S.O.S.

I haven't been able to blog for a while ne? ^^;; So busy de-su! Gomen nasai to anyone who cares enough to drop by to read my blog... [bows in apology]

Anyhoo, lately P-chan really deserves to receive an award. I don't know if it's because I let her borrow Beautiful Days (yah... blame it on Beautiful Days! LOL) or maybe because I'm quite a "bad influence" to her (to Hya-chan too! ^o^v) or maybe P-chan is just plain "insane" (LOL), but recently she bought 2 sets of J-doramas and like, 30 Korean movies! I know it pretty much made her broke, but she seems very happy and well, honestly, so am I! LOLz ^^ Lucky P-chan, lucky me ne? LOL

Well, so far I've only seen the following movies: Bungee Jumping On Their Own, Addicted, Love Letter (J-movie), and My Wife Is A Gangster 1 and 2. Bungee Jumping and Addicted stars LEE BYUNG HUN de-su! ^o^ I didn't like his character in Bungee Jumping (please don't make me talk about it!! onegai!!! 0_o) but I LOVE MY LEE BYUNG HUN IN ADDICTED!! Grabeh, it was actually a dark and psychotic plot, but I like it a lot! And Lee Byung Hun was really good there. ^o^ Anyhoo, Love Letter was sweet, kinda like falling in love for the first time. My parents enjoyed My Wife is a Gangster, and it was quite good but it didn't seem to meet up to my expectations. I guess prolly cause I was expecting too much from it.

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"If you like strawberries and there is a strawberry on your cake, what would you eat first?"

Anyhoo, one of the J-doramas P-chan bought was Strawberry on the Shortcake aka S.O.S.. And I think it's the first J-dorama that I have ever watched from start to finish, and that I actually understood completely (because of the subs, LOL). And I must say that it made me feel a mix of emotions! First, I was quite culture-shocked because I didn't expect that the Japanese people are very open about issues like sex. x___X But anyway, that is not the main point of the dorama though. Story-wise, it was really something! The concepts and views presented were quite unique and just got me hooked. Even my sister, who hardly watches tv doramas, actually got so hooked that she even finished the series before me (I am a med student after all, I DO HAVE EXAMS!! :P).

The story is about Irie Manato (Takizawa Hideaki), who feels quite "unreal" about his life. Enter - from out of nowhere - Misawa Yui (Fukada Kyoko), an uber-genki girl who seems to have very unique views in life. Manato finds himself drawn to her, and then later finds out that Yui is the daughter of the woman that his father is going to remarry. Anyhoo, the plot is not as simple as that though, because other characters like Sawamura Haruka (Uchiyama Rina), Saeki Tetsuya (Kubokuza Yosuke) and even their sensei Asami Mariko (Ishida Yuriko) weaves into their lives to form this touching story about being true to yourself and pursuing for the love that you want. It is not mush, promise. It is not even kilig. It's more, um, "psychological".. very deep concepts on life and love that really got me thinking.

Like the title itself made me think very hard. "If you like strawberries and there is a strawberry on your cake, what would you eat first?" I think most people would choose to eat the cake first and then leave the strawberry last. Well, at least I think that's what I'll do. Save the best for last de-su! But the character of Yui-chan (and so did some of the classmates I asked ^^;;) didn't think so. Yui-chan said that she will eat the strawberry first, because she likes it best. She said this, somehow implying that if she falls in love with a person, she will put this person first and give her all to go after him. So if I chose to eat the cake first and not the strawberry, does that mean I wouldn't be determined enough to go after someone I love? That doesn't make sense though, since I'm pretty much a determined person who, most often, gets what I want. But still, I didn't feel very good from that point of view. I guess correlating strawberries with love does not apply to me. Hehehe ^o^

Another thing I like in the series was when Yui-chan and Sawamura were talking about love and Sawamura said something like she's too embarrassed to admit her feelings to the guy she loves (or something like that.. gomen, I forgot!). And Yui-chan said that if that's the case, then you don't really truly love that person. Because if you really truly love the person, then you wouldn't be afraid to open up. If you are afraid, then it means you love yourself more. Makes sense, ne?

And well, there are so many more nice concepts but I guess you have to watch it for yourself to understand what I'm talking about. And if you think a lot like me, then maybe you'd see a lot of yourself in this series, just like me. In particular, I was deeply moved to tears when Saeki-kun (he's my fave character ^o^) made his valedictory speech. It went like this:

We were born to love!

We were born to love.
We were not born to suffer.
The 20th century that has been created by irresponsible adults
is filled with conflict and deceit.
We were not born to suffer.

There are times when we will meet people who are heartless,
and we will feel like hitting them from behind.
But we were not born to hurt others.

