#1hr and 30min each episode is not enough

[kizunayuemichaelis]

SUPER VOCAL

The best singing competition show. Ever.

I am impressed at the amount of talent in this show. 36 participants and all of them talented as hell. The only reason not everyone is a Principal at the end is merely because of confidence at the time of performing. Which is the only reason Zhou Shen, who has the voice of an angel, was a bit lackluster (it must have been the beginning of his career.. he was nervous most of the times, thank God for sweet Wang Xi who was always rooting for him 🥰).

The lead "actor" of this show is, no doubt, Ayunga. He performed flawlessly every song. The judges and the rest of the boys loved and admired him. Didn't matter if his French wasn't good, his harmonization compensated everything. The 2nd lead, but more or less in the 2nd half, was Zhen Yunglong. I love to see them interacting, the chemistry! And when they formed their group... ahhh, the mentors and their students 🥰 Both of them with the experience and confidence, guiding the youngsters, the "1975" team 🥰

And both enjoy performing so much! It is so much fun to see the singing together. And while not singing, they both enjoy watching the others, and how cute was them worrying for their children? (They deserved to win, tbh, but still, I loved that the professor invited the children to perform with him in his concert... isn't that the best??)

So yes, it is a joy to see the charm of YunCiFang 🥰

There is also a bit of a fight over Zhou Shen... Yuncifang wanted him but Wang Xi was adamant to have him 🤣 so it provided some fun moments:

Besides them, I became a huge fan of Wang Xi (that silky voice 🤤), Yu Di (always consistent in his performances... I love that he got a couple of jobs while the judges were scoring him 😄), Liao Jialin (I prefer his countertenor over Gao Tianhe), Wang Kai (a pro... he was just too competitive 😅), Li Qi, Cai Cai, Hong Zhiguang and Ma Jia and well, all of them actually. All of them very sweet, sensitive boys. The only one I didn't care, in spite of his huge talent, was Gao Tianhe 😅 such a diva.

My favorite performances:

- Bella Ciao

- L'amore si muove

- Les Rois du Monde

- The Sound of Silence

- Nei Blu, Dipinto Di Blu

- La Paloma

- I'll cover you (+ all the other duets btw Ayunga & ZYL. They improved so much since that infamous performance from their college days)

Now I am in the rabbit hole that is Super Vocal 🥲 I am happy this show open doors for them, and that musicals and opera are more popular now in China. These guys deserve every ovation they are surely getting today. I wish I could know more about their current professional lives and how did their tour went after the final. The ending had many tears, including from Yuncifang, and I admit I also shed some tears 🥺

[homeofthemany]

jack's family & his relationship with kai

the parents in kickin' it as a series are generally not mentioned at all, or they're mentioned for concerning jokes. you can take it as them being somewhat absent depending on which main kid we're talking about, but it likely comes down to kickin' it being a show for young teens that wants to follow other young teens around—not their parents, but other weird wacky adults.

most of what we can gather about each character's family is either said in passing, as a joke, or implied through other things. i think it's fair to say that jerry has some of the more remarkable examples like being raised by wolves [1x03], having too many siblings / cousins to the point where he's being neglected & sleeping in a locker [1x17], you get the idea. but we actually know very little about jack's family & he's arguably the main character of the show.

very long analysis incoming! also i don't remember season 4 very well, so if i'm missing something, whoops. i'm going to drift into some darker territory [abuse, specifically] so if you're triggered by that or are of the "it's a kid show it ain't that deep" opinion, this probably isn't the post for you lol.

again, TW for general discussion of abuse—physical abuse & neglect in particular. it's very light & i don't go too far into detail, but just in case.

jack's parents

going strictly off of canon, jack's parents themselves are only mentioned once or twice. if i remember correctly, "a slip down memory lane" [2x15] is our most direct mention of them [i forgot if they're mentioned in 2x14 when he's about to leave for otai academy lol] because rudy says that they're out of town, having called them after jack gets a concussion and develops amnesia; they don't think it's necessary to head back and take care of him?

it's worth mentioning that depending on their circumstances and where exactly they traveled, they might not be able to make it back in time to help him with his recovery. in real time though, jack probably wouldn't recover in just... 30min-1hr? since memory recovery can take several days depending on mechanism of injury? not even talking about the actual concussion, by the way, which could take longer on its own. but i'm not a doctor lol. so to be fair, last-minute traveling isn't exactly necessary if they truly trust rudy enough to watch him until they get back.

