Tuesday Running Man: Episode 166, The Heirs.

This week's episode, which was shot much later than the supposed next episode, promotes the new drama series that will air on SBS starting tomorrow Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. My post yesterday for K-Mondays is about the Upcoming Kdramas this October, and The Heirs is included in that post. In this episode of Running Man, Choi Jin Hyuk, Park Shin Hye, and Kim Woo Bin are the guests representing the new drama series.

The objective of this episode is to find the sole inheritor of RM group. There are two teams, RM group oil division and RM group fashion division. The team (division) who gets the most passbook, with real money deposited in the accounts, will be the team from which the sole "Heir" of RM group will come from.

Funny moment number 1: Kwang Soo plays with Kim Jong Kook's sunglasses. Sorry, but I laughed hard at this scene.

Ji Hyo asks (commands) Kwang Soo to fetch her and hold her so that she can easily walk on the grass, probably because of her heels.

RM group oil division include: Lee Kwang Soo, Haha, Kim Jong Kook, Song Ji Hyo, and Ji Suk Jin. RM group fashion division have: Yoo Jae Suk, Kang Gary, Park Shin Hye, Choi Jin Hyuk, and Kim Woo Bin.

The first game is the 'exercise routine of the rich kids,' which is to pull the plunger from the columns inside the building in the fastest way possible. The team who has the shortest time in pulling out the plunger wins more passbooks than the other team.

Funny moment number 2: Kwang Soo having a hard time pulling out the plungers. It was funny because of the background music (which is my favorite one when it comes to funny moments).

Funny moment number 3: Clumsy Woo Bin's first time pulling out the plungers. The background music's the same as when Kwang Soo pulled out the plungers. It's unexpectedly hard to pull.

Easy brothers candidate Kim Woo Bin and Choi Jin Hyuk tries to put the plunger as high as possible so as to make it difficult for the other team to get.

Funny moment number 4: Ji Suk Jin's black powder. When Haha and Ji Suk Jin was pulling out the plungers together, Kim Jong Kook noticed the black stuff on JSJ's face and tracksuit. Haha also had some on his tracksuit. The black powder is from JSJ's hair! OMG. He earned the nickname 'Ji Suk Tan(coal/burnt).'

Kim Woo Bin and Choi Jin Hyuk (more of Choi Jin Hyuk's effort) won against Haha and Ji Suk Jin, making them earn more passbooks.

The initial deposit in the passbooks is 1,000,000.

Oil division only gets one passbook, and they played rock, paper, scissors to know who will get to keep it. Ji Hyo won (as expected).

Yoo Jae Suk: Kim Woo Bin = Mr. Bean.

Choi Jin Hyuk praised Gary's name, and Gary revealed how he got that name. It was because his childhood nickname was "Gae" or dog. It brought laughter in the fashion team's car.

Gary then mentions that he added 'Ry' to 'Gae' to be more creative and to sound more cool. He also mentioned that he almost used the 'GaeMi' (which means ant) as his stage name. They all laughed again.

Funny moment number 5: Almost paradiseeee! F4 is now ready to ride their yacht, not. (with Ji Hyo as Jan Di)

Kwang Soo wins against Choi Jin Hyuk on the game of thumb wrestling because of his long thumb.

At this moment, I realized that Choi Jin Hyuk was Gu Wol Ryung from Gu Family Book. I couldn't recognize him because of his hair, but when I saw his really cute smile, I realized that he was indeed that man.

After many NGs, Kwang Soo perfected his acting and splashes water to Jin Hyuk. (Losers get splashed with water)

Haha also gets to splash water to Jin Hyuk. Notice how taller Haha looks? That's because Jin Hyuk's feet were spread apart, as Haha ordered.

Next game is changing of clothes. The ones who volunteered without knowing what game it will be (Haha and Jae Suk) will change to their clothes during the opening. The fastest one to change, wins.

Jae Suk lost to Haha (perhaps because of Haha's height?) and gets splashed on by Kwang Soo, unexpectedly.

When Haha was just making his speech of being Jae Suk's underling all the time, Kwang Soo couldn't take it anymore and splashes water again to Jae Suk's face.

Next game is gold and silver spoon game, where the two girls will have to listen to Gary and Gary will command them on which spoon to open. Ji Hyo lost, and they suspected that it was because she was only concentrating on Gary's voice, and not the mission.

The next game is Kim Jong Kook against Kim Woo Bin. Remember the episode where Jong Kook literally threw Woo Bin into the water? So funny yet pitiful. Hahaha.

Kim Woo Bin avenged his humiliation! He won against Kim Jong Kook in a game of rock, paper, scissors.

