This post is inspired by Booya’s recent post on Team Medical Dragon tv series. I was replying to his recent reply to my comment and figure I might as well make an actual post about j-drama recommendations because I got overboard with the info-dump of a reply that will really kill his post’s comments XD;;;

Genre : Medical, Human Drama, OMFG Can’t-the-Bastard-Die-Already?!
Team Medical Dragon : I am a fan on the manga and thus was kind of wary about how it’ll translate on screen. Because it’s a manga certain level of excessive dramatic expressions are expected. And it made the manga an AWESOME read. The mangaka makes performing surgery as the next most badass thing EVER. So how will it turn out in a live action adaptation? Will the tv production crew keep the awesome dramatics and NOT make it … y’know, cheesey?

Team Medical Dragon tv series took it all up, did all that and managed to still manage to make you bite your fingernails watching it. Kudos to the screen-writers who managed to adapt the manga to tv series wonderfully, compressing many many manga chapters into a 11 episodes series that stays quite true to the original source ( as for the changes, I happened to like them a lot too )

The synopsis in block

Ryutaro Asada is enjoying his peaceful life in the countryside, when he is visited by Akira Kato, assistant professor of the Faculty of Cardiac Surgery at Meishin University Medical Hospital.

Ryutaro is a genius surgeon who used to lead “Team Medical Dragon,” a world-class NGO medical team. In harsh environments that lacked medicine and electricity, Ryutaro witnessed many lives pass away. At the same time, he saved many other lives, helping his matchless skill overwhelm other doctors.

As a female doctor, Akira managed to become an assistant professor. She has ambitions to be promoted to professor by succeeding in a surgery using the Batista technique — an extremely difficult type of heart surgery — and also by writing a paper on it. A year ago, Akira witnessed Ryutaro’s skills when he was an NGO doctor. That’s why she recruits him and asks him to use the Batista technique. Since Ryutaro’s arrival, urgent patients who would have been abandoned in the past, are miraculously saved by the “hands of God.” –Fuji TV

Booya had posted a nice review on this series over at his blog ( from a non-jdrama watching person POV ) so I won’t say more of it.

So he asked me to recommend some other j-dramas that has [quote] weird mix of stuff [unquote]. And because I *like* inflicting these on unsuspecting people sharing, here is a giant of a post. Because I care. Really

MADHATTER’S TOP 3 FAVOURITE J-DRAMA LIST!

In no particular order actually because I loved all these three for different reasons.

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This had been an awesome summer for movies for me. Not that there’s summer here in Malaysia. No wait. Rather, I think we have summer all year round, with crazy rain every other day when it’s not brain baking hot. Anyway, I digress. I’m an avid cinema goer. I’m a huge mainstream movie addict and I really can’t resist the summer movies call. So here I am with a run down of the ones I’d waited for and watched. Rating are based on my own personal preferences and thoughts of course No one says I will like the movies you like anyway

 
So, onwards! May releases!

Summer movies officially started for me with Iron Man. And I was so sick of all the dregs ( Forbidden Kingdom OH GOD, someone burn it now now NOW ) we’d got in the local cinema before this shows up. And to think I nearly didn’t wanna watch it because “Err wait, another Superhero movie?” =”=;; Glad my pals convinced me otherwise

I’m no fan of western comics so I know jack about the characters but I adored it immensely. It blends fun and action seamlessly making sure that even people that had no idea previously who the hell is Tony Stark [ read : ME ] can ease into the story straight on. Plus, Robert Downey Junior is really really charming as that asshole genius.

