expiration date 

this time, it’s MARS. a taiwanese tv drama played by those kids on Meteor Garden, adapted from one of my favorite shoujo manga with the same title: MARS, by Soryo Fuyumi (available in English!).

there were 21 VCDs. this past weekend, Noush, Fenny and i stayed in Noush’s room for two days — only went out of the room to break our fast, the sahur (morning meal before the fast) and to take care of Ditha when she got her tummy ache. Ditha wasn’t interested in watching. she doesn’t like Taiwanese drama…

the series is pretty much a copy of the manga. no change whatsoever in the storyline chronology. there is only slight modification here and there (for example, a few characters that show up at the end of the series made brief appearance earlier in the movie). as far as i remember, there is only 1 unimportant character missing.

that could be a good thing and a bad thing. you know, people tend to dissatisfied with movies that modifies the original story to fit the screen. but, in my opinion, the MARS story is a little dragging. maybe because it follows the manga exactly. i felt like i was reading the book outloud. Fenny and Noushka thought it was good, though. maybe it feels slow because i have read the manga… who knows.

oh, and i thought Barbie Hsu playing as Aso Kira wasn’t a good casting call. Barbie Hsu isn’t gentle enough to portray the fragile Kira. before i watch the series, i thought Vic Zhou was too cute and refined to play the character of Kashino Rei. it felt that way at the beginning of the series, but as the series went on, Vic Zhou makes the Rei character more and more believable. so, i have to change my mind regarding the Vic Zhou thing.

i have a feeling that they pair Barbie Hsu and Vic Zhou to make the SanChai + Lei — or Makino Tsukushi + Hanazawa Rui — fans happy (and buy the DVD).