Beethoven Virus Eps. 5, 6, 7, 8 Death in Holy Orders - End, The Beast House

Last night I enjoyed Beethoven Virus. The love triangle is forming and I can't really decide which Kang is better. The handsome, socially incompent, extremely talented Maestro with an icy exterior but a warm heart or the handsome, kind hearted, courageous man who is a bona fide genius managing not be an asshole about it. Also it doesn't help that Kim Myung Min is Maestro and Jang Geun Seok is the junior genius (well even though he wears a man purse, he looks so good).

Well I'm too old for JGS so I'd definitely go for KMM - and I certainly am not crying over my choice. Maestro is a good man.

RuMi, performed underwhelmingly by Lee JiAh, predictably has the same undecisiveness. And it doesn't help that not only both men are in love her but she has an ear tumour and will go deaf in about 4 months (I hope this can be resolved some way and she will not go deaf)

Meanwhile I have finished Death in Holy Orders and started the second book of Richard Laymon's Beast House triology, The Beast House and it started with a bang and is looking good and scary.

Beethoven Virus - Episodes 3-4

Beethoven Virus is doing me some good. First of I love watching the two male leads and the soundtrack is so so good. Secondly this type of underdogs doing what they love story appeals to me and it is great to watch everyone trying to do their best. Thirdly I like it that I'm able to stop at the end of an episode and do not feel that I simply "have to" continue, this way I'm getting enough sleep.

Meanwhile I'm loving Death in Holy Orders.

Beethoven Virus Eps 1-2

Beethoven Virus was not on my priority list for some reason. I got it because I like classical music and the two male leads (Jang Geun Seok and Kim Myung Min) but I was kind of afraid that it will be similar to Nodame Cantabile (seriously that one was a turn off) but luckily despite the umped up quirky factor, it is nowhere near the -unwanted by me- quirkiness of Nodame Cantabile.

Our main leads have the same name Kang Gun Woo. One is a perfectionist maestro who had to leave Korea because he stopped a concert during performance because orchestra was not very good - to be fair he didn't want to conduct it the first place-. Sadly for him Korean President and First Lady was not very understanding of his undue caprice.

The other Kang Gun Woo is a musical genius but was turned off from classical music (fuelled by an unfortunate interaction with older Kang Gun Woo) and now works as a traffic police but he recently got suspended (it was not really his fault).

Our female lead is Du Ru Mi (I think this is a sad attempt at a pun) and she works for the city hall art department. She is a good violinist however and wants to play at a concert hall with a real orchestra. So she proposed a concert to advertise the town as a musical city and manages to get City Hall sponsor it. The sad news is that her conductor embezzled the fund a month before the concert leaving her with no money, no musicians and a bad debt. She is not a quitter though so she thinks to give a chance to amateurs who like to play classical music.

So in episode 1 she gathers a team of musicians and we are introduced to them. Kang Gun Woo's choice of instrument is trumpet and despite claiming to hate classical music he is very talented and seem to be willing to play it.

But of course every orchestra need a conductor and we are introduced to ours at the end of first episode. Kang Gun Woo has a bad reputation as being an orchestra killer and this seems to be well deserved. He is arrogant and unreasonable. He bullies himself (and his dog) into Young Kang's house and forces him to live in a small room upstairs. Well Young Kang would not let him do so but he started to like Du Ru Mi and suffers all to help her out. She realises this and does seem happy with it so far. But Old Kang who was an utter asshole turned out to be a wimp when it comes to his dog Thoven -heh- and we see Du Ru Mi softening when she sees how he cries over his dog - who luckily got better-.

Now Old Kang starts work and immediately gives up but Young Kang while trying to organise things sorts a problem out simply due to his musical talent. And this gets Old Kang's nerves since even though he is talented enough, he is not at genius level and has to work harder to obtain the same things that comes natural to his more talented peers. And when he finds out that his alumni and nemesis (so far we only see that he is more naturally talented and enjoys the music but we do not know of his personality) will also attend this patethic concert, he starts to take thing seriously. He is nasty to performers and we leave episode two Du RuMi trying to set him right.