on the other hand, it's odd that they didn't want to stick around to watch him break the world record in the first place, so it makes me wonder if he'd even told them he was training to accomplish that—and if he did, whether or not they chose to leave seaford anyway. at best, jack's parents are vaguely absent, and at worst, they're negligent.

we're also not given any clear evidence on whether or not they're supportive of his martial arts. we can assume that they're at least aware of it since it seems to be a family tradition of some kind ["my family were really embarrassed of kai," - jack 1x19], but they're never really shown to be openly supportive like jerry's family, or initially disapproving like milton's dad until he comes around in the pilot.

we see jerry's family, milton's dad, kim's dad, eddie's mom, & rudy's uncle, but don't see jack's parents once throughout the entire series. the only relative of jack's we get to actually meet is one he has a very negative experience with.

also he literally goes to china for a tournament he'd been "dreaming about since he got into martial arts" without them there to watch his fights. actually all of the kids go to china without their parents!! AND THEY LET THEM GO WITH RUDY LMFAO. but speaking of china!

jack, kai, & their grandfather

...assuming that jack & kai are first cousins. lol.

we know that jack has a cousin who beat the shit out of him two years prior to the episode we meet him in [kai, seen in 1x19 & 3x09], and he also has a grandfather who trained one of the biggest martial arts action stars in the kickin' it universe [mentioned in 1x01 & 1x06; oh, bobby wasabi the character that you could've been].

other than that, we don't have much else to go off of other than his line about his family in general being embarrassed of kai. because of that, i'm going to assume that the fight they had was part of some kind of family event / tournament. with how skilled jack & kai both are, as well as how skilled & respected his grandfather is [assuming he was at least somewhat famous for training bobby], it's not a stretch to assume that training in martial arts is very much a family thing, or at least is highly important to the majority of them too.

to look at jack's relationship with kai, we're going to drift out of canon while looking more towards his grandfather & how they were both trained. this is where the abuse part comes in!

although there is no real canon evidence of this because it's a kids show, i think the idea of jack & kai having a very strict and unforgiving grandfather is a very interesting one to consider. i don't think i have to go into detail here, but i can imagine jack & kai being overworked & overtrained, experiencing a lot of negative reinforcement, & potentially being physically punished for not getting things right or mastering things at the pace he wanted them to. i think he would push them past their body's limits & be either satisfied or disappointed depending on how well they'd perform afterwards.

back to kai, it's interesting to me that jack doesn't talk about his family's reaction to his supposedly devastating loss to kai ["a kid named kai beat me so badly, i gave up karate till i came here," - jack, 1x19].

it seems like kai isn't necessarily considered better than jack despite winning the fight. it would be easy for a kids show on disney to make it a "he won & got all the praise, but he cheated & my family never believed me so i want to prove myself to them / find my own closure" plot, but the conflict between jack & kai is completely personal. their family probably tried to forget the match ever happened, or more likely, regard it as an event that should just never be brought up again because it was so disturbing and / or tragic—or worse, they thought it was disappointing.

kai didn't gain any respect, he just won the fight. in fact, his presumably violent win is what got them cast out in the first place.

jack & kai are childhood rivals who would likely be competing for their grandfather's praise, so as a result, kai takes things too far to prove himself and seriously injures jack during the match that he lost. rather than gain his family's approval, though, kai's display of aggression gets them both exiled; they look down on jack for losing to "someone like kai", while also disapproving of kai's brutal & undisciplined display of power. jack shamefully gives up karate [i have other thoughts about how something like this would traumatize him] while kai continues to train, but now has even less of a regard for maintaining his "honor". if it wasn't about hurting people before, it certainly would be now.

small thing about their match

i'm more interested in how exactly kai won against jack LOL. i feel like there's a certain point where their sensei has to decide "okay, this is going too far", but then again, if we assume that their grandfather was the one to set up the match? ouh. he already wasn't training them in healthy ways, so he might not have bothered to stop them. did somebody step in or was it already somewhat of a dirty match to begin with, just so he could see how far they could push themselves? because neither of those stubborn students would tap out themselves.

after a certain point, i think their grandfather would probably step in but less because of jack's injuries & more because of kai losing his form. we've already established that he trains these poor kids to hell and back so i think that if anything would get him to call the match, it'd be something like that.

in conclusion

hooray, traumatized disneyxd characters! i was going to do a breakdown of "kickin' it in china" here too & what it must've been like for jack to face his past while fighting for his future, but then i realized the post was getting too long lol.