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26th July 2008 @ Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade

I’m on medical leave today O_O; Seems like I’d got a bout of food poisoning and it isn’t really pretty for me to be puking my lungs out the whole night yesterday ;__; I’ll usually welcome a day off like this but it’s NOT WHEN I AM ALL WOOZY from medicines and stupid inner malfunctions ORZ

Hmm I guess this will give me time to work more on side projects? Provided that I’m not distracted by Final Fantasy IV on the DS that is D:

Flamingo pool @ Ocean Park Hong Kong

I am brain dead on a Friday afternoon. This post is inspired by a bloody weird twitter’s err.. tweet by David Flamingos are always funny because they’re kinda… awkward? XD;;

Listening to The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love doesn’t help. I WANNA GO HOME ALREADY! ;__;

Uhhh yeah, useless post is useless

I might be too lazy to blog and post pictures about all my misadventures in ShenZhen and Hong Kong 8D;; So I’ll be posting a blurry panda picture now and I think the adorable-ness of them big, clumsy, utterly UTTERLY CUTE animal will be sufficient for now \8D/ I R GENIUS

 
By the way, guess where was my first stop as soon as I left the airport last evening at 7p.m.?

Summit @ Subang Jaya for the THX cinematic glory 8DDDD ( thank you people so much for putting up with my selfishness and fangirly-ness 8D Though I’m sure you all wanted to rewatch The Dark Knight ANYWAY XDD )

BATMANNNNNNNNN <3 <3 <33 And The Joker was completely AWESOMELY FREAKY. ( Oh Heath Ledger T__T ) I'm SO going to watch this again. On iMax 8D Most definitely. And now for all the other movies I missed in the silver screen the two weeks I was away D: And not to mention rewatching The Dark Knight for as much as I cannnnn

Will be leaving the hostel in less than half an hour to wait for the bus to the Airport D:

I seldom take buses even in my home country D: Wish me luck. Hong Kong’s HOT HOT HOT like nobody’s business. WTF. Even a short walk in the street in the evening after showering made me dashed back to the hostel to bathe all over again T__T Imagine an afternoon in Ocean Park yesterday. Sweating profusely, that’s the word T__T I’m sure I got a tan again and I really didn’t want it ORZ

But Giant Pandas are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KYUUUUUUTEEEEEEEEEEE I wanna roll around with them eeeeeeeee <3

It was only about two months since my trip to Hong Kong for this and I will be setting foot there again tomorrow from Shen Zhen O_o;

Quite and unexpected turn of events. And I’ll be roaming the bustling city on my own the whole day on Saturday 8DD;; Wish me luck! And hope I’ll be able to order food properly XDDD *can’t read Chinese menu ORZ*

Meeting up with my friend Mizuki on Sunday and flight back to Malaysia on Monday afternoon So, see ya next week!

 
Frankly speaking, I’ll miss my colleagues here in Shen Zhen an awful lot ;___; They’re such lovely people XD

You may or may not know but when I was working for my ex-company the design department works on a hell lot of Pepsi’s POSM collaterals such as posters, shelftalkers, buntings, signages etc . I personally was working on a number of soft drinks related labels I swore I will avoid drinking them at any cost. Especially on my last month or so there, I was working 90% of the time on Pepsi related items. It was so bad to the point that I was sure I know what is their official logo colour codes in PANTONE in my sleep.

True story : When I started playing Final Fantasy VII : Crisis Core, one of the first few things that made me spazzed out was that it uses the very same font as Pepsi ads does XDD ( Yanno, the “Activating Combat Mode” , “Mission Accomplished” and all that jazz? It’s in Serpentine, baby XD )

Anyhow, that was why when I was out in ShenZhen yesterday the first thing that struck me when I saw a local Pepsi billboard was :

“Mann… how can this goes out in the public? Client’ll have our heads for the COLOUR of their drinks O_O;”

Maybe the local Pepsi here has a red tea flavour? 8D;;

Some thing seems to be embedded straight into my brain already thanks to the crazy working life ORZ And I can’t get rid of it no matter how bad I want to T__T I don’t memorise their Pantone colour code in my sleep already that’s for sure XD;;;

Just got back from the city.

Now back into the nothingness of the industrial area T___T Tiring semi weekend but it was so amazing! I had to thank my dear colleague C and her boyfriend. Food was absolutely wonderful ( I keep saying this about the food here XD - Had buffet dinner at a hotel on Saturday night and then an awesome Chinese local delicacies and roasted meat galore for dinner 8DDDD;;; ) I was brought to this street called “East Gate/ Dong Men(?)” which is like a mix of Petaling Street and Sungei Wang back in Malaysia.