I'm loving this. Jang Geun Seok is adorable, Kim Myun Min a power house of an actor and despite the fact that Lee Ji Ah does not measure up, at least she is inoffensive (but so far her performance is below average).

Revenge-End, Death in Holy Orders, Süt, Trouble With The Curve, The Fourth Kind, The Usual Shows

Revenge writen by Yoko Ogawa ended and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. Now I need to get my hands on Hotel Iris.

And I have started the last of the books I have got in the second hand book fair.
Death in Holy Orders by P.D James. Now James is writer whose books I enjoy reading but for some reason not seek further fiction by her. As expected I'm enjoying this one very much.

Süt  (lit.trans. Milk) is the second film of director Semih Kaplanoğlu's Yusuf triology (the first two stories didn't have anything to do with each other apart from the location and a few actors playing different roles).
Now it didn't appeal to me as well as the first one. It has good cinematography and a decent story but I didn't like the female lead Başak Köklükaya who is a good actor but looks and acts to urban to give life to a villiage belle who milks cows and makes cheese etc. for a living. Anyway it was not a total loss but I don't think I want to watch it again either.

Trouble With The Curve For some reason I have left this one long recorded in Digitürk. But I gave it a shot (lacking more desirable films) and one of the things I like most happened. A film discarded some growing 'to be viewed' pile turning out to be very good. Well at least it was to me. Now I'm partial to Clint Eastwood both as an actor and director (this film is directed by Robert Lorentz and lacks Clint's thoughtful little touches) and he is the lead actor in this lovely and good natured melodrama. Maybe I like it a lot because it represented an ideal ending which we will probably not get in real life. A disturbing amount of tears were shed during this.

The Fourth Kind this one was on loan from a colleague and it didn't suit me well. Alien abduction stories are not my thing and I have falled asleep at some point (but woke up very soon after)

Yumurta, His Christmas Pleasure - End, Revenge (not the TV Show)

Yumurta (lit.translation Egg) Last night I have watched Yumurta and liked it a lot. Semih Kaplanoğlu turned out to be a director I may like (well not as well Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose works he clearly are inspired by) but I like the story he told and the way he told it. Nejat İşler was excellent in the lead but I didn't really like Saadet Işıl Aksoy. She is pretty I suppose and her performance didn't suck but there is something about her that doesn't sit right me. Oh well, this was a good viewing after all. Minimal amount of tears.

His Christmas Pleasure turned out to be more about feelings than erotica and to my surprise I actually cried at some scenes. Seriously what's with me being the easiest crier in the world?

Now I plan on starting

It is actually kind of weird since I'm so eager to read this but at the same time I'm a bit sad since I like looking forward to things. I hope it will worth it.

Inferno - End, His Christmas Pleasure

Well I have stayed up late and finished Inferno. It is not really very different from all his other books but for some reason he decided to cram more into this one. It didn't really work but then again I was entertained and think this a good airport book.

His Christmas Pleasure - Written by Cathy Maxwell, so far there is nothing special about this romance novel. But then again I have not yet come to the most important parts.

Inferno

It looks like I cannot rotate the pic above (sorry I'm not very technical) but the good news (for me at least) is that I have started to read Dan Brown's Inferno. A kind hearted colleague of mine loaned me his kindle. Isn't that such a good deed? And not only that but two other colleagues have broughts dvds for me to watch. I feel very lucky!!!

Inferno is very typical Dan Brown and follows the same formula in all his other books. This is an excellent airport book. And I'm having a good time with it so far.

The Great Gatsgy, İncir Reçeli, The Apparition, Coupling Season 3

 The Great Gatsby (2013) Baz Luhrman is a director to my own heart. I love his visuals, his excess in everything and how well he directs his actor. On the other hand I would probably wait for the dvd if this film did not star Leonardo Di Caprio. He was wonderful and I liked the film too (of course as an adaptation it will lose to the book but then again this is usually what happens no?). The film reminded me of Moulin Rouge with Nick in the Ewan McGregor part. And I certainly did not understand why the film was in 3D. I'm glad I saw it on big screen though.