There are times when we will meet people who are heartless,
and we will feel insecure, or stifled.
But we were not born to be hurt by others.

Sometimes, we create another person inside us.
Perhaps, that is just a way of escaping from pain and suffering.
Perhaps we are only preparing ourselves for escape.
Shutting ourselves in our home and running to another place,
in order to talk to that person, the friend inside us.
That is why no one is ever alone.
Everyone of us has a friend,
the other person inside us.

There are times when we think that friend is bad company,
that he is cowardly and cruel.
But in reality it is different.

The one that is cowardly and cruel is not our friend,
but ourselves.

Why?
Because in truth, the existence of that friend is created by us for our own sake.

That is why... we have to part with that wonderful friend.
If we don't do so, we will always be dependent on that other person inside us.

Well then, when will that happen?

It will happen when we meet the person we love.
When we give up loneliness, sorrow and pain,
and the person inside us for that person we love.

So! Let's go look for the one we love.
Someone we love whom we can talk to about anything,
to laugh with,
to cry with,
to hold each other with,
and to kiss with.
Someone from whom we can get courage from,
and to whom we can give courage in return.

The only reason we were born is to love!

Note: Actually, after the part that goes like, "to hold each other with, to kiss with", there should still be a line that says "and to have sex with". LOL But being the Christian that I am, I really don't feel like putting that in.

Anyway, that speech really moved me. Not that I am not true to myself. I try very much to live to the fullest and to be honest to others, and most especially to myself. Demo, somehow, I don't know. Sometimes, I still feel like I'm living a "superficial" kind of life. Sometimes, I don't feel very "real" about the things happening around me. Maybe that's why I can still put on this genki face in school even though I just flunked my exam. Maybe that's why I don't show so much grief when I fail my exams or when others hurt. Sometimes, I do feel that the life I'm living is like a facade. That it is really not who I should be. It's funny to think that way. But yes, I do think that way sometimes.

Could that mean... I need someone to love?

[pauses to think]

[puts that thought inside a piece of paper, crumples it, throws it to the ground and stomps on it 600x]

No. It means I'm paranoid and that I think too much. LOL

To close the topic on S.O.S., I just want to say that I highly recommend this J-dorama to anyone who want to experience a different side of love (to put it that way kinda makes me sound mushy. ^^;;). I tried to find pictures but after an hour of seeing strawberries, I gave up. I did find this SITE, and I like it cos it shows the nice ending clip. Anyhoo, a big bonus is that Fukada Kyoko is really kawaii and Takki-kun (yes, of Takki and Tsubasa) is a bishounen, although he's really not my type (Neffie loves him though! :p). The guy who played Saeki-kun is more like my type, although in general, I'm not attracted to "boylets". ^o^ I guess I like older, more mature looking guys. That explains the Lee Byung Hun craze. ^^;;;

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Anyway, just a little pahabol... today I feel really happy. No it's not because of the Neuro exam this morning. Don't remind me, cos I most prolly flunked it. [uber-sad] I feel very very happy... totemo totemo ureshii... because for the first time, I was able to participate in a blood-letting activity. ^o^ Call me crazy but I've always wanted to donate my blood. I think it's a great way to help society. But my mother does not allow me to, cos she's afraid I might faint. Ehek. Anyhoo, so I've never tried it before. But earlier, I really told my mother that I wanted to do it. And no, honestly, it was not because they said we might get extra credits for Obstetrics. I really don't care about that (promise). I just wanted to donate my blood. And so after begging my mom, she finally agreed, and so I did it. Kinda freaky, the needle was quite big and they had to get 450ml (1 bag). But afterwards, I felt really really happy! ^o^ They even gave out Jollibee burger meals. Hehehe I have decided that next time, I will do it again. I'm a Blood type O, by the way. And as I joked earlier, my blood is expensive... cos it's imported... chinese blood de-su! [grins sheepishly]

Oh.. oh.. I almost forgot. Earlier, there was a clerkship meeting for the 4th year and 3rd year. And after that brief meeting the class was in such chaos with all the people moving about. And I DON'T KNOW WHY, but my pseudo-crush (no, not sempai.. he's already in Manila).. but my 4th year pseudo-crush whom I never told anyone about (because he is so not my type but I still kinda like him anyway), he sort of smiled at me and then he TAPPED me on my shoulders and then he had this little confused look, cos I guess he probably didn't know why he did that. LOLz So kawaii. So ureshii.

So I just want to share that happiness. Because I am so happy, I can't contain it. It's just like what Yui-chan said,
"I think a person's feelings are like a contagious disease.
Feelings of joy and happiness can be spread around to other people."