Author Archives: dramarian

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About dramarian

Ni hao! I'm Dramarian and I love Asian dramas & films specifically from Taiwan, China, and Japan. I write about them in this beautiful blog while my dog Gotchi sits beside me. Meteor Garden introduced me to dramaland and I don't think I'm leaving anytime soon. Oh and I love Jerry Yan very much. Follow/tweet me @SMilkdrama about anything and I will definitely reply.

[Review] TW-drama: In A Good Way (2013)

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“Do you have a dragonfly on your shoulders? The beautiful moments of youth, are like those moments in the movie where the dragonflies were frozen forever. Even though right now I don’t know what kind of dragonfly awaits me, but after a while, I’ll miss this time”.

Title: In A Good Way aka My Freedom Years
Native Title: 我的自由年代
Genre: Slice of Life, Friendship, Romance, Drama
Country of Origin: Taiwan
Airing Date: November 15, 2013 to May 16, 2014
# of Episodes: 26
Channel:  Sanlih E-Television

Main Cast:
Lego Lee as Liu Shan Feng aka Liu Chuan
Lorene Ren as Lin Jia En
Jay Shih as Zheng Ren Wei
Smile Weng as Bai Xue

Hello Good Morning, Hard City! Here I am writing about a Taiwanese drama that deserves to be written about. This is a drama that I should have watched back when it was airing except that I was not an avid drama fan when it aired.Even so, I’m very glad that I got to watch this precious gem. Taiwan excels in creating slice-of-life dramas and this one is a good example of it. Read more to find out in this full-length drama review of Taiwan’s SETTV 2013 hit “In A Good Way”.

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5 Reasons Why I Watch Taiwanese (and not Korean) Dramas

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Ni hao! How’s life & drama-watching, friends? 🙂 I apologize for not being a prolific blogger recently as I have turned into more of a prolific napper and drama-watcher (which I should be blogging about anytime soon!). But at least I’m here today to write one of the most frequently-asked questions that I get as a drama fan.

“WHY do you watch Taiwanese dramas?!”

It’s a question that isn’t supposed to bug me so much until I got too full from hearing people’s comments about it. I have always believed that people should never be judged according to their tastes or even have to justify just because they’re being judged about it. To settle the score, I have listed down the top five (not in any order) reasons why I watch Taiwanese dramas.

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[Review] Studio Ghibli: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

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Native title: Hotaru no Haka 火垂るの墓
Country of Origin: Japan
Duration: 90 minutes
Ratings: Rotten Tomatoes = 97%, IMDb = 8.5/10, Dramarian = 11/10

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Hopefully my writing streak won’t break so soon because I’ve been watching such beautiful movies lately. Before I go on full blast movie review mode, I’m beyond happy to share with you that I passed my board exams! Yes, that exam which made me disappear for such a long time into dramaland 😀

This will be my first time to write a review on a Japanese anime film and possibly a start of a series of reviews especially focusing on Studio Ghibli films. For every review that I will be doing, I will not focus on recapping the story or scenes because you can just look it up everywhere. Instead, it will comprise the  following sections: story, characters, rewatch value, and overall rating.  So feel free to read more on how/why “Grave of the Fireflies” just ruined me into pieces.

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[NEWS] Jerry Yan and Van Ness Wu in Ken Chu’s Wedding in Bali

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If you know me well, you would know that I am currently out of air absorbing this news because F4 is a vital part of how I came into this dramaland especially that it’s Van Ness Wu and Jerry Yan aka my top 2 husbands ❤

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From L-R: Van Ness Wu, the groom Ken Chu, bride Han Wen Wen, and Jerry Yan

I won’t talk much because I swear, they will just be written in all caps and just endless fangirling raves and squeals. So let the photos (which are not mine btw) say what they want to say ❤ hope you can click ‘Read More’ and fangirl with me ❤ See, my fangirling madness has already started by putting 2 heart symbols already lol

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[First Impression] J-Drama: Hapimari: Happy Marriage!?