İncir Reçeli (lit.translation Fig Jam) I have heard about this film from here and there and when I had the chance to watch it on TV I took it. I didn't expect to like it that much or the tears that I shed through it. I would not call this a good film. Directed somehow generically by Aytaç Ağıtlar, it doesn't have the art of cinema but it is good storytelling and I liked the characters. I especially liked the fact that the male lead was not handsome or charismatic. He seemed pretty much the regular guy we see around us.

The Apparition I watched this on Digiturk and it was bad but I somehow kept going. Anyway it is not worth it. What is it with this stupid horror films I keep watching every weekend just because they are there? I need to stop it.

Meanwhile there was a slump in Borgen and The Good Wife (we have all been there and done that) but I keep liking Grey's Anatomy.

Lake Mungo - Fail

Well I got this one in the bargain bin and thought it was going to be a horror film even if it is bad. What I got was a fake documentary style where there are interviews with the related parties and authorities, photos in which some ghostly apparitions appear (been there done that much much better with Shutter) and my falling asleep 10 minutes into the film and wake up at the end credits. Seriously this was not my cup tea. I don't like that sort of docus and I certainly do not want them in my fiction. This one was major fail.

Gizli Anların Yolcusu - End, The Saint Zita Society, Jane Eyre (2011)

Last night I was not going to watch anything but my shipment has arrived with new goodies in it so I have decided to give Jane Eyre a go

Well it is one of my all time favorite novels and it is not that hard to adapt (albeit never in the same level with the book) but this one ended up being a failure as far as I'm concerned.

The visuals and the soundtrack were both very good but in cinema they are not enough to make it good storytelling. The script was disjointed, the moments that may not have been that important to the plot but crucial in order to understand the character were passed by in favour of the more dramatic incidents in the novel. Sadly these do not affect the viewer that much if they just float about aimlessly.

The female lead Mia Wasikowska's performance was not bad, unfortunately it failed in comparison to the other, better "Janes" in the history of the adaptation (my favorite performance is Charlotte Gainsborough's). As for Rochester, he is not a male character I particularly care for and I wouldn't have minded anyone in this role but Mr.Fassbender's (good actor the he is) performance didn't do anything to me, especially in combination with the tight & shiny costumes they made him wear. Zero chemisty among the leads did not help either.

All in all this was not a successful purchase.

I have started to read Ruth Rendell's The Saint Zita Society.

 Ruth Rendell is a writer whose books I always liked to read. Some of them (A Judgement in Stone, The Bridesmaid) I loved. This so far is going good.

Gizli Anların Yolcusu ended predictably. It is a sad story and I keep thinking of it.

Best Love - End

Best Love/Greatest Love ended even better than I remembered it. There were tears, laughter and the absolute pleasure of watching a good rom-com.

Now this may not be for everyone since the male lead is a quirky and excessive character but Cha Seung Won is a very good actor who knows how to balance comedy and melo and manages to give it just the right note and make it work. The female lead on the other hand is completely grounded and moderate and the actor Gong Hyo Jin is more of a realistic/natural type of actor and those two different acting styles complement each other very nicely.

The secondary male is most probably the best in Korean Drama history (yes, he is even better than the one in Brilliant Inheritance). Yoon Kye Sang is not only very good looking (in that hunky adorkable way that doesn't exist in real life) but he is a good actor completely in tune with the rest of the cast.

The secondary female acted by Yoo In Na is not as developed as the others but I'm happy to say that she is not that completely evil bitch you want to slap while watching the drama.

I love the rest of the cast, the conflicts and the jabs at the Korean entertainment industry (which is very similar to Turkish one).


Lee Seung Gi cameo was so so good that they actually made a commercial out of it later on :)

Meanwhile Gizli Anların Yolcusu is getting weirder and weirder (a middle aged man suddenly turning gay after finding out that his soul mate is a younger man who is actually under his employ) and I don't care for any of the characters but I'm curious about where the story will lead to. Actually a major plot point is revelaed at the beginning and the novel so far has been a flashback.

Best Love - Episode 14, The Cellar - End, Gizli Anların Yolcusu

Last night I was in tears in this second viewing of Best Love, I don't think I have cried the first time... I love the characters and their nobility.

