Hmm.. looking at my laptop clock date, in another day, it will be my birthday. Dad already called to wish me happy birthday yesterday morning.
Hahahaha... eh, this man is handsome. Checking up on him, he is 183cm tall. Wow! [In this Wiki pic, he looks a little like my Amby (Ambrose Hsu) *looks at his date of birth* ^_^].
So tall, no wonder he carries the clothing so well. Looks good in samurai dress up & even better in western dressing. So Dashing. ^_^ Wow wow!
Didn't think he looked handsome at the start. Looked a little silly. But I started considering him right after the old lady (Oba) called him "good-looking". He had come to Son Neion's house holding an umbrella in the rain & the old lady told Son Neion that there is a good-looking man looking for her.
Hmm... he does seem to look a little better after that... but not yet handsome. Only later, the more he asserts his influence, strength & conviction, he started looking handsome. Hehehehe...
He's also quite intelligent & dependable. Coming to her rescue very quickly even without her asking or telling him anything. Too bad however, that he has rather old-fashioned ideas, although... not entirely old-fashioned.
Actually, I don't quite understand him. On the 1 hand, he wants to free her from old fashioned ideas, so that women like herself can freely study & educate themselves. He wants her to be herself, so that she don't need to hide her gender anymore. On the other hand... he wants her to quit being brilliant & just be a housewife for him.
Don't know why he keeps insisting on her being a woman for him. In this regard, he is not much different from the young king who also wants her as a woman for himself.
In this last episode... I really hate the singing in between. Sounds like Malay. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong background "singing", wrong singer. Very jarring.
Also, their clothing. Since the start, I have been noticing that their clothing looks Malay with that cap they wear on their heads. Weren't they influenced by China dressing? How come they are wearing Malay type of clothing?
Even their dancing is Malay style. Strange. Is it some kind of island effect? Because Singapore's Malay community dressed like that in the past as well.
What a mess this last episode. All because of wrong decisions of 1 woman & 1 young king. As the prophetess said, she doubts Son Neion was forced into sleeping with the young king. I have to agree.
Son Neion wasn't forced into doing anything she didn't want to. She could have talked the young king out of it. She chose to sleep with him & bear his kid. She intended to have her child have the blood of the 2 dynasties & sit on the throne when the time comes.
What was disappointing was that she disappointed the love of that samurai. When the Commodore Perry wanted to enter Ryuukuu, she told the samurai Asakura to protect his Japan instead while she will protect her Ryuukuu. She then sent the enemy over to Japan.
Although even with her brilliance, she could not think for both her Ryuukuu & Japan, it's still rather unforgivable & disappointing for her to just dump the enemy onto Asakura's country. It just means she didn't care for him.
Her decision, resulted in Japan fighting very bloody civil wars with all the samurais destroyed. In the end, her plan backfired anyway. Ryuukuu was absorbed into Japan. According to history, Japan captured the Ryuukyuu king.
In this drama, the young king foolishly surrendered. His reasoning for surrendering doesn't make sense. And why didn't he purchase ammunition beforehand? Even the Japanese knew to get weapons to fight among themselves. Even the Shinsengumi bought weapons & western clothing to fight in Hakuouki (anime).
This young king just wants to have sex all the time. -.-
In episode 9 when he wanted Son Neion in the bedroom, she should have negotiated thus: If you want my brains, then set me up as Son Neion & don't meet in the bedroom ever again. If you want my body, then sorry, when you need my help, I am busy with the baby. If you want my heart, sorry, it is for myself to have. I decide who to give it to. It is in your best interest to accept my brains since it is the greatest asset of all 3. (if you will not, then you were not entirely smart to begin with.).
Here is the handsome Asakura-dono. Just ignore his strange old-fashioned yet not old-fashioned views. Just admire him. ^_^
Very nice here, as he turns his head looking aside, in long Hakama (pants). I was actually thinking he looks good in that long skirt... haahaha... click to enlarge. By the way, I didn't watch on GoodDrama.
Below: View from the ship as he leaves Ryuukuu, "never" to return. His lord Nariakira passed away, ruining all plans for Ryuukuu takeover. So handsome as he looks towards shore where Son Neion is watching.
*looking closer at his Wiki info* Tanihara Shosuke. Eh? He married a married woman (who divorced)?
Below: So Dashing!!!! So Charlotte Bronte!! He should do Jane Eyre as Rochester!
Below: Ohhh... he looks so much like my Ambrose Hsu (when he was young & handsome like this). This hairstyle suits him. The sharp down turns of the white collar suits him. *sighs* And with such deep voice....
I wonder how different this drama would have been if Korean scriptwriter who wrote for Faith, wrote it. Definitely, the romance part between the Satsuma samurai & Son Neion would have been given more attention. ^_^ The female lead might not have done what she did with the young king & the samurai & Choukun. Would be interesting to see how the romantic Korean scriptwriter would have turned it.
This script by a man, is still a male's point of view. He seems to want to make women into... women. The decisions he makes for Son Neion, might not be what a female scriptwriter would agree with. I certainly don't agree with what he did with Son Neion.
The ending is.. kinda ... well, I won't say it's no good, with that dashing samurai returning as expected but in his lovely western suit. It ends the same way it started. So, that's nothing to wow about.
Son Neion's son is also not handsome at all. And the drama creators didn't age Choukun, the young king & Son Neion enough (after so many years). Only the samurai looks noticeably aged (and handsomely so).
OOHhh... I have to see that handsome man in his dashing western clothes again as he smiles. *goes to replay the scene*
It can be said he loved her to bits... but she, I feel, is not worthy of his love when she saved her Ryuukuu at his expense. And even when she so-called loved him, she still slept with that awful-looking young king.
How can 2 persons (1 Japanese, the other Taiwanese) look so much alike? The resemblance is strange in this comparison. On the left: Here's my Amby (Ambrose Hsu) when he was around 25 yrs old. On the right is Tanihara Shosuke age 39 when he did Tempest.
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