Not sure whether this's been mentioned yet...if yes, my bad.
But since people were talking about DN and Princess Princess liveaction, I thought I'd mention a live action drama based on HanaKimi. BUT, it's Taiwanese. And in Chinese. It's most certainly not perfect. But it's amusing.
Wikipedia says..
Hana-Kimi centers on Mizuki Ashiya, a Japanese girl who lives in the United States. One day, she sees a track and field competition on TV, and becomes attracted to one of the competitors, Izumi Sano, competing in the high jump. She begins to idolize the young athlete and eventually transfers to Japan to attend the same school that Sano attends. There is a catch, however-- Sano attends an all-boys high school, named Osaka Gakuen, and Mizuki must disguise herself as a boy to enter.
A new Taiwanese Drama based off HanaKimi is currently airing, titled 'Hanasama Shōnen Shōjo' or 'Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu' ('花樣少年少女'). Also, a series of drama CDs has been released in Japanese.
I thought hua1yang4 in Chinese meant something completely different, even though that does correspond to kanji - more like..tricksy. Flamboyant?
Anyway, I've watched up to episode two of this, on youtube. A
group has been working at subbing it in English, but only previews (first and most recent episode) are available on their youtube site. You can find the others if you understand Chinese, though.
[Casting Spoilers]
In terms of casting, I'll have to say the most perfectly-casted role must be that of Yuujirou's. I squeal (ahem) whenever he comes on screen, he's so big and fluffy and golden retriever! (I love retrievers.) Aside from that - none of the guys were as good-looking as their manga counterparts, naturally. However, Nakatsu is as funny and dramatic as I'd expected. Sano is a bit..strange. Lacks a certain je ne sais quois. A friend seriously disliked him, but I'm ambivalent towards him. Considering I think he's very hot in the manga, I suppose this is a bad thing.
Ella of SHE takes on the role of Mizuki. Being a bit boyish already, she takes on the role pretty well. But not in the way I'd imagined.
The Mizuki I had in mind was cuter and no doubt more girly. But
Ella in her role (Left, with actors portraying Nakatsu and Sano. Not a very good photo, though.) reminds me seriously of
Amanda Bynes in She's the Man. It's not that they look alike, even though I suppose their characters -are- girls posing as guys. I think it's more that Bynes has a very expressive face, which I never knew Ella also possessed. A friend mentioned to me that the point she'd always felt was most far-fetched in this story was the girl-posing-as-guy thing -- and Ella does pull it off.
Other side characters - Nanba-senpai looks a bit like Pan Lingling (Singaporean actress, or it might be my imagination.) -- he does not appear often enough, but the first time we saw him in ep one was very amusing.
The guy tagging after Nanba-senpai (I forget his name - the "belle" of the school) is too effeminate. I mean..I think I saw lipstick or lip gloss on him. I was horribly traumatised by Umeda-sensei at first (Ume-chan! T-T) because I'd really liked the character, and was hoping for one hot dude. Alas, he was more scary than charming. Even though a scene in ep one or two [can't remember which] did get me snickering. ("I'll comfort you with my body..."
) And his hair is nice, but didn't Ume-chan have short hair? And glasses? -mutters-
[/Casting Spoilers]
But the good thing is this one is, in my opinion, actually pretty watchable, but probably just something I'd only watch on youtube for stress relief, and not actually seek out the DVDs for. It's really quite funny at times.
