Watch This

I loved watching this drama. I can't exactly pinpoint how much I loved it, nor can I find any fault with it that is worth mentioning.

This is the only drama I've seen that had me shedding tears and laughing out load. My heart pulsed when the characters were feeling extreme emotions, and it flew when they were having a good time.

The line-up for this drama is great. Yusuke Santamaria was HILARIOUS. Although he was clearly outshone by the ladies in the drama (considering he was the main character), it seemed almost intentional. After all, giving his character too much of the lime-light would have ruined his appeal. This was my first drama with Iijima Naoko and she has left me completely stunned. Not only is she incredibly beautiful (if only I had hair like hers!) but she was great in both the comedic moments AND the dramatic. Her feelings towards her son and his well-being were very convincing and it was easy to forget that she was just acting. Kimura Yoshino played my favourite character. She was perfectly cast as the classy, mature, seemingly-perfect, yet soft and vulnerable Misaki. She had brilliant chemistry with Abe Hiroshi, with whom I'm madly in love and therefore words are not enough to express how much I enjoyed his performance. I did not enjoy Tsumabuki Satoshi's character, which means his acting was superb (how can anyone not enjoy his yumminess?).

The storyline and plot for this drama were both solid. The relationships between varying characters were subtle and handled with care. Each major character got equal exposure and were brilliantly developed.

The only negative aspect of this drama was that it was too short. :(

Lire davantage

A nearly perfect movie

Wow. I found this to be a nearly perfect movie. It completely bowled me over.

A strong movie not for the faint of heart. Each segment will draw you in deeper. Powerful stuff. Hard to watch at times. Each segment is very short yet manages to get a lot done. This one is a roller coaster and I am surprised more people don't talk about this movie. The one word that best fits this is "BRUTAL". This movie shows you don't have to load up on guts and gore to put a viewer through the wringer.

It’s an anthology movie of five stories, based on the excellent dark fantasy collection ZOO by the Japanese author Otsuichi. I didn’t realize it as I was reading the stories, but they were perfect for adaptation to the screen. All the episodes are excellent. A lot of this is not easy to watch. Not because it’s gory, but because it’s emotionally wrenching. If you’re not wrung out by the end of this sucker, you kind of scare me. And that’s hard to do.

The "SO Far" title looks suspicious because it's meant to mean "significant other far (apart)." I think it's best to view this tale as a metaphor for divorce and how it impacts the child and puts them in weird, awkward situations where they must choose between the parents. In this regard, this segment is brilliant and felt realistic to me. It can be needlessly confusing with many ways to interpret things, but that adds more to think about. And that milf...
Beautifully filmed by five different directors, the author’s strong storytelling ability holds the whole thing together. If you like Japanese fantastic cinema, don’t miss this.

Lire davantage

A beautiful movie

Now, I have seen a lot of movies in my day, but out of every single one there have been a very select few that have been really good to me. And I'm a 19 year old man which is impressed by this movie directed towards a younger audience. This is a very underrated gem for those who watch foreign movies. Almost all the acting is believable, the graphics are decent (for which you won't even be caring about as you watch the movie. Trust me, bitching about the graphics would be a stupid thing to do), the story is well written and it's a movie that everyone can enjoy not just the kids.

Here's basically what this movie made me to. It one, made me laugh...a lot, two, made me feel for the characters like you're suppose to, and three, it's a very uplifting story. By the end of this movie you will feel good. Sure, what anime out there hasn't featured some young kid turning into a great warrior and whatever to defeat some great evil. It's a formula that is used a lot. But, in this case it is forgivable because even though they use puppets for some characters and some average graphics you'd see 5 years ago, the appearance of it is not to be judged. It's very touching, the ending is original, and it keeps you into the movie like it is suppose to. If you however try comparing this to other movies like "The Never-ending Story" or whatever it will diverse your opinion. Watch it as it is and you will enjoy it.

It has been a good long while since I've been impressed like this. The only other movie where I have gotten this feeling is when I saw TMNT way back when it came out. There is something about this movie I felt about TMNT that really made me love it. So don't over-analyze or take this movie too seriously, just enjoy it.

Lire davantage

A small regional jet lands at a report airport in Southern Japan, possibly on an island. The stewardesses bow as the guests disembark and walk across the ramp to the terminal. Gradually, the stewardesses notice that one guest has wandered slightly off course and is kneeling on the tarmac. When they approach him to see what is wrong, he points out a child's shoe embedded in the concrete.

So begins a very warm and quirky fantasy movie. The rest of the movie is a flashback to before the airport was built. The very quirky local villagers are resisting the airport construction. A new construction executive arrives with his young son - who is sent to the local one room school. There are many funny and eccentric characters. Some of the sequences are lightly surreal. The main characters are children, but a wide spread of age ranges are portrayed as part of the community.

