Antique

Antique Synopsis: (http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr)
Jin-hyuk was brought up as the well-bred heir to a corporate fortune. He has got the looks, the money and the charm, but even so, true love is hard to find. Jin-hyuk opens up a cake shop and hires Sun-woo, a talented patissier who had a crush on Jin-hyuk back in high school. Together with Gi-beom, an ex-boxing champion and Su-young, a clueless bodyguard, four unique and handsome men stir up a quiet neighborhood when they show up at the cake shop, Antique.

My comments:
Apparently this is an adaptation of a Japanese manga of the same name. But what a peculiar movie! It looks like a fantasy comedy but there is actually a mystery behind it. It has random singing/dancing snippets a la Moulin Rouge as well and when they were dealing with the kidnapping, it had the horror movie feel. Don’t watch this when you’re hungry, it makes you crave for cakes and sweets since they displayed a lot of yummy pastries. I liked the chemistry between the four guys and it was interesting that each had some background story. Special mention to Kim Jae Wook for playing a believable gay character (haha...he has Gay Demonic Charms) and I have to say this I’m very impressed by his French too (it’s not perfect but some sentences were delivered pretty accurately).

Shining Inheritance

What to do when I was sick in China? Watching Shining Inheritance (SBS, 28 episodes)…

Shining Inheritance Synopsis: (from DamaWiki)
Go Eun Sung's life is similar to Cinderella's. After her father died, her step-mother, Baek Sung Hee, took away all of her assets and her younger brother, Eun Woo, suddenly disappears without a trace. Despite this, Eun Sung preservers and works really hard to fulfill her dreams. When the CEO of a food company, Jang Sook Ja, suffers amnesia and can't remember who she is Eun Sung takes her in. However, Eun Sung does not know that she is the grandmother of Sun Woo Hwan, the man who she switched bags with at the airport. How will their constant bickering lead them to realize that they care more about each other than they let on?

Cast:
Han Hyo Joo as Go Eun Sung
Lee Seung Ki as Sun Woo Hwan
Bae Soo Bin as Park Joon Sae
Moon Chae Won as Yoo Seung Mi
Kim Mi Sook as Baek Sung Hee
Ban Hyo Jung as Jang Sook Ja


My comments:
Apparently, Shining Inheritance was one of the highest rated drama of 2009 and I can understand why. From the second episode in which Eun Sung’s stepmother, Sung Hee, snatched everything and abandoned Eun Sung’s young autistic brother, viewers have to sit through 20+ episodes of her lies and evil schemes and boy did she have some. She’s greedy and knows how to manipulate others so I was very curious what will be her ending. Also, Sun Woo Wan as the lead male character was so unlikeable at the beginning and seeing his transition from a royal jerk to someone responsible and loving is interesting as well. One of the best moments of this drama is when he greets sincerely the customers for the first time and the look on the staff…priceless!

For a 28 episodes drama, I didn’t feel that tiring but I thought that the last 4 episodes dragged a bit and lost its magic. Maybe because as it goes on, I found Seung Mi annoyingly desperate and pathetic that I just want to fast forward her scenes. Also, when Sung Hee’s exposed, I didn’t have this great sense of satisfaction and the scriptwriters of the drama were too nice with her ending. She did everything for money and it’s pretty unbelievable that she can go back to simple life. From the title, I expected that Grandmother will die but the ending about what she did with her inheritance is a surprise (an unbelievable surprise, I might add).

For once, the romance between the main couple progressed fairly slow in this drama and compared to other dramas, they are also very chaste. Lee Seung Ki and Han Hyo Joo had better chemistry when they were bickering than as a couple. As usual, our secondary hero Joon Sae, despite being a knight in shining armor, helping and giving the heroine a lot did not get the girl at the end. I was relieved to see him not turning into a pushy and evil guy. If you plan to watch this drama, prepare some tissues nearby.

My vacation Part 2: Guangzhou and Macau

After such chaotic trip to Shanghai, we went back to Guangzhou. Since my return to Guangzhou, I got really sick…I had gastro, gastritis and then caught the flu consecutively! So for more than a week, I was not in my best shape to visit anywhere and didn’t have a chance to taste yummy food! Luckily, once I’m well enough, I had at least a week to browse a little bit by myself.

I spent most of the time in Guangzhou and because the Asian Games (equivalent of the Olympics of Asia) are hosted in the same city so there are a lot of people everywhere as well. There was a one week free period of free public transit to all residents so imagine that!!! Plus, in order to take the metro, you have to pass security check as they have to scan your bags so it was quite hellish too! I stayed near Beijing Road and HuiFu Road during the trip and HuiFu EastRoad became a gastronomy section so as early as 9am there are line ups at the food counters (for stuff like roasted cheese yams…)

The five mascots of the Asian Games

The gastronomy section

I went to Macau for a day and luckily it was a pleasant day. It was hot but not unbearable. We visited some casinos and the most amazing one should be The Venetian. I mean how cool is that there is a big shopping mall and a mock Venice scenery within the casino!

Inside the Venetian Casino in Macau

Ruins of St-Paul in Macau

Casino Lisboa in Macau

All in all, it was a waste that I got sick during my trip and next time that I’ll go to China, I’ll choose a period when there are no special events in hope to avoid huge crowds…

My vacation Part 1: Shanghai Expo

After about 18 hours of flight + 2 hours of bus, I arrived in Guangzhou on the 20th and then headed to Hangzhou and Shanghai on the 22nd. It was a 4 days trip to Hangzhou, Shanghai Expo and Wuzhen organized by a Guangzhou local travel agency. It was a memorable [insert sarcastic tone] experience all around. First day at Hangzhou was nice as the weather was pleasant but the next two days devoted to the Shanghai Expo was…

In Hangzhou

I went to the Expo on a Saturday and it was expected to be crowded but not THAT crowded. Apparently, there were near 800,000 visitors that day. It didn’t help that it was pouring rain as the end of a typhoon approached the area. We lined up for the entrance of the Expo for about 1 ½ hour since 8:30. We experienced our first share of pushing and shoving by people and it was scary!

We were supposed to spend the whole day there and at 7 pm the bus would pick us up back to the motel. I was all happy to buy the Expo passport hoping to collect some stamps but ended up not entering any pavilions at all. It was announced regularly that if visitors want to visit pavilions such as China, Germany, England, etc. have to expect 6 hours of waiting…! Even a pavilion like Angola need an 1 ½ hour lineup. Remember it was pouring rain that day and I didn’t have an umbrella so I was soaked fast. I really didn’t want to line up for some hours so I just walked around and took some pictures of the outsides of some pavilions.

See the people and their umbrellas?

The Ukraine Pavilion, one of the better pictures I took

Everyone of the family were so fed up that we left earlier. We took the free shuttle to go to the nearest metro station. Experienced again some pushing and shoving and people cutting the line (Grrr…that’s what pissed me off the most). And then more pushing and shoving while waiting to get in the metro station. The staff just let a small number of people at a time and geez people couldn’t even let a father holding a child pass first by squishing them at a corner…I was so glad to return in one piece and didn’t die by being knocked down!

The public toilets at the Expo and they are surprisingly very clean...

We were supposed to return to the Expo the next day but after such horrific experience, we all didn’t care that we wasted the money; we didn’t go back. We were visiting Shanghai by ourselves comfortably and ding ding ding, it was raining that day too! We finished the trip with Wuzhen and it was more pleasant as the weather was better and it was the other side that we didn’t visit last year.

Wuzhen

Okay, I'm done ranting [not]...