Basketball, Volleyball, Tennis? Sports In Drama Serials

Basketball anyone? Get ready for a sharp spike in interest in basketball in early 2008 when a movie and two drama serials on basketball starring the hottest stars in Taiwan are released late this year to early next year. The movie Kungfu Dunk (灌篮) stars multi-talented Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou as a basketball player who uses kung fu to play basketball (a basketball version of Shaolin Soccer?) and is scheduled for general release during Chinese New Year. The movie also stars Hong Kong singer/actress Charlene Choi from the popular group Twins and up-and-coming Taiwanese actor Chen Bolin. The two idol drama series are just as star-studded, Basketball Fire (籃球火) has a dream team comprising of three hot hunks: Jerry Yan, Wu Zun and Show Luo and is set to start shooting in December; Bullfight (鬥牛。要不要) has Mike He, Li Wei and S.H.E's Hebe and will be shown in Taiwan this month.

Why the sudden interest in basketball? Actually I am not sure... but fads come and go in East Asian dramas and movies, and the latest fad could be sports-themed dramas. If you are as old as I am (uh-hm) you may remember that a long long time ago (late 70's), sports themed dramas were all the rage in Japanese drama serials, the most popular of these dramas was arguably a volleyball drama called Moero Attack! (燃えろアタック) which starred Araki Yumiko as a volleyball player who must have been a kungfu expert like Jay's character in Kungfu Dunk as she can execute the most fantastic spikes whilst somersaulting in mid-air. Ah, loved that show... Another popular drama was the tennis series Court ni Kakeru Seishun, about two sisters' road to tennis victory, it's shot in an over-the-top style somewhat similar to Moero Attack.

And for some nostalgia, here is the theme song of Moero Attack from YouTube. Great song huh, can't find such catchy theme songs anymore these days ;-)



Source: http://hutdugaikarsui.blogspot.com/2007/03/japanese-drama-blast-from-past.html
http://www.incinemas.com.sg/incinemas/news/news_comments.asp?newspostid=399
http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/071111/78/o161.html
http://www.settv.com.tw/metro/m114

Tags: Kung Fu Dunk, Jay Chou, Basketball Fire, Bullfight, Jerry Yan, Hebe, Moero Attack, 70s drama series, sports-themed dramas, Basketball, Court ni Kakeru Seishun, Volleyball, tennis.