SO MANY PEOPLE O__O;; SO DAMNED HOT. Was warned over and over again about pickpockets. Am amazed how high the sellers jacks up the prices of their goods O_O I was asking for a bag and was quoted RMB280; as my colleague dragged me off the price went down to RMB130 |||ORZ

Oh! Tested first hand that China’s shopping malls’ air conditioning sucks massively. I missed the ‘freeze-your-ass-off’ Malaysian malls for a moment there ..

BUT!! So many sights and cheap stuff ( clothes, shoes, shades, bags, DVDs, games, fake branded goods ET CETERA XDDD ) to look out for! Is broke now. Plz to be sending money T___T

 
PS : I spent the best RMB15 ever on a hair saloon right across the road in front of Shen Zhen’s amusement park - Happy Valley’s entrance. One whole hour of pampering your hair and massage and a simple facial wash. 気持ちいい ~~~ Doesn’t help that the saloon people thinks I’m a student. Fueled my already high Peter Pan complex to no end オホホホホ〜〜

Shopping in the local Chinese supermarket is an adventure of its’ own.

My colleagues adamantly told me to leave my small bag where I kept the usual purse, passports, phone, DS, jewelries etc behind in my room before we set off to the nearby town(???) area behind our company’s factory ground. I’m using the word ‘town’ very very lightly here because the place is really rather tiny and it’s like a few strips of shops and night markets area flanked by a brand new supermarket probably the size of The Store in my hometown. Apparently there were many cases of snatch theft around :\ And my female colleague will not go there alone unless she’s with a guy. Scary.

The two of them picked me up from the building where I am staying in and made our way across the hostels area in the factory. This kind of reminded me of the University hostels environment but of course, there were far more people here than MMU ever had in a semester XD;;; I was informed that they both have a room for themselves whereas the workers from the factory stays in shared room of 6 people. Some people working in the office building itself has to share room as well. Didn’t have a chance to peek in the dorms and rooms myself so I had no idea how it was. Since I’m a guest I am staying in the guest rooms in the office building itself, my own room is like that of a hotel room with attached bathroom and people doing my laundry everyday XD There is a double bed, a fridge, working table and television and air conditioning :3 Apart from the awesome room in Macau last May, this should be the best hotel service I’d ever gotten so far XD

After getting the necessary supplies, the three of us decided to stalk the food department. I was amused at the way wine are just displayed on the shelves right next to things like fruit juices ( because we can’t, in Malaysia ). Since both the colleagues are Taiwanese, they had fun showing me the strange stuff around while being freaked themselves as well. Following my colleague who was shopping for spices and interesting local products as he’s heading back to his home country for holiday the next day we ended up spending the longest time debating which packet of seasonings to get.

Her : Which one tasted better?
Him : Some told me to look for the one with the face of a fat guy.
Her : This one?
Me : There’s some on the next row too
Him : Why are there so many types? O_O And they looks the same!
Me : You know what, the bloke looks kinda different on this packet
Her : Waitaminute .. the text is a bit different. It’s the other way around.
Him : A COPY PRODUCT?!
Everyone : O___O !!!
Me : Uhhh, look for the one with better printing quality? 8D;;;;;

Apparently, they produced imitation their own local famous product too. Including seasonings and stuff XD;;; And yeah, I think we spent a good 15 minutes debating that above XD

Unfortunately, no pictures because I wasn’t allowed to bring anything else apart from myself and some cash and my handphone D: Woes.

PS : Oh yeah, we didn’t get any seasoning with the picture of the fat guy afterall. We got something else altogether. Just to be safe XD;;

PPS : Since my flight are booked, confirmed and paid by the company, I’m gonna take the chance to run around in Hong Kong again next weekend 8D WISH ME LUCK AND LOADS OF FUN!