Maybe it's because he's an actor, but Huang Xiaoming has a lot of different facial expressions that he likes to pull out during special events. My favorite expression by far is his smile, because of how disarmingly charming he looks with a grin on his face. ♥ He had quite a few reasons to smile at the 9th Global Chinese Music Awards, winning Most Popular Male Singer (with four other singers), Best Duet (with two other duets), and Most Multi-Talented Performer (and more). Let's take a look at some of 'em.


This is what I call his "Hello everyone" smile because...I swear, every time he makes a speech, he starts off looking exactly like this. “大家好，我是黃曉明。”

( More smiles under the cut )

That's what went through my mind when I was looking at information about Vanness Wu and Ady An's new drama¹. I saw the Chinese title, 下一站，幸福, and thought, "Oh, what a cute name. This sounds interesting." Then I went to its DramaWiki page and discovered its English name.

Autumn's Concerto!?

Okay, so it's not really that bad of a name. Definitely has a charming ring to it, what with the "ch" sound in "concerto." But it has absolutely nothing to do with the Chinese name! Where's the happiness? Where's the next stop? How do you even know this drama is taking place in the autumn? Are there concertos in this drama?

Same thing with 這裡發現愛; how did that turn into "Wish to See You Again"?

I've always been very impressed with whoever decided to call 命中注定我愛你 "Fated to Love You" because 1) it's an actual translation, and 2) it actually works as an English name. In other words, I can imagine watching an American drama called "Fated to Love You." On the other hand, I can't imagine an American drama called "Wish to See You Again."

"Black & White" is another drama name I'm impressed with. Even though it's not a literal translation of 痞子英雄, it definitely works. It captures how Chen Zaitian and Wu Yingxiong are complete opposites, and would probably bring to mind the phrase "as different as black and white" or "as different as night and day."

---

¹ Which is one of the two dramas I'm thinking of checking out, provided I get around to finishing An Xiang and Black & White. The other drama I want to see is Summer's Bubble/Desire (even though Huang Xiaoming's wig is...weird), which I don't think has aired yet, but I'm still anticipating it. Speaking of which, what's up with all these seasonal names?

This is mainly for my own amusement. In other words, you probably won't want to read this, and if you do, beware of spoilers. And much Huang Xiaoming fangirling.

- Didn't know this was possible, but it's barely three minutes in, and I'm already captivated. And nothing has happened, except for the credits and some opening expository info. I think this is a good sign. :)
( Read more... )

Verdict: This movie was AMAZING.

We've reached the Irish American section in my Gender in American Culture class. Unlike the other two sections (African American and Chinese American) that the class is focusing on, I've never really learned anything about Irish Americans or Ireland, so I've been a bit lost.

Today my teacher pointed out this little snippet about fairies in a book we'd read (The Parish and the Hill)) and explained that even though the Irish referred to them as "the gentle folk" and stuff, fairies weren't actually gentle. She went on to say something about how fairies were those who lived in Ireland before the humans came and then they went to live underground, and at that point I stopped listening because I was too busy spazzing because I was going, "Hey, this sounds really familiar -- OMG it's because I've read Artemis Fowl!"

I love it when fandom is educational.

OMG. JACK.

;______;

BRB sobbing.

For some reason, the preview for next week's episode of 5D's (Jack vs. Jack!) reminded me of that one Sailor Moon episode where Zoisite disguised herself as Sailor Moon to trick Tuxedo Mask, so I just had to go search for the episode on YouTube and watch it. And then I couldn't help watching the episode following that one. It felt so goooood. I grew up on this stuff, and it just made me feel so happy and bubbly inside. Even those lame "Sailor Says" things at the end of the episodes.

Anyway, I'm willing to bet Darien was my first fictional crush. Now that I'm older, I can actually appreciate the romance between him and Serena, not to mention seriously appreciate that he's the quiet, introverted sort of guy. Most of my fictional crushes are jerks (but endearing jerks), but Darien is different. :3 Serena's such a lucky girl.

Mer, now I want to rewatch the entire series. And maybe get my hands on the manga, which I've never even seen, though I remember scouring the library bookshelves for the anime adaptations when I was a kid.

Again, I show bad judgment as I check out the first episode of Vic Zhou's new drama, Black & White (Pi Zi Ying Xiong). The person who recommended this drama to me was actually...my mom. HAHAHA. Bet you weren't expecting that, huh? But yes, I saw her watching the drama and tried to watch with her but couldn't understand much because it was halfway through the show and my Chinese isn't quite up to par. So I had to start from episode 1. And find subtitles.

