Currently listening to: MFBTY and Leessang

K-pop has hit the ground running this year, with two huge releases in January. MFBTY (My Fans Better Than Yours) is a sort of sub-unit of the rap band Drunken Tiger, except not really but who cares when they sound this good?

With their last album, Unplugged, Leessang proved that they're more than variety show fodder and this new single continues to impress.

As for me, this evening I was walking home from the pub in the pouring rain and I had a whole main street pretty much to myself as I looped these two tracks on my mp3 player. I kept my head up, strode through the showers and puddles and generally felt like I was in a pop video.

Surely, that's what music is made for.

Currently watching: Saikou no Rikon

I really want to call this series "Recommended" just on the basis of two episodes but I guess that would be cheating.

It's beautiful. A beautiful piece of work. That's the first thing to say. It may be about a messy break up of a marriage, but it's already far more compelling than other dramas on the same subject.

The lead actor, Eita, just floors it as Hamasaki. Really. One thing I noticed about his work is the physicality of his acting. In Lucky Seven, he was lithe, athletic, easily moving through the scenes, hands in pockets, nonchalant. Here, he is uptight, elbows almost locked straight as he walks, skipping nervously across roads and slipping off the curbside.

Next to his impeccable performance is Ono Machiko. Her character, as the wife, is perfectly balanced between slobbish and feminine. Perhaps the most realistic portrayal of a woman I've seen on TV for a long time. By which I mean, she reminds me of my ex.

Alongside this married couple is another. Maki Yoko is a masseuse, whose slender body and warm husky voice are clearly meant as a contrast to the wife and therefore be a fantasy figure for Hamasaki. Especially since she has an unfaithful husband (played by Ayano Go, but no real clue to his character yet). However, this ideal is cruelly shattered at the end of episode two, leaving me with no idea about where the story is going to going next. Which is how I like it.

This drama is, so far, funny and heart-breaking and embarrassing and fascinating. Fascinating to see where the story goes, and to see if the writers and actors can keep up this standard.

Recommended: Osozaki no Himawari

You know, once the closing credits rolled on this drama, it occurred to me that Ikuta Toma is the closest thing Japan has to a romantic actor in the classic style of the Hollywood leading man, like Cary Grant or James Stewart. The type that can, with just a smile, make you forget all the mistakes of the past and think that everything is going to be fine.

Which is lucky, because with another actor this series may not have been as enjoyable. The basic story is that some guy from Tokyo helps reinvigorate a declining small town. If it weren't for Toma's air of "Women want to be with him, men want to be like him" I don't know if anyone else could have played this role.

The supporting cast, too, were great. Maki Yoko has been a joy to watch as the big-time Tokyo doctor sent back to her home town against her will. Kiritani Kenta put in a great performance as the optimist slowly worn down by the decline of the shopping centre.

The series doesn't finish with happy endings for everyone. Shops still close and love is still unrequited, but it's still a very upbeat story, full of hope for the future. As I said before, if you're new to Jdramas, this is a good place to start.

Not watching: Nobunaga no Chef

A chef from modern day Japan falls backwards in time to the 1500s. He loses his memory, and can't remember anything, except how to cook. And about the history he learnt at school. And other stuff too, whenever he needs to remember it.

In fact, his memory loss just seems like a convenient way for the writers to give the lead actor as few lines as possible. Tamamori Yuta does not impress in the lead role. I'm not surprised no one believes him when he says he came from the future, because he doesn't convince me either.

The drama starts badly by throwing us straight into the middle of a battle with no idea about who anyone is. Perhaps this is so the viewer is as confused as the our hero, but it means we have to sit through the fight scenes before we find out what's going on.

On the plus side, Shida Mirai is in it and she's got one of the more interesting characters to play. On the other hand, she's got some very clunky lines such as a speech about her dead family far too early in episode one. Also, she doesn't really do anything except add a few laughs and look adorable in armour.

As you'd expect from the whole timeslip business, it reminded me a lot of Jin, but instead of inventing penicillin, curing cholera and saving lives, our hero just makes really nice food. This simply isn't very dramatic.

Just finished: Poison

And so this semi-serious murder mystery comes to an end. Bad guys are punished and good guys walk away victorious. It was an entertaining piece of drama that went from light and humorous to being quite dark in places.

This was one of those shows where you sort of wanted the bad guys to win. Most of the best bits concerned Ayabe Yuji who played the part of Matsui, the villain who brought havoc to all he met, while he watched with an unconcerned air of detachment.

Sano Shiro was great as the ultimate mastermind behind the crimes, especially since he only had two episodes to build up such an important character.

Compared to them, the actors playing the police weren't as interesting. I think Sasamoto made the same speech about her father four times during the series. But the cynical cop Chiba at least offered some light relief.

By the way, the psychological experiment mentioned about students given roles of prisoners and guards really did happen.

Currently watching: Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou

So this is my newest subbing project, chosen simply on the basis that I like second hand bookshops.

This series is one of a type that I haven't seen in Britain. It's a kind of murder mystery without the murder. In this show, clues left behind in a second hand book are put together to tell a story about the owner of the book. It's similar to shows like Voice and Shinzanmono. These dramas are more about uncovering hidden family secrets than whodunnit (although Shinzanmono did, in the end, focus on a murder).

The opening episode is neatly structured and cleverly done, apart from a terribly contrived chance meeting at a coffee shop. The directing is good, even if it does try far too hard to make Gouriki Ayame look angelic. And there's nothing bad about the acting so far. Nothing too great either, though. I got the feeling that the characters, for this episode at least, were just there to move the very clever storyline along.

We shall see how the characters develop. At the moment, it's hard to tell, but that could just be because it's early in the series. But so far, it looks like this may be a neat little mystery series. It's adapted (from the novel of the same name) by Aizawa Tomoko, who adapted Kagi no Kakatta Heya for TV, so let's hope it continues at the same level.

Recommended: The Thieves

This film from 2012, the second biggest grossing film in Korea, is a classic heist movie with a martial arts sensibility. In fact, the last eight words of that sentence are all you need to judge how good this film is.

In this film, two teams of thieves – one Korean and one Chinese – join together to steal a priceless diamond. But there's a double crosser on the team, so the team has to regroup to regain the diamond that they already stole, while the people they stole it from are after it too.

It's all about the glamour of high society crime. Some people have compared it to Ocean's Eleven but that's a very lazy comparison (and not very accurate). This kind of tale has been told at least since Raffles in the 1890s. And just like the Gentleman Thief, in The Thieves our heroes are never short of a smart reply or a cunning plan. However, this film is realistic in that the plans don't always work, and not everyone makes it to the end in one piece.

The heists are clever and a little comical and there are some excellent set pieces, most notably the chase scene with people abseiling down the side of a building. In fact, the second half of the film is one action scene after another.

Meanwhile, the film has a distinct international flavour with Korean and Chinese dialogue being joined by Japanese and English. Add to this the compelling performances from the whole cast, and there's very little to complain about.

Bottom line is: this is the first film in a long time that I wanted to watch again immediately after it'd finished. That alone tells you something.