This moment was a scary one I admit. Kwang Soo splashed water on Kim Jong Kook when he wasn't ready yet, and Kim Jong Kook seemed really (like truly) pissed at Kwang Soo for doing it. Jong Kook said: "Was that even necessary?" to Kwang Soo. Jae Suk even tried to tell Jong Kook that he was being too serious about it.

Choi Jin Hyuk broke the tension by splashing water on Kim Jong Kook's face at the perfect timing!

Everyone celebrated that perfect water splash moment.

It was Jae Suk's turn to splash the water, but Jong Kook wasn't letting him.

Funny moment number 6: Jae Suk tried to get the basin of water and splash it to Jong Kook, but poor Gary got wet instead. 

Kwang Soo explained his behavior back then, but Jong Kook and Ji Suk Jin rejected his explanation.

Park Shin Hye showing her aegyo to the oppas in the car. Haha.

This game is a 'head to head' wrestling, and the objective is to make the other person get off the float. Jae Suk wins.

Yes, they're playing in the water again. The Running Man staff will do what they can to make them play in water. We might even get to see them in a water theme park again in winter! (kidding. but seriously though, they did that on episode 31)

Funny moment number 7: Woo Bin shouting at Kwang Soo, "Shut Up!" because Kwang Soo was being too noisy. Hahaha!

Kwang Soo lost to Woo Bin

Woo Bin lost to Jong Kook.

Jin Hyuk lost to Jong Kook.

Finally, Jong Kook (purposely) lost to Shin Hye because of her girly charms.

The final mission is to get signatures from the "shareholders" of RM group. The team with the most signatures and sits as a group in the conference room will be the team wherein the sole Heir will come from. Fashion team gets one signature already because they have more passbooks than the oil team.

Cultwo is one of the shareholders. They're holding their live broadcast when Running Man barged in. Shin Hye danced the 'Sistar' dance for them.

Jong Kook showed his abs to the live audience to counter Shin Hye's sexy dance.

Oil team gets the signature from cultwo!

Another shareholder is Lim Seong Hoon, the father of one of Running Man's PDs, and MC of SBS show "The World's Most Beautiful Travel." Kim Min Ji announcer (Park Ji Sung's girlfriend) was also present in the show. Lim Seong Hun asked for coffee for all of the MCs so that he'll give his signature. Kim Min Ji even asked the fashion team to stamp her point card from the coffee shop. Haha.

Funny moment number 8: Choi Jin Hyuk and Kim Woo Bin didn't have money on them, and bought the cups of coffee by credit. (but they didn't forget to get stamps on Kim Min Ji's point card!)

Of course, fashion team ends up getting the signature from Lim Seong Hoon.

Haha, Ji Suk Jin, Park Shin Hye, and Kang Gary visited Mister Rocky's live radio show.

Mister Rocky asked both teams to become DJ's and support Mister Rocky's radio show. Ji Suk Jin went first.

Park Shin Hye did it for their team. She used flowery words and aegyo, which made them get the signature from Mister Rocky!

Ji Hyo bought MIB (new hip hop group) coffee and so oil team gets their signature.

Park Sun Young announcer is another shareholder, and because of her relation with Jae Suk (they supposedly worked together back then), fashion team gets her signature.

Running Man's CP (I'm not really sure what CP stands for, but I guess he has the highest position among the producers), Nam Seung Yong, is another shareholder. Even though Jae Suk went ahead and carried Nam Seung Yong, the oil team got the signature because of Kwang Soo's tricks.

Oil team tries to woo Girl's Day (another shareholder) by dancing and singing to their songs.

Shin Hye shows her dancing skills again and dances to Girl's Day's Expectation. With that, and Girl's Day's indebtedness to Jae Suk (in the idol episode), fashion team got their signature.

The fashion division, with much struggle, won the game!

Within the fashion division, they distributed the passbooks and got the final amount of money in random. Choi Jin Hyuk got the largest amount of money and so he is the sole Heir of RM group!

He gets the 'RM group heir' desk name plate with actual gold on it (the circular R).

I think this post is longer than I expected. I actually spent an hour making this, and I was supposed to finish this as fast as possible because I still need to read some things for my civil service examination this Sunday. Cramming at its finest! *whale sounds* I must say, this was a fun episode despite it being rushed. Running Man, daebak!

Next week's guests are Chun Jung Myung and Kim Min Jung, promoting their new movie. The episode (and movie) seems delinquency in school themed. Let's see it for ourselves and look forward to next week's episode!

