On watching Mars...
16 Oct 2004 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiI'm told Mars is the archetypal shoujo manga, in that unlike the average shoujo, there's a very good plot behind it...I've only read the last book, so I can't tell, but it's surprising that apart from shoujo addicts, not too many people have heard about and read it. But if you want what seems like a fairly objective review, look here.
Anyway, I watched episode one of the Taiwanese live action production of this manga, which has Vic (Zhou YuMin) and Big S (don't ask ~~;) in it. These are the same two people who were in Meteor Garden - Hana Yori Dango - by the way, with Vic as Rui and S as Makino, and that was an acting achievement that made you squirm all the way through it.
Thankfully, both Vic and Big S are much better actors now ~~; At least Vic now has more than one expression in his repertoire...not that, as the original Rui, he needed more than one expression.
Mars starts off fascinatingly different from HYD, which was, in a shell, a repetitive light-hearted love story dragged too far beyond its finish. I mean, there's only so long that two people breaking up, coming back together, breaking up, coming back together can remain interesting to the readers.
Vic also goes out of type for this one...I think (not too up-to-date with his TV credits). He plays Chen Ling - manga equivalent Rei, an apparently uncouth, devil-may-care playboy...who spends half his screen time checking out the chicks at his uni. His best buddy, Tatsuya (Da Ye - played by...er, I can't read the last character...Xiu JieJie?), is the rather typical cool-headed, gentlemanly "foil" to Rei's character. Big S plays the impossibly shy girl, Kira (*waves fist* why does it have to be Kira???), whom, in Tatsuya's words, "is a strange girl who doesn't talk to anyone, but spends all her time drawing".
Rei has a special fascination with a drawing of hers which she had accidentally given to him when he asked for the way to a hospital. This brief meeting sparked Rei's interest in her, and he spends all his time trying to pick her up.
Within the rather fluffy romantic set up are interspersed moments of Dark Angst™. The reason behind Kira's phobia of men is because she had been raped before - by a boyfriend, perhaps? And somehow this draws the attention of her English teacher, who, because he knows she is too shy to defend herself, begins to sexually harass her.
Rei is hardly what he seems either. A moment in front of the mirror at a convenience store shows no reflection...and then one that smirks back at him. We find out that he has lived in a hospital before - though, I'm guessing, it was probably a mental hospital for children.
A patient from the hospital - whom I remember from the last volume of the manga - a boy called Masao appears with a rather ominous entrance. He is watching something with avid fascination, and when called back by his caretaker, who asked what he was looking at, he answers dreamily, "The most beautiful thing in the world." ...The camera then closes up on a snake halfway through killing a frog. I think the actor - whoever he is - brings off the character of the tragic Masao very well. In his perfectly gentle demeanour is a trace of mad savagery. He is a character that calls up both fear and pity, and the ending is not kind to him.
It's certainly not a set-up that is revolutionary. There's the expected romance, the underlying angst, the people and broken relationships of the past that they must overcome. The acting *could* be better, but it's not distracting from the plot, which is a good start. I wonder if actors ever rewatch their earlier acting and squirm in embarrassment...
And Vic looks good only when he doesn't smile x__x
Anyway, I watched episode one of the Taiwanese live action production of this manga, which has Vic (Zhou YuMin) and Big S (don't ask ~~;) in it. These are the same two people who were in Meteor Garden - Hana Yori Dango - by the way, with Vic as Rui and S as Makino, and that was an acting achievement that made you squirm all the way through it.
Thankfully, both Vic and Big S are much better actors now ~~; At least Vic now has more than one expression in his repertoire...not that, as the original Rui, he needed more than one expression.
Mars starts off fascinatingly different from HYD, which was, in a shell, a repetitive light-hearted love story dragged too far beyond its finish. I mean, there's only so long that two people breaking up, coming back together, breaking up, coming back together can remain interesting to the readers.
Vic also goes out of type for this one...I think (not too up-to-date with his TV credits). He plays Chen Ling - manga equivalent Rei, an apparently uncouth, devil-may-care playboy...who spends half his screen time checking out the chicks at his uni. His best buddy, Tatsuya (Da Ye - played by...er, I can't read the last character...Xiu JieJie?), is the rather typical cool-headed, gentlemanly "foil" to Rei's character. Big S plays the impossibly shy girl, Kira (*waves fist* why does it have to be Kira???), whom, in Tatsuya's words, "is a strange girl who doesn't talk to anyone, but spends all her time drawing".
Rei has a special fascination with a drawing of hers which she had accidentally given to him when he asked for the way to a hospital. This brief meeting sparked Rei's interest in her, and he spends all his time trying to pick her up.
Within the rather fluffy romantic set up are interspersed moments of Dark Angst™. The reason behind Kira's phobia of men is because she had been raped before - by a boyfriend, perhaps? And somehow this draws the attention of her English teacher, who, because he knows she is too shy to defend herself, begins to sexually harass her.
Rei is hardly what he seems either. A moment in front of the mirror at a convenience store shows no reflection...and then one that smirks back at him. We find out that he has lived in a hospital before - though, I'm guessing, it was probably a mental hospital for children.
A patient from the hospital - whom I remember from the last volume of the manga - a boy called Masao appears with a rather ominous entrance. He is watching something with avid fascination, and when called back by his caretaker, who asked what he was looking at, he answers dreamily, "The most beautiful thing in the world." ...The camera then closes up on a snake halfway through killing a frog. I think the actor - whoever he is - brings off the character of the tragic Masao very well. In his perfectly gentle demeanour is a trace of mad savagery. He is a character that calls up both fear and pity, and the ending is not kind to him.
It's certainly not a set-up that is revolutionary. There's the expected romance, the underlying angst, the people and broken relationships of the past that they must overcome. The acting *could* be better, but it's not distracting from the plot, which is a good start. I wonder if actors ever rewatch their earlier acting and squirm in embarrassment...
And Vic looks good only when he doesn't smile x__x
