.

Park Ha was frightened to have four weird dressing men appearing suddenly at her living room but this first meeting between them would eventually lead to a lot of other happenings - be it sweet, funny or bitter due to the clash of two different era.

So for those who assume that this drama series only revolves around the Joseon era, you are wrong. Actually it revolves around modern Korea 90% of the series and only 10% of it brought you back to the Joseon era over 300 years ago. 

This is all I can reveal for now because I do not want to spoil the rest of the storyline for you.

To find out about the rest of the subsequent incidences, do watch this series. It is supernice!

4.5 stars out of 5 stars.

Who should watch it?

You, you and you!

PS: For the sake of watching these series, I spent two days locked in my apartment like a caveman and I woke up the next day with puffy eyes because I cried... watching the drama's ending the night before. Gosh, I seriously need to put a temporary stop on watching Korean drama at the moment. But I will always try to watch the recap of this drama lol! And I think Park Yoon Chun looked better in Joseon costume, so I like it better when he becomes the prince than when he becomes Tae Yong because when he became Lee Gak in the traditional Korean costume, he reminds me of Jet Lee (my all time favourite Chinese actor) especially when he smiles cheekily *blush*.  So peeps, why wait. Enjoy! ;)