K-Mondays: Upcoming Kdrama (October 2013)

I have three Kdramas on my list that I am planning to watch once it airs. I have just recently finished 'Master's Sun,' and it brought me back to the world of Kdrama again. Not that I didn't care to watch new dramas this year, but I just had my usual break from watching it. After Gu Family Book and Jang Ok Jung, I didn't have much energy to watch new Kdramas because I really loved Gu Family Book, but when Master's Sun aired, I tried watching again. Now that it's (Master's Sun) done, I watched it for like two days in a row, starting with episode 3 (where I stopped and waited for it to end first). I got hooked and now I'm hungry for more. I will first talk about the drama that would replace Master's Sun in its time slot in SBS.

왕관을 쓰려는자, 그무게를 견뎌라 - 상속자들 or simply, 'The Heirs,' is a rom-com about rich high school students whose life gets more exciting yet troublesome upon them having an encounter with a girl from the lower class. Check out the trailer with English subs by DramaFever below.

Firstly, I found the drama interesting because of the actors. It is packed with really popular celebrities nowadays like Lee Min Ho, Park Shin Hye, and Kim Woo Bin. Also, f(x)'s Krystal will be in this drama, which got me real curious. Second, I saw the trailer from the end of 'Master's Sun,' and it seemed exciting to watch. Lastly, I searched about its synopsis, and it really was interesting although not that unique (it being about rich high school kids and all. Boys Over Flowers anyone?). Nonetheless, it still seems promising.

It will air this Wednesday, October 9, and I will definitely watch this, and will continue depending on my first impression. Haha.

Next Kdrama is Answer Me 1994. It's a spin-off of the drama Answer Me 1997/Reply 1997, which gained much popularity when it aired. Reply 1997 was really good, and I am looking forward to this spin-off. Check out the teaser below.

Go Ah Ra will be starring as a main character, and I just found out that Yoo Yun Suk (Park Tae Seo from Gu Family Book) will also be in this drama. I had found out about Answer Me 1994 way before The Heirs, and that's why I am probably more excited for this. 

This drama will concentrate on the emergence of Seo Taiji and Boys (equivalent to H.O.T. in Reply 1997) in 1994. I don't know if it will follow the format of Reply 1997, where the characters had a reunion, but I hope that it would somehow be like that too. It was so fun (albeit frustrating) trying to guess who will end up with whom in Reply 1997.

Answer Me 1994/Reply 1994 will air on October 18, 2013 on tvN. 

Marry Him If You Dare (teaser)

Last is 'Marry Him If You Dare'/'Mi Rae's Choice.' Yoo Eun Hye will be the main character, "Mi Rae" in this drama. I honestly got to know about this drama because of Yoo Eun Hye. I just finished re-watching Lie To Me (wherein YEH starred) with my mom and I wanted to know if Yoo Eun Hye will have a new drama series soon. Then I found out that there will be an upcoming Kdrama with her as the main character.

I liked the synopsis because it involves time travel. Mi Rae (YEH) comes back to her 32-year-old self in order to change her future, specifically her marriage to Kim Shin (Lee Dong Gun). I can imagine what would happen in this drama, but I don't know if the writer and I have the same ideas on how this drama would flow or end. However, I'm definitely looking forward to this because I love sci-fi romance stories.

This drama will air on October 14 in KBS2, Monday & Tuesday 22:00 time slot.

I don't know whether I'll be sticking to watching all of these three Kdramas, but I will surely watch all of their first episodes. Feel free to comment on which upcoming Kdramas you're looking forward to this year! (or maybe on early 2014)

Reel Thursday: This is the End (2013)

This is the End has been re-released in cinemas in the US which started last September 6, 2013. Its DVD was just released last October 1, 2013.

Scene from This is the End, where the hills of Hollywood went in flames.

This is the End stars Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Craig Robinson, among others, as their fictional selves. It's about these people being together in James Franco's home when the apocalypse starts. They were left on earth because they suspected that they were not "good enough" to go to heaven and be saved from the apocalypse (though at first, only Jay Baruchel believed this). 

In the screenshot above, we can see (from left to right) Michael Cera (only his back), Paul Rudd, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Mindy Kaling, Jonah Hill, (some guy in blue jacket that I don't recognize), Emma Watson, Aziz Ansari, and Jason Segel. Martin Starr, Rihanna, Kevin Hart, and Channing Tatum also appeared in the movie. Channing Tatum's role was the most shocking and probably the most hilarious in the whole movie. Emma Watson was also as hilarious but I expected for her to have a longer screen time. Another special appearance that I would like to single out will be revealed a bit later in this post.

This movie is just a light-hearted comedy, and I believe that it should not be taken that seriously. Like all other films these people (Seth Rogen, Jonah HIll, Jay Baruchel, etc.) are in (eg. Knocked Up, The Pineapple Express), the humor is quite alike, seeing as this movie is directed, produced, and written by Seth Rogen with Evan Goldberg. I have been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD ever since its trailer because it really got me curious (also because Emma Watson's here).