[languagelearningcorner]

Language Maintenance and Progress Week 2

02-01-2021 // 02-07-2021 Listening

French: 4+ hours. Listened to my parents and the news they consume. Also watched a few YouTube videos from Dairing Tia, Stelle, and Liv. Spanish: 1hr10mins. So I found Jose M. and Valentrina who discuss pop culture and make social commentary. Valentrina sounds like she has an Argentine accent but I am not 100% sure and I haven't really done any digging on her background. Korean: 1hr12mins. Extracurricular is starting to get interesting. I'm on episode 7. Portuguese: 50mins. I'm still watching The Girls of Ipanema and it's getting intense.  Had to cut a bit of my watching/listening time because I got busy during a few of the days I've allocated to Portuguese. Persian: 4-5 hours.

Reading

French: 30-45min. I squeezed in a bit of time to read Médecin des Voix by Dr. Claude Fugain this weekend. Spanish: 0mins. Yikes lool. Does an instragram post on tips for getting a toddler to speak count? Korean: 25mins. Techincally, I spend about 5 minutes a day on Korean duolingo and I have to read then. Portuguese: 25mins. Similar to Korean, I read on Duolingo.   Persian: ~1hr30mins.

Writing

French: 1hr. Had a stroke of inspiration early in the week and spent a while on it.  Spanish: 0mins. I've been entertaining the idea of staring a weekly or bi-monthly post about a topic in speech pathology that I will write in Spanish and post on here. I'm not sure though. I haven't given it much thought beyond just a vague idealization. I would need to do more research and think about the format.  Korean: 0mins. I write the day of the week in my little journal to keep track of the minutes I spent listening to Korean. Portuguese: 5mins. I wrote little bullets of the plot each time I watched Girls of Ipanema. A lot of it was inspired by Spanish grammar and vocabulary so I'm not sure it's usefully to continue writing in this manner without taking the time to learn actively first. Persian: ~1hr30mins.

Speaking/thinking/studying

French: Daily with my parents. I try to think more and more in French as well. Thinking in French has gotten a bit more automatic, as I mentioned in last week's post. Spanish: 20-30mins. I tutor a high school student once a week for an hour. I don't speak Spanish the whole time, although my goal is to transition to all Spanish. Korean: No speaking. Completed adverbs chapter on Duolingo. Portuguese: Talked to Duolingo every day haha. Completed adjectives chapter. Persian: Mostly during my session. I think I was more comfortable building sentences by myself. I try to recast thoughts in Farsi if I feel like they're simple enough.

[dramaworlduk]

  Drama recommendations!

Part 2!!

<-Part 1

11. The Legend Of The Blue Sea

There’s history, mythology, mystery, romance, and comedy- what more could you want?! Heo Joon-jae (Lee Min-ho) is the son of a rich businessman who becomes a handsome and clever con-man after his parents' divorce. Shim Cheong (Jun Ji-hyun) is a mermaid who becomes lost and runs into him. First only sticking by her for material gain, Joon-Jae slowly realises his feelings are a little stronger than that. Their tale is juxtaposed with the parallel story of their Joseon era incarnations, town head Kim Dam-ryeong and the mermaid Se-hwa. Cheong is absolutely adorable as she learns to adapt to human life, and strikes up friendships with some of the strangest people. Joon-Jae is a scumbag with a heart and a tragic past and it is very difficult not to love them both. The added element of mystery with a murderer on the loose and Cheong’s attempt to hide her identity make for a full and intriguing story that you won’t want to take your eyes off of.

Year: 2016

Where Can I Watch?: KissAsian

Episodes: 20, 1hr length

12. Pinocchio

Choi In-Ha (Park Shin-Hye) hiccups every time she lies. Choi Dal-Po’s (Lee Jong-Suk) life was ruined by the lies the media spread about his family. He is adopted by In-Ha’s family and they grow up together, battling back their feelings for each other and the cutthroat business of reporting which they’ve both found themselves pursuing. It explores the value and falldowns of honesty and how the media can be manipulated and faked. Friends->lovers plus lovely family bonds and the importance of empathy. Very good drama, emotive and charming, 100% recommend.