The Cellar ended and I had a good ride although I have to say some parts were disgusting. Mr.Laymon has the rythm and the talent but he can be oh so sick sometimes.

And I'll take a break from the triology (the one following The Cellar is the Beast House) and started a different book, a love story I think between two men. The title is Gizli Anların Yolcusu (lit.translation: Traveller of Secret Moments) well if you treat the title as a mini acrostiche then you get gay. This one was a best seller (but then again Ayşe Kulin's books usually are). At the initial pages we are introduced to one of the characters who is married and has a daughter. They had a son too but he died in a traffic accident and his wife never really got over it. This man is the owner of a publishing company. Ayşe Kulin doesn't really have a distinctive prose style but she is a good story teller and I find myself immediately drawn to the book.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - End, The Cellar (The Beast House Triology), Paranormal Activity 3, The Dictator, Thunderstruck

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy turned out to be an interesting novel for me. The thing is I'm not interested in spies. So do not really read that many. Well I like Ian Fleming's Casino Royale mainly because it is and interesting character story (to me that is) but with Mr.Le Carré it is different. This book was all about discovering a double agent within a department in English Secret Service and despite the fact that I have fallen asleep more than once reading it, I have found the pull of the prose too strong to resist. In the end I have sat up late and finished it with some excitement. There were some books listed at the back from his filmography and the more I looked at the plots the more I was dicouraged since it looks like I like the man's writing style but not the subject matter. Then I have seen The Little Drummer Girl and it perked my interest. So I'll be on the lookout for that one.

Then I have started

The Cellar (The Beast House Triology)  I think I have read one of them already but the deal was too good to miss and I like all the Laymon books I have read so far. This one started out with a bang and I'm looking foward to keep reading it. Also I think it is better to post the pic before I start to read/watch.


Paranormal Activity 3 I have not seen one or two but this one was not that bad as to turn off (but I think I have falled asleep at some part.

The Dictator This film was bad. It is one of the most unfortunate misses that I have seen. Well I have watched it till the end but it was mostly due to 'how worse it can get' type of curiosity.

Thunderstruck This one turned out to be decent. I liked the message, the teen actors and the whole understated look of it all.

Meanwhile I keep watching Borgen (which is getting darker and darker), The Good Wife (pretty much the same but the plot is getting repetitive), Grey's Anatomy (I have a weakness for this show and now there are too many characters but still the best ones are the original cast and I think they should focus on them more), Scandal (this show is not really that good but I keep watching it  for some reason).

And Greatest Love - well I have fallen asleep during a curicial section of Episode 13 so looks like I prefer the funny parts. Anyway I intend to keep watching since Cha Seung Won is insanely hot and the characters are lovable.

Greatest Love

Yeah, yesterday evening I was looking at all the yet unwatched pile of films and dramas and suddenly I have had the urge to watch Greatest Love again. And after 2 episodes I have stayed up and watched the third one too.
I simply love Cha Seung Won on screen. Not only he is handsome (former male model) but he is also manly, funny, emotional and vulnerable. A dangerous combo. Gong Hyo Jin is not an actor I really like but the female character is such a good one (although the show is more about our male lead Dokko Jin) honest, hard working and kind that I keep rooting for her.

Meanwhile Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is going very good. The spy thing is not really my cup of tea but I love how very British it is and I also like a good mystery. Our protagonist Smiley is trying to expose a mole in an English spy organisation. We have some candidates but nothing is clear yet.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Too Precious to Lose - End, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance   I liked this film better this second viewing. There is an element of surreal that I appreciate and Lee Young Ae is such a great actor. All in all a great second viewing.

Too Precious To Lose and with that ends the three novella book that was entertaining. At best of times, Barbara Cartland is great read with wonderful period detail and interesting fairy tale stories and at worst of times she is an entertaining diversion. Too Precious To Lose help me shake Heart-Shaped Box off.

And now I have started my first John LeCarré novel which is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. And I love how very English the prose is so far. Mr.Le Carré is a good story teller and I hope to enjoy this novel. The reason I chose it was because they made a film out of it and I wanted to read the story first before watching it.

