If you saw the above title and immediately decided that you would rather jump off the Sydney Harbour Bridge than read this post, then I will not stop you. I totally understand. After all, I've got friends who, at the slightest mention of the word "Japanese" or "Korean", would take off and sprint in the opposite directon in case you infected them with your asian-ness. I absolutely would not begrudge you this. Personally, I watch anything and everything, be it Doctor Who, Bollywood films, Hollywood films, American dramas, anime, British soaps or the odd Australian indie film. I'm aware that not everyone else does this so I won't attempt to force feed you something you don't want. Anyway, enough explaining, ONWARDS WE GO!

*******

I've wanted to do this for such a long time now. Sometimes I feel like its a waste that after spending 16-20 odd hours watching a fantastic series, I just file it away in the dusty old corners of my mind, never to revisit it or gush about it to a friend. I've always had an innate fear or forgetting the stuff I watch. What if in 10 years time, I decide that I want to relive those moments where I've been transported to a different world but find that I've totally forgotten the names of my most loved dramas? That would be horrible. So I'll file them here and perhaps in a few years time, I'll dig them out again and see what I thought.

(Play for background music - I haven't figured out how to embed music properly yet)

Warning: Figuring out what order I should rank these dramas in was so hard. I've been watching them over a span of about 4-5 years now and dramas are so diverse in genre that trying to rank them by enjoyment value is actually really difficult. I guess I'll just have to make do trying to relive the level of excitement/anticipation that accompied each series.

9. DEVIL BESIDE YOU

Ah yes, the good ol' Taiwanese dramas. Before I discovered the blindingly superior quality of that thing called the "Korean drama", I watched Taiwanese dramas. This one dates back to..... 2007? 2008? I'm not really quite sure but man, it was such a long time ago. I reckon if I tried to watch a Taiwanese drama today, I wouldn't even get through the first 5 minutes. Once you go Korean, there's not going back. Plus, being Chinese, I just hate hearing the language. Anyway, basically, the plot is something along the lines of "gangster bad boy meets hardworking good girl". Cliched, I know but this drama featured one of the best pairings/on-screen chemistry that I have ever seen in an Asian drama, ever.

Plus, Mike He was hot.

8. PERSONAL TASTE

Lee Min Ho. Pretending to be gay. In order to live in the same house with some woman. What's not to like? Okay, I know this drama flew under just about everybody's radar when it aired but I really, really enjoyed it. I loved all those little comedic moments, the chainsaw humour and the whole "I thought you were gay but you're actually not and dammit why didn't you tell me, I've been walking around the whole house with only my towel wrapped around myself" moments. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because it aired about a year after that whole Boys Over Flowers fad and I was STILL suffering from Lee Min Ho withdrawal. I might've subconsciously dug my claws into it because of this. Who knows. *SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*SPOILERALERT* - Oh and it was one of the few Korean dramas I've ever seen that actually had da sex in it, lol. Not that that adds to its value or anything, it was just great to see Koreans not being so... conservative.

7. MY GIRLFRIEND IS A GUMIHO

Have you ever heard of a Gumiho? No? It's basically a creature from Korean/Japanese folklore - a fox with nine tails that appears mostly in the form of a woman. Oh and she feeds on men's organs. So after reading the title of this drama again, you see how having a gumiho as a girlfriend can be problematic? As a Hong sisters drama, this carries their trademark comedic flair and beautiful writing. I absolutely absolutely absolutely loved the main actress in this drama. If I was lesbian, I'm pretty sure I would've dated her, ha. The drama made great use of an old Korean legend and all those funny moments with the gumiho trying to fit into a 21st century world were priceless. *cough*the toilet bowl scene*cough*

6. DREAM HIGH

~DE-NUH DREAM HIGHHHHH DE NA NA NA NA.....oh right, intelligent input. This was basically the Korean version of Glee, but oh, so much better and much more satisfying. It follows a bunch of misfits as they get accepted into a prestigious Performing Arts School and struggle to find success in the fields the love. Obviously, all those issues necessary for a high school drama such as love, rivalry and betrayal are present but the overarching theme is one of competitiveness and of trying to establish yourself as a successful dancer/singer despite some significant problems (e.g. deafness in Sam Dong's case). I think one of its strongest points was casting real idols in the roles of the characters - there were so many great songs that came out of this drama. The best singer was obviously IU but the characters of Hye Mi and Sam Dong also deserve some honourable mentions.