Year: 2014

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 20, 1hr length

13. The Heirs

This ones a really good one if you’re starting off, as it’s not too heavy or complicated. Kim Tan (Lee Min-Ho),  a wealthy heir to a large Korean conglomerate, and Cha Eun-Sang (Park Shin-Hye) meet in America when Eun-Sang goes to visit her sister. After a failed encounter, Kim Tan offers to let Eun-Sang stay with him before she goes back to Korea. Despite being engaged to Yoo Rachel (Kim Ji-won), a fellow heiress, Kim Tan soon falls in love with Eun-sang. When Eun-Sang returns to Korea, Kim Tan also returns.  Tan’s ex best friend Choi Young-Do (Kim Woo-Bin) notices Tan’s softspot for the new girl and begins to pursue her too. It explores teenage trials and tribulations in the lives of the rich and the poor, as well as pressures from the adult world. 

Year: 2013

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 20, 1hr length

14. Hymn Of Death

This three-parter channels Titanic with its tragic love story and historical setting. You go into this knowing there will be heartbreak, but it still hurts so much!!  It is based on the true story of the tragic romance between Joseon's first soprano Yun Sim-deok (Shin Hye-Sun) and a genius playwright Kim Woo-jin (Lee Jong-Suk). It is heartbreaking to see the two fall for eachother knowing they cannot be together for far too many reasons. It spans a number of years and their love remains strong throughout. The quotes in this from Woo-jin’s real journals are beautiful too and add to the real life story. A must watch, if not for the story, then for Shin Hye-Sun and Lee Jong-Suk’s acting which is fantastic throughout.

Year: 2018

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 3, 1hr length

15. My Love From Another Star

Alien Do Min-Jun (Kim Soo-Hyun) whose time on earth is nearly up meets Famous actress Cheong Song-Yi (Jun Ji Hyun) as she moves in next-door to him. He finds himself entangled in Song-yi's crazy and unpredictable situations, and finds out that she looks like a young girl he fell in love with in the Joseon era. Song-Yi’s best friend Lee Hee-kyung (Park Hae-jin), is in love with her, but his older brother Lee Jae-kyung (Shin Sung-rok) has a dark secret and will get rid of anyone who finds out about it or gets in his way. This drama can be very intense at times wih the threat of Jae-kyung, but Song-Yi’s sweet, comedic personality serves for some very humourous moments too.

Year: 2014

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 21, 1hr length

16. W: Two Worlds

Bad boy with a heart of gold?? Comic book world??? Violence and mystery?? Adorable, loyal sidekick?? Badass doctor who can travel between worlds?? LEE JONG SUK LOOKING HOT WITH A GUN?? W has it all. The premise is new and exciting, making for unpredictable plot twists and constant need for questions to be answered. W is a fictional bestselling webtoon in South Korea centering around the dramatic life of Kang Chul (Lee Jong-suk). Authored by Oh Seong-moo (Kim Eui-sung), somewhere along the line W became a living universe. The gap between the two worlds is crossed as Seong-moo's daughter, resident cardiothoracic surgeon Oh Yeon-joo (Han Hyo-joo) gets dragged into the webtoon world and is immediatel faced with saving Kang Chul’s life. Only, Kang Chul wasn’t meant to live. If you do one thing this year it should be to WATCH W. It’ll do you good, I promise.

Year: 2016

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 16, 1hr length

17. While You Were Sleeping

A girl who sees the future in her dreams, and a seemingly unconnected new neighbour are brought together through a series of events. It is legal drama crossed with fantasy as Jung Jae-Chan (Lee Jong-suk) starts a new job at the prosecutor’s office despite his clumsy, goofy personality. Jae-Chan dreams about an accident which causes much grief and loss, and decides he must try to stop it, and in doing-so his connection with Nam Hong-Joo (Bae Suzy) is strengthened and their relationship blossoms. There are some great dynamics here, not only between Jae-Chan and Hong-Joo, but also with their friend Han Woo-Tak (Jung Hae-in), who begins to dream of the future too after his life is saved, and Choi Dam-Dong (Kim Won-hae) who is a funny but sweet father figure to Jae-Chan as he teaches him the ways of life as a prosecutor. Ruthless lawyer Lee Yu-Beom (Lee Sang-yeob)’s portayal is magnetic and captivating.

