Ridley: Hello…*waves* I know, I’ve been quiet as of late, I’m sure you were all wondering where Ridley had gone. (No? No one?) I’ve been busy! Kind of. While Latimer has been ploughing new roads through the unknown jungle that is the comic book world and developing her inner fangirl there, I’ve gone back to the old staple of Asian dramas. I will follow Lat down the comic book route, eventually, when she has the road newly paved and there’s been a bus route established with a tourist map on all the best locations (aka stories).*grin*

I can just imagine me wandering forward into the large sprawling forest, wide eyed and hesitant, staring up at the comic book trees…

Latimer will be pointing at one tree with a beautiful sturdy trunk, “Let’s climb this one! It seems like a great story!”

And then we look upwards with smiles of excitement and far higher than we can see the branches have become all twisted and cancerous as the tale has gone awry, and then closer to us a whole thick limb suddenly disappears from the tree and I turn to her in horror, pointing at it.

Latimer huffs in annoyance, “They’ve just retconed the story line.”

“Ret-con?”

“Restarted it, so it’s like everything that they’ve done up until now hasn’t happened.”

I gasp at her. “But I could have been on that part!!”

I look down at the leafy forest floor, imagining myself lying there dazed not knowing why I’d plummet to the ground. I turn and shake my fist up at the now blank space on the tree.

So…I’ll wait until some of the trees have hazard signs erected first! And maybe a train line, I can get a bit travel sick on the bus…

As I said though, I’ve been away, lost in the world of Asian dramas, I’m the canary (as in canary down the mine!) for, Flower Boy Next Door (Latimer pointed this series out to me). It’s a Korean one this time. I’ve ventured forth alone to see what it’s like and to report back on whether others (well, just Latimer) should follow me or run away, and so far? Oh it’s so good!

But I’ll tell you (another side journey here), I got this hankering to return to the dramas after I’d tried my hand at watching a Bollywood film, I’d never watched one before-a proper one now, made for their home audiences, not Europe or America. It had the same type of romantic elements, the restrained passion and heartbreak as the dramas. The film was called Veer-Zaara (it’s the name of the two main characters). Basically the two main characters are from different countries (India and Pakistan) and they meet when the main girl, Zaara, visits India. Over the few days they travel together, they fall in love, but then the man she’s been promised to comes to take her back to Pakistan….and heartbreak and forbidden love ensues!

Absolutely beautiful images and colours and the dancing was great, but I’m just not really a fan of people breaking out into song at critical moments in the tale.

Musical episodes in any series I’ve ever watched have never really sat well with me (even that Buffy episode-though I just looked at the trailer…it was kinda good…I loved that series, and Angel!).

The reason for not possibly liking it is because I get sucked up by the tune and while I’m humming and swaying, I don’t hear what they’re actually singing about, so I miss important parts of the storyline.  (Though for some reason, this never seems to happen with my beloved Disney films, I sing and sway to them, but I still know what’s going on afterwards!)

The biggest plus this film had though, (that if I see this in any drama that I watch I sit back with the words, ‘this is gona be gooood’), is the rain scene. There has to be a rain scene in any epic or tragic or hard-fought-for love story, there has to be a rain scene when the two couples reunite or finally come together after overcoming all the hardship or just kiss for the first time. It truly is a swoon worthy moment.

I just realised they had quite a few rain scenes in this film, though some of them didn’t technically happen as they’re just the character imagining them. Like this one (but now you hopefully understand the beauty of the rain scene?):

Now back to my, Flower Boy Next Door. I’m only in the middle of it, but basically it’s about a girl (Go Dok-mi played by Park Shin-hye) who avoids people and contact with the outside world. We’re getting flashbacks to the tragic events behind this with each new instalment. Then there’s a possible love interest in the beautiful man next door (Oh Jin-rak played by Kim Ji-hoon)

and also the beautiful neighbour across the road (Enrique Geum played by Yoon Shi-yoon)

and then there’s the scheming ‘other woman’ (I always hate the ‘other woman’ in any story *glare*) who wants one of the men and is making the girl’s life a misery. (no one cares who she is….oh fine! It’s Park Soo-jin as Cha Do-hwi, she a great actress too….but I still hate the ‘other woman’.)

I’m all set for some fantastic viewing and roller coaster moments. I’m already wrecked from not going to bed early enough during the week while watching this! And of course having to go to work, eat, sleep, and also get my writing done, people (other than Latimer, who is now getting 20 texts a minute with random happy (no doubt confusing) lines like, ‘oh my god, he just looked at her!’, as I’m watching the drama) think I’ve disappeared!

I have, into Korean drama land!   

PS: I just realised you know, when you find something new that you absolutely love, it’s like you’re on your own little obsession island, completely by yourself revelling in it and consuming as much of the comic, series, book, music that you can, that’s stage one. Then stage two is bursting free from your little hovel, when there is no more (you’ve read, seen or listened to everything) and you share your love of the obsession and want to meet others just like you. I think stage two lasts quite a while especially now we have the internet!