APink's Sweet "Birth Of A Family"

As readers of this blog know well, when I get into something, I get into it full throttle, and my latest adoration of ACUBE Idols APINK is no different! After immersing myself in their wonderfully entertaining reality series APINK NEWS, I was REALLY falling in love with them, and had to have MORE! Through an Apink Forum, I was introduced to a mysterious reality series of theirs called "Birth Of A Family"... What WAS this show and why were Apink fans (dubbed "Pink Pandas") so into it?
  Well, come to find out Birth of a Family was a show from this past year where the girls were put in charge of two recently rescued shelter dogs who needed human interaction so they could be put up for adoption and once I learned THAT, I just HAD to get my hands on the series! Girls and Puppies, who could beat it!!!

Well, the series delivered, and THEN SOME! What an INTERESTING show Birth of A Family was! Watching the Apink Girls as they lived day to day caring for two puppies "Quick" and "Dalie" as surrogate "mothers", we get to see a side of them that is so sweet and gentle. Within each and every  you can see the love the girls have for the dogs, whether it be dresing them up to take walks in the park...

or the serious things like giving them medicine and taking them to the veterinarian for checkups 

...or the simple days of lounging around and playing together!

When Apink were first given the dogs, Dalie was so introverted and shy, but as the days went on, you could see him come out of his shell and run around playing, happily interacting with the girls (especially Bomi, who really became like a mother to him!) After three months, the dogs were ready to be adopted, and thus we come to the totally HEARTBREAKING part of the show, when the girls had to finally give the dogs over to their new owners. MAN,was this episode hard to watch!!! For three months the girls have lived with and taken care of these two dogs, and it is SUCH an emotional WRECK watching them saying their final goodbyes to their beloved "children"... Yup, even I was totally destroyed!

Thanks to this emotional series, I can safely say that APink has absolutely become one of my very favorite groups after all this time, and I've even just started watching the "We Got Married" show again to see Shinee's Taemin and Apink's own lovely princess Naeun filming their reality nuptials! The APink craze continues....

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APink Pop Perfection with "Prince"

  Besides all the Reality Shows, Music Appearances and Interviews, I've also of course been devouring all of APink's Musical back catalog (While I wait for my physical copies to arrive, I've been making do with MP3 downloads) and I have to say, if the reason I didn't originally get "into" Apink when I first heard them because I thought they were too "J-Poppy" sounding, it's that SAME J-poppy sound that is making me LOVE THEM so darn much NOW!
   Really, as I listen to their Albums and Mini-Albums, I'm BLOWN away at how doggone CATCHY these tracks are, and one song out of all of them seemed to stick out and shine even brighter for me, and that's their awesome song "Prince", the "album "closer" for their great album SNOW PINK. The song first caught my ear because it reminded me of the classic Pony Canyon style (in fact, it's intro and refrain reminded me of my favorite CoCo song "Yume Dake Miteru") and every time I came on, it gave me such a positive feeling!

   Yes, so positive that I was pretty shocked when I finally read the translation and found that the song was more about a loser of a guy who's about to get dumped because he doesn't appreciate his girl than any chivalrous "prince" demeanor, but it's all in fun as the song ends with the girl giving him another chance (and secretly confessing she'll always love him!)

A perfect album closer for an incredible album that also includes the superb "My My", the sweet "He's My Baby", "Yeah" (which I immediately recognized as the APINK.NET intro to all their subbed videos, LOL) and the bittersweet "Like A Dream" (which was made even sadder when put in context of "Birth of A Family" which used the song in its final episode. And that's just ONE of their CD releases! As Baloo once said to Bagheera in the Jungle Book, "There's more, Baggy, LOTS more!"

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My Latest K-Obsession: APink!!

My Latest Fave Group: APink!!

  YES, true believers, as you’ve probably predicted, I’ve FINALLY become a bonafide fan of APINK!!! And as you may have guessed, it all started with that silly clip of Eunji and Naeun dancing with Gary on Running Man. Sure, it was silly, but BOY was that dance move freaking CUTE!!!   As you may recall, after watching that clip over and OVER again, I downloaded some live performances of NoNoNo, and was SO blown away by it, I wanted to explore MORE about the girls, and I did it with the help of their THREE appearances on the show “Weekly Idol”…Now it was time to really get to know the girls!!