Year: 2017

Where Can I Watch?: KissAsian

Episodes: 32, 30min length

18. My ID Is Gangnam Beauty

Afraid of how her peers perceive her, Kang Mi-Rae (Im Soo-hyang) undergoes plastic surgery to stop worrying about her looks before she starts university. However, after a while at university people begin to label her as a ‘Gangnam plastic surgery monster’ as her appearance is a bit too obviously altered. Mi-rae struggles with her concerns of what people think about her, which has followed her around her whole life, in a stark contrast to Do Kyung-seok (Cha Eun-Woo), who does not care what others think. The general message of body positivity isn’t without its flaws, but it brings discussions of insecurity and societal standards to the forefront. The good messaging outweighs the flaws by far and there is also a fair bit of feminism going on, just keep track of Mi-rae’s T-shirt slogans! The relationship between Kyung-seok and Mi-rae is very sweet and shy, and Kyung-seok likes her regardless of what others think. Lighthearted but with an important message.

Year: 2018

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 16, 1hr length

19. She Was Pretty

Kim Hye-Jin’s (Hwang Jung-eum) childhood friend contacts her years later wishing to reconnect. However, upon meeting Ji Sung-joon (Park Seo-joon) does not recognise her, expecting her to appear like her younger self. Kim Hye-jin was a beautiful girl from a rich family, but after her family's publishing company went bankrupt, she experienced hardships then lost her beauty too. Ji Sung-joon was a shy, unattractive boy, but grows up as a handsome and successful editor. Ashamed to meet her first love and ruin his perception of her, Hye-jin asks her attractive best friend, Min Ha-ri (Go Joon-hee), to act as her once, then make up an excuse to never see Sung-joon again. Things get complicated when Hye-jin is assigned to work at The Most magazine publishing office where Sung-joon is the deputy chief editor. He openly mistreats and belittles her for her clumsy nature, not knowing that she was his real childhood friend. Kim Shin-Hyuk () is the second lead in this and his performace is fantastic. The growth between Sung-joon and Hye-jin is definitely worth watching and messages about beauty resonate well.

Year: 2015

Where Can I Watch?: Netflix

Episodes: 16, 1hr length

20. Thirty But Seventeen

Although there are a fair few emotional moments, this show is still for the most part a light, heartwarming drama with little angst and struggle. Also, there are not really ny plausible second leads to confuse the romance storyline as Yoo Chan (Ahn Hyo-Seop) is Gong Woo-Jin’s (Yang Se-Jong) 19 year old nephew, and Kim Tae-Hyun has very little screen time. I feel this makes it a lot easier to connect to the main couple, who are ADORABLE. They are both still mentally 17, after Woo Seo-Ri (Shin Hye-Sun) was in a coma for 13 years, and Woo-Jin’s PTSD from the accident keeps him stuck on repeat. After waking from her coma, Seo-Ri returns to her old house, unaware that it is now under new ownership in the form of Woo-Jin’s family. There is still a lot of tropey goodness (living together!!), but the story and interactions feel fresh and unique, and the dynamic between Seo-Ri, Woo-Jin, Yoo Chan, and Jennifer (Ye Ji-Won) is enough to keep you watching as it’s so warm and pure. Not to mention the dog Paeng/Deok Gu!! I love them all so much and it’s just the sweetest!

Year: 2018

Where Can I Watch?: KissAsian

Episodes: 32, 30min length

[arrozcontoffee]

dude do you have any netflix recommendations

i have a few!! i really enjoy watching movies and international shows... re:mind is a VERY good japanese horror show, office is another horror movie its in japanese i think, ummm amelie is a great french movie, OH my life as a zucchini is an amazing movie and i really recommend watching it in french instead of english. i used to watch arrested development but its like. not good anymore lol. kung fu panda is on there now. meet the robinsons is there too....theres also a japanese show about a business man eating sweets (i could never remember the name) and its really cute and if youre into shows that talk about desserts its for you!! theres a lot of good international shows but the episodes are like 1hr and 30mins long each...theres a neat detective show that i forgot the name of...but yeah! hope these are enough.