Hear-Shaped Box - End

Heart - Shaped Box turned out to be a very good novel. It was not really scary but I liked the story, the way everything was described, the sentiments in it and most of all, the unexpected happy ending! I'll be looking out for other Joe Hill books.

Oldboy, Bol Bachchan, The Corridor, What's Your Number?, Friends With Benefits, They Do It With Mirrors, Bottle Rocket

A weekend fest of films :)

Oldboy  This is one of the films which I want to see again right after finishing the viewing. It is like a slap in the face and the impact does not lessen knowing the twist. Kudos Park Chan Wook.

Bol Bachchan  This is not a good film by any means but I have found myself laughing at Abhishek. Ok I like him best but it would not be totally biased to say that he is the only thing that livens this one up.

The films below, I have watched on Digiturk

The Corridor  mediocre film.

What's Your Number? I'd probably not like this one this much if it was not a rom com. I have a weakness for the genre and this one stands to multiple viewings.

Friends With Benefits I don't know how many times I have watched this one and I like it just as well with each viewing. Great rom com.

They Do It With Mirrors  This BBC Marple Adaptation was OK. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm more of a Poirot fan myself.

Bottle Rocket  Wes Anderson is a good director. This I think is his first feature film and it is a very good one. I like Wilson brothers too and they are both great in it.

Heart Shaped Box is going very well. Mr.Hill is not as good as his dad in the scary parts but I'm loving the non scary sections of the story (planning to post a pic after I have finished the book).

The Thieves, The Housekeeper + The Professor - End, Heart Shaped Box

The Thieves is fun and entertaining. Yeah it had lots of plot holes but for a heist film it flowed well and more importantly action scenes were good. I could tell who is who and who is doing what. I would not call it the height of good film making but I'm very glad of the purchase and see myself viewing it more than once.

The Housekeeped + The Professor was so so good. I liked a lot better than The Diving Pool. And this is coming from someone who doesn't really care for mathematics :)

I have started to read  Heart Shaped Box written by Joe Hill (who apparently is Stephen King's son) and so far I think the talent did not bypass Mr.Hill. The book is good, not as great as Mr.King's but a lot better than many out there. I'm curious to see how it will progress.
This is about a man who is an ageing heavy metal rock star with a taste for macabre/weird. He purchases the suit of a dead old man which the seller claimed that is haunted by the ghost of the old man. But now it turns out that the old man is the step dad of one of the groupies who he lived with for some time and then dumped (this is a habit of his) and this girl who was clinically depressed has killed herself and this is the revenge of her sister and the dad (who was a hypnotist when he was alive and instructed the sister on what to do to get their revenge this way).

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Retreat, Jack and Jill, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pillars of the Earth - End, The Housekeeper + The Professor

Well yesterday was a bank holiday and everyone was out so I get to stay at home and watch films all day :)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel I liked it a lot but it is not that good a film. I have shed A LOT of tears during. And I have missed India so much.

Retreat It was a decent viewing but nothing really special

Jack and Jill I have a weakness for Adam Sandler. This film, while it did so poor at the box office and got bad reviews was hillarious to me and I have had a good time with it.

Breakfast at Tiffany's Perfect. The more I watch this film, the more I like it. The only thing I would change in it is Mickey Rooney.


The Pillars of the Earth  This book was intense. I loved it despite it being a little over its head in the last section. At least it was a happy ending. Lovers united, villains got their just desserts and all was well in Kingsbridge in the end.

And this happy but tired reader turned to a completely different book
(I have finally recevied all my orders from amazon and am so so happy, I was able to order secondhand books this time since my manager was kind enough to allow me to give their home address and he brought all of them with him, and this morning I have received my order from amazon usa Thank God. Yippeeee!!!)

The Housekeeper + The Professor written by Yoko Ogawa, and I have finished the first chapter which brought me much happiness in that particular clean Japanese translated to English, prose. This one is so far different from The Diving Pool (which was deliciously sinister). So far we have a disabled maths professor (he only has 80 minutes of memory and then it is erased, he cannot build new memories) and a successful housekeeper who is proud of his job and they managed to find a way to communicate. Let's see what will happen next :)