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Title: Hapimari: Happy Marriage!?
Native Title: はぴまり
Country of Origin: Japan
Airing Date: June 22, 2016-August 31, 2016
Episodes: 12
Where to watch: I watch it on kissasian.com but only 8 episodes have been uploaded as of the moment

Main Cast:
Dean Fujioka as Mamiya Hokuto
Seino Nana as Takanashi Chiwa
Shirasu Jin as Yagami Yu
Shinoda Mariko as Shirata Misaki
Fujiwara Norika as Soma Taeko

Hello, dramaland! I’m back for good 😉 Going to write about this new J-drama that I’ve just discovered after attempting to watch LoveO2O as my post-exams reward but all drama sites didn’t want me to watch it *cries* so I ended up watching “Happy Marriage” and it’s currently giving me life! I may have already watched a few J-dramas in the past but it will be my first time to write about one in full length. Read more to find out.

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[NEWS]: Autumn’s Concerto Cast Reunion 2016

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OMG HELLO DRAMA BLOGGING WORLD!!! Drama and/or blogging hiatuses or maybe taking breaks in general from the usual habits can make people go crazy. I should know because it’s what I’m currently experiencing. Yes, I’m back but only because if I don’t blog about this, I might just explode haha! Kidding aside, I just want to reiterate my reason for staying in the Taiwanese/Chinese drama fandom: never-ending fan service!

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Ady An’s Weibo post *fangirls endlessly*

My ultimate favorite Taiwanese drama, “Autumn’s Concerto” just recently had a cast reunion! All this time I thought I was in a dream until my friend pointed out that they weren’t throwback photos, but they actually reunited after 3 years (they reunited back in 2013). Hope you can join me in this fangirling madness *squeals*. WARNING: photo spamming and lots of fangirling ahead!

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Dramarian on Hiatus

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Hello lovely readers! Long time no see, right?!! Well, it’s going to be longer as I’ll be explaining why I haven’t/won’t be blogging in so long.



1. WORK. I honestly didn’t expect this work to take over my life and it’s been crazy and challenging but I can manage! I’ve been working for 3 months to be exact today 😊

2. STUDY. I have a major board exam coming up which will take place this coming August 30 & 31! This will be the biggest test that I will be taking so please do pray for me!

3. JAPAN! I’m glad to share with you friends that our thesis/final research paper has been chosen to be presented in the upcoming Yokohama conference this coming July 24-29. Will be basically staying in Japan for one week yay!

Preparations for #2 & #3 have been ongoing and this is why I haven’t been blogging 😦 I seriously miss it but you can guarantee that I’ll be back once #2 & #3 have finished with flying colors!

Meanwhile, here’s what’s been happening in my now limited fangirl world:

– REALITY SHOWS! Crazy over The Great Challenge (C-version of “Infinite Challenge” with Ethan Ruan!!) and We Are In Love Season 2 with Bolin & Jihyo aka my parents

– DRAMAS. Actually had time to finish My Queen and Scarlet Heart and they’ve ruined my life at some point. Also got to rewatch my classic faves like In Time With You, Fated to Love You, etc.

So that’s what’s been happening so far and it doesn’t mean that I’ve completely disappeared from dramaland as you can still see me tweet regularly in @SMilkdrama 😊💕 hope to see you once I get to blog again!

P.S. I still check my Weibo every night since it has become my tradition lol and also read blogs here on WordPress from time to time 😉

[Episode 1 Recap + First Impressions] C-drama: Because of Love

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I didn’t expect to go back to recapping this soon but I hope you can join me in this long journey ahead! Another Jerry Yan drama to be recapped 😉

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Love the opening sequence!

Title: Because of Love aka In Love We Trust, Because Love
Native Title: 因為愛
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country of Origin: China
Airing date: February 28, 2016-?
# of Episodes: 32
Channel: HubeiTV

Main Cast:
Jerry Yan as Zhuang Dao Sheng
Hai Lu as Jiang Ke Xin
Alice Tzeng as Die Er

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[NEWS]: C-Drama “Because of Love” Premieres on February 28

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I love how I was supposed to create a post talking about my dramas collecting dust in the Chinese production shelves then this just happened.

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Look how beautiful Jerry’s nose is… HAHA!

I remember telling you last time, my beloved readers, that I will only be recapping a drama again if ever my dearest Jerry Yan comes out with another one. Lo and behold, I didn’t expect for it to come out this soon!

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Movie Monday: Happy Valentine’s Day!

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My previous Movie Monday with an action theme didn’t really get a lot of feedback compared to my first one which dealt with first love. I’m going to assume that this post will get more feedbacks because of one thing: it’s all about ROMANCE!

Love really does make the world go round as proven by these five films which had romance as its central theme. Some were a hit and miss while some were definitely not to be missed.

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