5. SUNGKYUNKWAN SCANDAL

My first reaction to this drama was "Ewwwwwwwwwwwww, historical looking stuff, yuck!" I have never ever watched an Asian historical drama before in my life (those cheesy Chinese ones my mum watches don't count). I really didn't think I would end up trying this but after hearing javabeans rave about it over at http://www.dramabeans.com/, I gave it a try. And it was one of the best decisions of my life. I have to clarify first, this isn't a hardcore historical one, it's actually what you'd call a "fusion sageuk", aka the rules get bent a bit and it becomes rather trendy. It takes place at a famous Korean university called Sungkyunkwan traditionally for males. Our heroine, due to some complicated circumstances ends up attending the school disguised as a male and hence, the fun and games begin. The plot then becomes convoluted with all these king assassination plottings, age old secrets, etc etc but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Oh and Sungkyunkwan also features like, the best bromance ever. Definitely my crack drama of 2010.

4. CITY HUNTER

I FUCKING LOVE THIS DRAMA SO MUCH AAARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

No seriously, if you haven't read any of my fangasms this year about City Hunter, then you were either taking a very very long vacation from blogspot or too busy trying to dig your way to China or something.

3. HANA KIMI (JAPANESE VERSION)

Ngaww, if I had a heart, this drama would be occupying that soft spot right there. Again, this is another of my early ones, right when I was drifting obliviously through The Golden Age of Dramas back in either 2007 or 2008. Originally a manga, this one tells of a girl who disguises herself as a guy in order to attend a boy's school for some reason that I can't really recall right now. Yes, if you can't tell, I really love my crossdressing dramas. But out of all those, this one made the most out of the comedic potential of the scenario. There was the memorable, "Homo jenai" moment, the disastrous school festival, the tight-knit friendships and so much more. Oh, and Ikuta Toma as Nakatsu. And the gorgeous soundtrack. Gahhhh, so much love for this drama. I have so many feelings but I'm having trouble expressing them....

2. YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL

So good, I watched it twice. Definitely the best Hong Sisters one out there (in my opinion). The plot tells on a girl who disguises herself as a boy (yes, me and my crossdressing) in order to pose as her twin brother in the idol band, A.N.Jell. *SPOILER ALERT* Eventually the three other band members find out her real identity but all three do their best to protect her identity. It's just so sweet and beautiful and I grew so attached to the characters, to the extent that it was probably really unhealthy for me.

1. BOYS OVER FLOWERS (Korean Version)

Oh god this drama... where do I start? If you'd taken all my favourite things in the world, mixed them together in a large mixing bowl, added 10 litres of chocolate and a generous amount of magic and rainbows, it would be nowhere as near as addicting as Boys Over Flowers. It literally created a ginormous Korean wave throughout the whole world, airing in countries such as the United States, Japan, Puerto Rico, Canada, Romania and many more. It was also the drama that shot Lee Min Ho to super stardom literally overnight. He was virtually unknown before that.

The drama basically tells of poor girl Geum Jan Di who gets transferred to the richest school in Korea. A series of events causes her to become known to the school's 4 richest guys (known collectively as the F4) and then shit happens and ITS SO FUCKING ADDICTIVE. Looking back at this drama, there were quite a few issues (aka "Almost Paaaaaaaradiseeee"), but these were effectively overshadowed by the how mind-numbingly satisfying the whole thing was. If heroin was turned into a drama, I'm pretty sure it would be this one. I just.... I don't even know how to describe how it affected me. I lived my life in a daze, waiting for episodes to come out every week. If you haven't seen it yet, then I suggest you watch it right now during these holidays.

Honourable mentions:

Hana Kimi (Taiwanese Version) - aka my first asian drama ever
Hana Yori Dango, Season 1 and 2 (Japanese Version of Boys Over Flowers)
Coffee Prince
49 Days
Playful Kiss

I feel so antsy right now because I don't have any video games to play LOL. What happened to Skyrim, you ask? Well my laptop happened. (Warning, nerdy computer jargon ahead). Basically , my puny little laptop doesn't meet the system requirements. This SUCKS because I've got the required 2GB (and more) of RAM, the dual core processor, Windows 7 and plenty of excess memory data. Unfortunately the only thing I'm missing is the video card with 512 MB of RAM. My one only goes up to 216 or something pathetic like that and that just has to be the most important component of the game's graphic quality. Pooface >:( I feel like time's running out for me. After these holidays, I'm never gonna be able to lose myself in a game like I've been doing when I was younger. Who hears about Year 12s gaming during their holidays? No one. They're too busy studying their ass off.