From the first episode, I'm already impressed by Zai Zai and Mark Zhao's acting. Very solid performances from them both. Except watching Chen Zaitian (Zai Zai's character) is kind of throwing me off because Zai Zai looks exactly like his character did in Wish to See You Again (Zhe Li Fa Xian Ai) but their personalities are almost polar opposites. He's still cute, though. :3 Kind of an arrogant prick, but he pulls it off in such an endearing way you can't really get annoyed with him. Some highlights were when he was chatting it up with Jack the skull and Mary the teeth. Oh, and also when he "accidentally memorized" the license plate number of the car they were chasing (especially since he attributed it to his tendency to memorize the phone numbers of hot chicks).

Mark Zhao is apparently a newcomer, according to his DramaWiki page, but he's already pretty good at what he does. He doesn't quite have Zai Zai's cuteness, and I wouldn't exactly call him handsome, but he's not a bad looker. Then again, my standards are outrageously high (see Huang Xiaoming). His character, Wu Yingxiong, isn't too bad, either. A typical hero, but not terribly cliche. He had an extremely touching moment in this episode, which I won't reveal because I guess it's kind of a spoiler.

Seeing Kingone Wang in here was kind of a shocker, since he played such an easygoing nice friendly guy in Wish to See You Again (who also happened to be Zai Zai's character's best friend hahaha) but is playing one of the baddies in Black & White. He looks... interesting, for lack of a better word. Definitely the brooding type, and he certainly looks more evil. Sometimes it seems a bit overdone, but it might just be because I still think of him as Xiao Ma / Xiao Lao Ban. While I'm still on this topic, does anyone know how to pronounce his English name? Is it King-gone? King-one? Kin-gone? King-gun? I've been saying King-gone because it flows off the tongue better, but judging from his Chinese name, I'm guessing he was trying to match it with King-one.

The girls in this show need to develop personalities. Fast. I know Zai Zai and Mark Zhao are probably supposed to be the main focuses of this drama, but I would like some interesting girl characters plzkthx.

On an ending note, I was kind of interested in recapping this show because it's just that interesting, but other people have done it, so I'm not going to bother. Plus I should be focusing on NaNoWriMo. Heh.

The animation for this episode was so sloppy it was almost funny. I'm getting sick of filler episodes, but it's slightly better if it's humorous filler -- which episode 80 definitely was. Funny faces, jealousy, chibi simulation duels -- what more can you ask for? Oh yeah, the plot. Haha.

By the way, Jeager totally fails at stealing stuff. If you're going to steal computer data, just steal it and run. Don't hang around eating ramen. Especially if you have to steal the ramen too. And if you must insist on eating ramen, throw your trash out elsewhere! And why didn't he erase his data from Sector Security's database? That seems like the smart thing to do. :P

Oh well. Next episode looks like it'll be lulzy. Hehe.

Finally got around to continuing watching An Xiang. I kind of told myself I wouldn't get hooked on a drama during college (for obvious reasons), so I've been trying to stay away, but I'm home this weekend (birthday yay!) and have some free time, so I've been catching up.

I didn't notice this in the previous three episodes, but watching Huang Xiaoming act out a "bad boy"/flirt is soooo funny. Why? Because in real life, he's such a nice person. I remember reading this article once on AF that had a badly translated (or deliberately intending to mislead) headline about how Xiaoming made an actress he was working with cry, and I honestly laughed out loud when I read it.

Anyway, watching him act like a jerk is seriously hilarious. I still wish they'd stop making him speak English, though. I love him for wanting to learn the language, but shouldn't his character be near-fluent? His accent is cute, but it doesn't fit his character at all.

Also, pleeeease stop making him wear sunglasses? I know that actually does fit his character, since sunglasses lend to the cool factor and all, but I'd rather see his eyes. :( Oh well. I'll settle for the few scenes when he doesn't have to act like Mr. Big Shot.

On a different note, although Wang Luodan's character is still kind of annoying, she is a really good actress. Yay for good acting.

OMG that girl acting out Cheng Yuan's niece is so freakin' lucky, getting to sit in his lap and stare adoringly up at him like that.

And YES, Cheng Yuan slapped Pipi. YES! God, I hate that kid. Even better is that Xiaoming stares intensely out the window after this scene. Excuse me while I squee over his smoldering eyes. You know, this drama is going to take me forever to finish because I keep rewinding scenes to watch Xiaoming. :P

Aw man, this episode had a cliffhanger ending. Booo. This always happens.

It seems like it'd almost be a crime to not share all these cute pictures of Huang Xiaoming. In addition to sharing, I'm also going to try my hand at translating the captions that go along with them. Let's see how well I can pull this off. Heh.

My commentary, if I have any, will be at the end of each section.

( On to the cuteness! )

I would do more, but I'm dead tired and should get some sleep. ;) We're almost to present day anyhow. In fact, #21 is Xiaoming's most recent drama (not counting Summer's Bubble). If I find time tomorrow, I might finish up the rest, but for now, I've done my job in delivering the cuteness. :)