 The first episode I watched was the recent July Appearance they did to promote “NoNoNo” (this past July) and it was here that I got to "meet" the girls for the first time. learning each of the members and their characteristics...at this point, the two that really stood out for me was Namjoo and Bomi (the latter who I just fell in love with, she’s so candid and GOOFY!!!) but I have to say the others still looked “the same” to me.

Hilarious Bomi wi NaEun sharing a laugh

 Next I watched an earlier episode from May of 2012 where they were promoting “Hush”, this time Eunji was too busy so didn’t come, but it was SUCH a fun episode with lots of games and eating (Bomi and Chorong polishing off a plate of Chicken Feet and Namjoo eating 4 slices of pizza at once!!), I started loving the girls even more-

Eating, Eating and More Eating

Adorable Maknae HaYoung

 This time I got to know Hayoung better (she reminded me of a younger and more adorable Gyuri of KARA), and the way I could tell Yoo Kyung was that she reminded me of ChoA from Crayon Pop. Chorong was still kind of hard to recognize (as yet) though I realized she kinda reminded me of Japanese actress Aimi Satsukawa a bit. 
It was only when I watched their earliest (and first) appearance on Weekly Idol (from January of 2012 when they were promoting “My My”) that I started beginning to tell all the girls apart and recognized their specific "variety show" characteristics:  Chorong: The sensible and thoughtful leader, Eunji: The cool tomboyish chick, Bomi and Namjoo: The fun, energetic and comedic girls,  Yookyung: Shy and quiet, Naeun: the girlish "princess" type, and Hayoung: The sweet and cooperative maknae!

Yep, I was really starting to love these girls and as I began learning their back catalog of music, I wanted to see MVs and Live perfs of their older songs and so went onto the good old reliable Jpopsuki Tracker site (whod’ve ever thunk back when I was first using that site to download Arashi and  Morning Musume videos that it would be my main site to get K-pop as well, LOL) and began getting old perfs of songs like “I Don’t Know”, “Wishlist”, “My My”, “BuBiBu” and HUSH, as well as some absolutely KILLER perfs of “NoNoNo”!

Man, there's just something about watching cute girls performing catchy songs dressed in pretty outfits that just DOES it for me, and though I've mentioned it before, it MUST be said again how awesome EUNJI is- not only as the girl with the most KILLIN' voice ever, but easily one of the most sultry femme fatales out there! Eunji is the first to say that she doesn't think of herself as sexy, but watching THESE perfs at least, not only IS she sexy, ya know DARN WELL that SHE knows it, TOO!!!

"Yes, I know I'm sexy, but don't tell anyone...it's a secret!"

 After I exhausted those episodes and clips, watching them over and over, I needed MORE, so I knew it was finally time to GET SERIOUS and start watching those abundant episodes of “APINK NEWS” that are ALL OVER Youtube, and more importantly, ALL SUBTITLED! I dove in and right away began LOVING the show, and as usual when watching a reality show following a group, got to know them intimately, their personalities and quirks through their photoshoot sessions and MV filming...

...Their  outdoor activities and MT training...

(Where they're usually out doing challenges for food!)

...and ESPECIALLY the moments where they're just having FUN being themselves-like EunJi and Bomi hanging Chorong upside down on Exercise equipment, LOL! Things like this make me love them even more!

By episode 5, I really and truly felt like I “knew” them and could now REALLY tell each other apart, even Chorong! By the time they began covering their promotions for Seven Springs of APink on the show, I was TOTALLY gone for them, and NEEDED to have their stuff! I went online and ordered not only Seven Springs of APink, but also Une Annee, AND Snow Pink!!!! 