The special guest that I was talking about earlier was none other than, the Backstreet Boys!

The Backtreet Boys are back, and they performed "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," which brought back so much memories from my childhood. Boy bands back then were the thing and they were so awesome back then. Now, the only sing and dance boy band that I love are Kpop stars (Bigbang, to be specific). Anyway, find out more on why Backstreet Boys performed at the end of the movie by watching This is the End! It's awesome and real adult hilarious. (find out why I said that, go on, watch it.)

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Best 3 Japanese Romance Movies.

If a person talks about Japanese romance movies, definitely, the movie 'Koizora' will be on the top of their list of favorites. I, too, love that movie. Most of my friends who do not watch Japanese/Korean films heavily like me, had actually watched Koizora as their first Japanese romance movie. My first Japanese romance movie though was Lovely Complex, which is from a manga, and also one of my favorite stories of all time. I even consider it as the number one in my list. Now, I've talked about top listers when it comes to Japanese romance movies. These two, however, do not make my list of the best three Japanese Romance Movies. 

The criteria that I used in choosing the 'Best 3 Japanese Romance Movies' is first and the most obvious: it should have a love story. Second is that it should not have another version, either a version in another country, a drama series version, anime, or manga version. However, it could have another version but it should be the first one. Lastly and the most important of all, it should suit my taste.

In truth, I actually have four movies in mind that would fit my criteria, but the last movie that didn't make it in the cut is Hanamizuki. Ikuta Toma and Yui Aragaki starred in that film, and that was the main reason I got interested in the movie. I found it touching and beautiful, but I just don't think that it broke the record of the other three movies that I love.

Let us start with the 3rd place.

Photo taken from Wikipedia

I have watched this when I was still in high school, and I was just started to get into Japanese pop culture back then. Yui was so popular among those non-Japanese people who loves Japanese pop culture. I also like Yui and her music, that's why I watched this film. This movie is called Taiyou no Uta, which means 'a song to the sun.' Yui's character in this movie has XP, a disease that does not allow her to be exposed to sunlight. The girl lives his life the other way around, awake in the evening and asleep in the daylight. She makes music and performs at a park during late hours. One day, she falls in love with a guy who didn't know about her illness at first. 

When I first watched this, I fell in love with the soundtrack. 'Goodbye days,' 'Skyline,' and 'It's Happy Line' (all by Yui) are one of those timeless songs that I can play over and over again. That's why I think that Yui is the perfect fit for the role. The bitter-sweet love story between the two lead characters was also heartwarming; one would definitely cry a river upon watching this. The soundtrack also adds to the emotions that one would feel while getting into the movie. This is definitely one of my all time favorites.

On to the second place.

'Tada, Kimi o Aishiteru,' or 'Heavenly Forest' is the second in my top 3 list. The movie is about a girl who falls in love with a guy who loves photography. The girl also develops an interest in photography because of her attachment to the guy. They met in college, and they bonded together through photography. However, there's something about the girl that the guy doesn't know yet.. Again, like the first movie that I've introduced, this made me cry like a baby. I wonder why these Japanese romance-drama movies do that to me every single time? There's just something about the silent vibe that these Japanese romance-drama movies that triggers my emotions all the time.

This movie was actually based from a novel by Takuji Ichikawa. I still have a copy of this movie, and when I opened it just a few minutes ago, I decided that I shall watch this again. I also watched this when I was still in high school, and I thought back then that it was the most amazing romance story that I've encountered in my life. I still believe that it is though.

Now for the first place.

A collage of screenshots that I made for my post in Tumblr when I was having a withdrawal from the film. I just love it too much.

First place goes to 'Tenshi no Koi' or 'My Rainy Days.' It's basically a love story between a male college professor and a beautiful high school student. Despite both of the baggages that these two people have, they fell in love. I was and still am not a fan of teacher-student relationships in movies but this movie really made me adore their relationship. It's one of those films that was able to change my perspective on things. I think that this movie is almost a perfect one. The cinematography is so nice, and as I said before, the silent vibe of Japanese films was still present in this one. The characters were so believable, and every character (even side characters) has a story to tell. The thing, however, that I love the most about this film is the soundtrack. Unlike Taiyou no Uta, there are no musicians in this film. However, I still love the ambience that the soundtrack gives off while it plays in the movie. I even have a copy of all the soundtracks that was used in this movie.

Overall, I really love this film and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to everyone I know.

So, that was the three movies that I consider the best among the rest. There are movies that I also like but doesn't fit the criteria like Bokura ga Ita (live-action), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (live-action), etc. I also recommend watching those movies that I've mentioned above, which is Koizora, Hanamizuki, and Lovely Complex (live-action).