Computer issues aside, I had quite a nice day yesterday. I went to a city with a whole group of old friends from primary school and we basically just walked around shopping, eating Thai, getting smashed by bumper cars at Galaxy World and getting ripped off by dodgy, japanese claw games. (Seriously people, don't ever play those claw games at the caps place near Capitol Theatre - they are so rigged).

Oh and I shopped.
And spent lots of money.
Mostly on clothes and macarons.
And now I am even more broke.
And I feel so guilty.
And someone has to punch me in the face next time I'm about to spend lots of money.

What else did I do? Oh right, I looked through 4 asian drama stores trying to find City Hunter. This failed miserably.... it was sold out in every single shop I went to. No kidding. I knew it was popular but certainly not to that extent. Seriously Sydney, you'd think you'd have at least one shop which hadn't sold out of City Hunter. What is this? Are you telling me that a bijillion old ahjummas and noonas have managed to clean out every single drama store in the city in search of THE BEST drama of 2011 and that there is nothing left for little ol' me? Oh wait, don't answer that.

Despite that, it was still a great day. I had a great time with some old friends, catching up and reflecting on those blissfully ignorant days of primary school. The next time I see them will probably be after the HSC.... I feel sad just thinking about it.

Half an hour is so totally not enough each day for me to do what I want. In that amount of time, I can only watch a few youtube videos, browse a few sites and blog really really quickly.

There's not much to say.... Um, I'm watching 49 days now, LOL. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, STOP WITH THE DRAMAS YOU FREAK. But don't worry, it's not like I'm marathoning episode after episode. Because I'm trying to stick to my 30 minute rule, I probably only watch like 15-20 minutes every day. So that's what I was doing just then.

I finished an episode today. I quite like 49 days. Obviously not as kickass and slick as City Hunter but I've grown to like it. And I'd decided that nothing was ever going to live up to CH so I should stop comparing. Anyway, I was about to close the window after the ending song started playing when all of sudden, THE STUPID CITY HUNTER PREVIEW CAME ON (49 days aired before City Hunter started airing) AND REDUCED ME TO A WORTHLESS, BLUBBERING MESS. Damn you Lee Min Ho.

GOD CITY HUNTER, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?? JUST WHEN I WAS FINALLY GETTING OVER YOU, YOU TURN AROUND AND STAB ME IN THE HEART. AGAIN. You're like stupid freakin' Edward when he came back to Bella at the end of New Moon. Or Doctor Chris Havel at the end of this season's Offspring. NINA WAS FINISHED WITH YOU, YOU BASTARD.

*deep breath* Yeh, my withdrawal symptons haven't gone away. I think I need therapy.

City Hunter, I will miss you.

After watching City Hunter episode 17, my mind is full of many unfulfilled questions which I will outline in this post. Don't worry none of these are spoilerific.

• Why was Mr Prosecutor guy playing Jenga in a coffee shop? More importantly, where did he get this Jenga set? Is it a portable one which he manages to magically shrink and bring along with him to all his cases?


• Why was the President of Korea watching an American chick flick?


• How many cars does Lee Min Ho have? I must have counted at least 4 different ones by now.


• How can the music director for City Hunter be the same music director who gave us the "ALMOST PAAAAARADISE!!" from Boys Over Flowers?


• Is it really that difficult finding pants to fit Lee Min Ho? Why do none of them ever go past his ankles? The stylists must love Tian-pants fashion.


• On the subject of LMH's wardrobe, why do his stylists dress him up in the most flamboyant clothes ever? Pink pants? Low cut T-shirts? Jackets with freakin' TASSLES? Oh well, I guess it's a good thing he can pull off everything. He's probably the only guy in the world who can make leopard print pants look good.


• HOW does Lee Min Ho manage to look good in EVERY SINGLE SCREENSHOT? This shouldn't be physically possible. It defies the laws of man. Whether its low angle or high angle, he makes it look good. I betcha if you took a picture of him yawning or sneezing it would still be magazine-cover worthy.


• & last but definitely not least, WHY CAN'T I STOP LOOKING AT LEE MIN HO'S LIPS. Or his cheekbones. Or his nose. Or his eyes... and oh god, those eyes are so beautiful.

City Hunter is so satisfying. Hits me in all the right places, it does. Kind of like a frozen coke after doing a 4km run. Or the feeling you get after killing off all the green pigs in Angry Birds. Perhaps even as satisfying as the words "squelch" and "moist". Although I learnt from TMZ that "moist" makes a lot of people cringe. "moist" hehehehehe. MOIST.

Self control? Pfffff. I have none.

P.P.S. Someone please tell the koreans that City Hunter is pronouned Ci-ty Hun-ter. Not Shit-ty Hun-ter.