  As of right now I’m taking it slow and am trying to watch a couple of episodes a night, though of course there are some days I have to watch more, it's so much FUN! Just about the only drawback I can see watching these old episodes of Apink News is, of course, that besides the other members, I’m ALSO getting to know and love YooKyung as well, and feel rather sad knowing she'll leave/get forced out of Apink. Really bittersweet watching her with all the girls trying so hard to make it and knowing that she’d be dropped in only another year. I have to keep telling myself its for the best since she was never comfortable singing and only wanted to dance. Still so sad, actually...they seemed at their best when they were all seven of them!

Happy Days with Eunji and YooKyung

But anyway, so YEAH, I’m TOTALLY digging Apink right now, really love the main three: Eunji, Bomi, Namjoo (they’re so energetic and fun!) and I think Hayoung’s a Babe... (especially back when she had black hair, not a real big fan of her blonde look…omo, wait, she was only 16? Aigoo!) Chorong is cute as the mumbling leader (really started loving her towards the end of season one) and Naeun is super pretty (man, in the “U You” video, she looks just KILLER)... As I still have ways to go in getting to know ALL of the girls better, you can expect my opinions and rankings of them to grow more and more in the coming weeks!!!

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So, Which Idols Have Appeared Most On Running Man, Anyway?

Idols On Running Man

So I was watching the awesome latest episode of Running Man, this time it was their annual "Idols" Special, and when I saw MBLAQ's Lee Joon making yet another of his many  guest appearances, it got me to thinking...which K-Pop idols have appeared most on Running Man, anyway?  I ransacked my old files as well as online streaming to catch up on my Running Man episodes, and though I may have forgotten or missed a few, I think I've checked off the scorecard, and what I came up with is as follows... (I decided to only focus on the Idols that have appeared at least 3 times, 'cause otherwise I'd have WAY too much people to deal with!)

...so coming in at the NUMBER ONE spot of Guest Appearances with a total of 10(ten!) Episodes under his belt is CNBLUE's Jung Yong Hwa, a number of episodes that is ONLY tied with Lizzy of AfterSchool, and that's counting her stint as a regular cast member!!!

Okay, looks like next week Big Bang is all set to make their comeback re-appearance on the show, so Daesung and SeungRi's numbers will be going up soon as well! Better get my calculator out again...

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Darkness Falls in Movie "Kaibutsu"

Koichi Sato in Kaibutsu

Wow, I just finished watching the incredibly Dark Movie special "Kaibutsu"(Monster) and I have to say it's been quite awhile since I've seen a movie that was so unpredictable in its subject-matter, twists and double dealings that I was on my toes (and at the edge of my seat) throughout the entire flick!

Jun Kaname

Chiaki Kuriyama

The story of Kaibutsu concerns a Police Detective named Kosai (Koichi Sato) who is determined to arrest an up-and-coming politician (Jun Kaname) suspected of a crime committed 15 years ago involving the murder of a little girl is intriguing enough, add in a surreal extra-sensory power Kosai has of being able to perceive a murder scene by scent alone, and you've got a slightly X-Files-ish tale on your hands. Going further and adding in another case he's working on concurrently with his new partner Ishikawa (Chiaki Kuriyama) involving a worker named Masaki (Osamu Mukai) working at a Sewage -Treatment Center who's suspected of liquidating bodies with the city's new high-pressure waste disposal unit, and we're reaching DAVID LYNCH creepiness!

Osamu Mukai

Mikako Tabe

  "There are people who want to disappear, and then there are those whom people want to disappear", Masaki tells Kosai one day, and this seems inarguably true in a world where cruel criminals callously murder innocent victims and those slighted burn with taking revenge into their own hands, and as people begin disappearing left and right, the question of just who the "good" people are in this movie and who the "monsters" are begin to blur.

   By the movie's conclusion, we are left with that thought to ponder, and as the movie ended and the characters departed, I for one wanted to see where the events set up in this movie would lead! In fact, the ending left me on SUCH a  "What Happens Next...?" kind of feel, I even rushed to AsianMediaWiki to see if this was the pilot to a new TV series or another movie (like the two-movie chaptered Double Face, for example), but so far nothing yet....

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