tabuno

This comedy romance deviates from most vampire horror movies and shines in the way a relevant PG Disney movie might. What's truly entertaining about this movie is its ultimate message about fantasy and relationships among us mere ordinary mortals. The Vampire Next Door contains decent enough pacing, acting, and a strong plot outline that strays from the typical movie tropes. The movie offers both the typical predictable rather by now lame scenes but eventually shifts away from the traditional and ordinary vampire movies and becomes a refreshing romantic comedy for the average teenager. Unlike the original classic Fright Night (1985), The Vampire Next Door presents a somewhat less serious setting and a more meaningful relationship between a boy and women of various sorts. Let's just say this movie is definitely not a great movie, but its sincerity and effort to be valuably different from the other vampire movies makes this film worth watching for those who ever felt the pangs of adolescent love.

This 10-episode Japanese television series offers one of the best medical dramas with its simplicity and depth of episodic storylines. A stuck-up pediatrician is forced to work at an elementary school because of poor decisions. Each episode captivates, entertains, and educates in the way the old televised medical drama Emergency (1972-79) accomplished and revealed realistic everyday emergency incidents with its use of the innovative paramedics at the time. The pediatrician's transformation and his treatment of each student is enlightening for its depth of probing the totality of the issues behind each student's crises. From bullying to coping with death, this series does not shy away from the real trauma that young people face every day in schools around the globe. With Japanese compassion and a community-oriented mind-set, this series offers up the belief in the best of people with the best of intentions struggling in a difficult world. The Japanese preference against hugging however is notable for Western audiences and the homogenous appearance of characters from Japan can be confusing when trying to keep track of characters between scenes. Nevertheless the use of flashbacks and various camera techniques as well as the use of eavesdropping are superbly handled. Everything considered, this series is near perfect for its emotional resonance and valuable relevance in today's seemingly chaotic world. A must watch for those seeking solace from the medical and crime action violence of television series that have taken over television programming.

One of the few media productions that goes from terrible to excellent by its end. This English-dubbed, 10 episode Korean comedy romance involves a new female lawyer with street smarts martial arts who ends up at an all-male law firm representing celebrities. She is assigned a prestigious older actress and she herself seeks to represent a supposedly popular aloof, chauvinistic actor who she wants to embarrass. What is quite surprising is how terrible most of the first two episodes are with overly dramatic humor and drunken characters as well as stereotypical acting that just don't seem believable. By the third episode, perhaps with a new director or script writer, the series becomes an appealing connected storyline that includes mystery, behind the scenes of movie production, stunt acting, legal machinations, and good relational drama and character development. There are a few problems with translation and unsettling cultural nuances especially around the excessive after work liquor culture. What eventually shines in Love To Hate You is the eventual sophistication and depth of character interactions that propel the dialogue and acting to creating intriguing extended scenes that most America films edit out for pacing purposes or dumbing down now found in contemporary American television. By the end, this television series lifts itself up above the bar set by the American industry standards.