Miu Miu

Episode 34 of Atsuhime was gleeee :) Miyazaki Aoi totally held her own in this role, switching from stern to soft-spoken in one speech. OMG. Need to hunt for Atsuhime icons.

I finally finished all 50 episodes of Atsuhime. I have many, many good things to say about this series, and this series made me tear up many times, especially in the beginning. Although it went downhill towards the end in terms of plot, I still think it's a solid series overall, probably one of the best taiga drama in years. Speaking of taiga drama, I haven't watched that many, but this series in particular really made me feel like I was watching history. People in the series act like how they would act during that period and there are things are that are unique to that period only. And the overall atmosphere in certain episodes made me feel like I was flipping through an aged history book. I personally find this lacking in Asian period dramas in general, but I have it in taiga drama.

I'm not too impressed with the first two episodes of Ryoma-den, but the second episode is an improvement, if only for that father-son compromise/reconciliation moment at the end. Which reminds me, one should do what one is good at. I am not good at anything, does that mean that I am screwed? But that mindset won't get me anywhere....

Matsu Takako has official become one of my favorite Japanese actress. She first caught my eye in Yamada Yoji's The Hidden Blade as the understated Kie. I last saw her in Iwai Shunji's April Story, which is a wonderful coming-of-age (?) story (?) that is only 67 minutes long. She is also active in theatre and music and has apparently appeared in some very popular Jdramas  opposite KimuTaku which I do not plan to watch. I can't quite say why I like her. Perhaps one of the reason is that I don't find her beautiful at first sight, but find her more beautiful the more l look at her. In other words, she's very 耐看 (I feel that Aoi Yuu also has this quality).

Because Liar Game 2 turned me into Matsuda Shota fangirl mode, I've been watching some of his works here and there. He's mostly eye-candy until I saw him in A Long Walk. He's only in it for about 30 minutes, but his performance in those 30 minutes is better than anything I've seen by him. Ok, I haven't watched Ikigami, for which he won an award or something. Maybe it has to do with his character in A Long Walk, that it's not some ido-centric character but a Passenger A.