Love Me Tender

I just read that coolsmurf, who has dedicated endless hours of his life to subtitle and upload Korean variety shows onto youtube, has had all his videos deleted and his account suspended. This was due to a third party named SBS International Inc. complaining that the uploaded material was an infringement on copyright laws. So they axed coolsmurf’s hard work.

I am very disappointed by this. I know that youtube had started “cracking down” on illegal material but I think that copyrights are bullshit to begin with. In this case in particular SBS should be thanking coolsmurf rather than doing this. It is because of coolsmurf that so many international fans have been created for the Korean music industry, including myself. If it wasn’t for the videos he subbed and uploaded, I probably wouldn’t have been into Korean music because most things aren’t subbed. Translators, subbers and uploaders deserve a lot of credit for their work and dedication to the international fanbase of so many East Asian industries. It is a shame that these companies don’t see it this way. A shame.

Thank you coolsmurf for your dedication for so many years.

***SPOILER ALERT - DON’T READ AHEAD IF YOU LIKE SURPRISES***

Sorry that I’ve been away for so long. I have been starting to catch up on the piles of dramas that have been thrown my way by different people. So far I’ve finished watching Hana Yori Dango 1 & 2, and Last Friends. Hana Yori Dango was a pretty big hit in Japan and with its cute characters and fairytale storyline, I’m not surprised as to why. It was a nice brainless drama to watch to get away from the stresses of life. There is a Korean version coming out in 2009 that will star Kin Hyun Joong (leader of Korean boyband, SS501) as the lead male role of Hanazawa Rui. My sister wasn’t sure if he could pull off the rich, arrogant, jerk character but I think it’s pretty close to his previous image (minus the rich part) that he shouldn’t have too much trouble. He is pretty hot so even if he can’t act or the drama sucks I will probably watch it for the eyecandy. I still need to watch the Taiwanese version.

Last Friends was an amazing drama. It’s like no other I have every seen (Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese). It dealt with many serious topics in a more realistic way than any other drama I’ve watched. For once domestic violence wasn’t portrayed as a result of the evils of alcohol, but rather it showed the underlying psychological issues of domestic abuse such as why women keep going back. It is not because they are stupid and don’t know any better! It shows the psychological manipulation and the difficulty in walking away from someone you love. I was impressed. I mean, sure it was a drama so it can’t be TOO realistic (otherwise the dramatic effect is lost), but for its limitations, it was pretty good. The other topics that were also dealt with were great as well - questioning gender identity, child molestation, extramarital affairs. The ending was another fairytale, but I’m still happy that the drama wasn’t cotton candy bullshit like so many others. The opening to the drama was great too as it showed the complexity of the characters’ lives and relationships. Oh! And I can’t forget how perfect the song Prisoner of Love by Utada was. I was so impressed.

Sorry for the lack of posting. My trip to Asia was great. I got to have a lot of family time and spend time with my grandmother. I enjoyed it very much. Big thanks to Kazuma for posting while I was gone.

So someone tried to leave a comment on my seemingly popular post about Tiffany from SNSD by leaving a link to an online petition for Tiffany anti-fans for SNSD to disband. What the heck? Seriously, people need lives. If the commenter is reading this, your comment went into my spam folder where it belongs. I personally don’t care about Tiffany or SNSD and while I am an advocate for free speech, I do not want to endorse childish stupidity or bullying when there are so many more serious issues that need the efforts of petitioning.

In other news, has anyone else noticed the increasing reunion tours/concerts/album productions by old disbanded groups? First it was the Spice Girls, and then it was Jewelry (yes, I’m jumping across nations here), then it was X-Japan and now it’s New Kids on the Block. When the Spice Girls first stated that they were going to have a reunion tour I thought to myself, who would be stupid enough to go see them. Well, I found out that there were many stupid people in the world including some of my friends. All I have to say to that is oiy! I didn’t care much for Jewelry and I found their debut song really annoying and sickeningly catchy. I was looking forward to the X-Japan tour and I was hoping to see them in New York if I could get tickets. So much for that. NKOTB…I actually came to Canada just after their craze had died down so I wasn’t really there for their initial hype. Their song Summerdays is really catchy (damn those catchy pop songs!) and I wonder if they will have the same success as the Spice Girls. Anyway, that is all. =)