I saw this in Japan in a movie theater (no subtitles) Not sure if or when it will be released on DVD, much less released outside of Japan. One interesting aside -> for non-Japanese who are studying: for some odd reason, I felt that the clarity and articulation of the dialog in this movie was exceptionally good. Much better than anything you see on Japanese television.

However, like almost everything Japanese, there are bawdy hints around the edges. For the Japanese, these are a normal part of life. Some conservative viewers might be slightly uncomfortable as to why certain of the women in the movie keep lifting their skirts and flapping their white underwear at passers by.

It was a very pleasant evening at the movies for me...

Lire davantage

This movie will take you back in time to the 1970s.

This movie will take you back in time to the 1970s. It's incredibly interesting and inspiring.
I loved the laid-back atmosphere and the suspicious villain-like good man. I thought after seeing this work. It's a martial arts-themed movie, but inside it is a human drama. when I saw the movie I was super impressed.
Even the original author, Ramo Nakajima, cried. I watched it without expecting it, but it was better than I expected.
The story goes on based on the interaction between Ushinosuke Shimoda and his son Kazuo, an elementary school student. The background of the era is that era when Gundam (First) began. As the story progressed, I was drawn into the content, and at the end I was moved to tears. When I saw the scene where the main character of this movie, an elementary school boy, was interacting with friends in the school, I myself slipped back in time when I was in elementary school.

Lire davantage

Highly recommended

This is a series that started in 1999 and has been popular for the past 12 years.

Mariko Sakaki (Yasuko Sawaguchi) is a forensics expert working for SRI (Scientific Research Institute) section of Kyoto City Police Department. Her motto is "Science don't lie" and works to solve the case using latest scientific method and technology. She has a PhD from Toa University and was trained at FBI's forensics division. She's brilliant at work, but is a relative slacker at almost everything else in her life. She works with her team to solve difficult cases (Usually involving murder) that occurs within the Kyoto city limits.

While the premise of the show sound's like the Japanese version of CSI, in actuality, the start date of this series precedes that of Hollywood's version. Since the series have been running for a long time, there are many supporting casts that came and went, each adding their unique talent to the story.

The true charm of this series is in the extraordinary talent of Yasuko Sawaguchi. She never misses a beat in any situation and holds the scene together. She fits the role as the cool and intelligent forensics science expert perfectly.

This series appears periodically in Japanese broadcasting networks around the world with subtitles. Highly recommended if your local station is showing the rerun of this series.

Lire davantage

Horibe Yasubee, who likes packed lunches, is too cute.

The cast and story were very good. It's a pity that we can't see it anymore for a limited time.
I like this.
Horibe Yasubee, who likes packed lunches, is too cute.
I personally feel that Minami Omori plays the role of Yasubei.
Is it more like a commercial than a movie? You can watch it on the web.
From the wonderful opening animation to the ending with Kazuyoshi Saito's song, it takes about 30 minutes to enjoy the heartwarming.
It's a net movie as a corporate advertisement,
but it's made very well , and it's quite interesting
Who is Yasubee Horibe in the first place? I think that time slip will be added to that, but I do not have adaptability (laugh)
I think that it is a work that laughs, a little touching and tears, and laughs again, and concludes refreshingly

Lire davantage

This "Tokyo Tower" is so wonderful that words fail me.

Every time I saw this novel in a bookstore, I was curious.
However, missing the timing to buy it, the broadcast of this drama was decided, and I heard that the lead role was Yo Oizumi, so I stopped buying it because I wanted to see it without prejudice to the original.

That was the correct answer.
Yo Oizumi, Yuko Tanaka, Keizo Kanie, Ryoko Hirosue, everyone was wonderful.
I myself lost someone... I regained my feelings at that time... I kept crying in the second half. That's how much the work is finished to embrace emotions.

I've been a fan of Yo Oizumi for a long time, and I had high expectations for this topical work ... and it exceeded my expectations. A work that cannot be put into words well.
I, Okan, Oton ... A wonderful performance of the actors who convey their feelings.
Since this is the original work called "Tokyo Tower", I haven't watched any serial drama or movie. I have no intention of watching them. This "Tokyo Tower" is so wonderful that I can't express it.

I sincerely hope that you will see this and recognize Yo Oizumi's acting ability.

Lire davantage

Multiple award winning for a reason.

About her past, it’s nothing solicited or dangerous, or even scandalous, but kind of sad and heart-wrenching, and a little realistic in a way as well, but well that’s what I think. Once he learns of her past, he kind of understands, but is frustrated still by all of what has led up to it all and just wants to be done with the piano. Then later on when he finds out one more thing, then he gets this realization about it all, and wants to do the piano again, but for another reason.

This is the 2nd time where sign language plays a major part in the whole thing, just like Hear Me, a Taiwanese movie, that I have watched. But this time, you just hear the son speak while he does the signing. But I wonder if the characters who had to do the signing still know it, or just had to memorize it all for the special.

One thing I dislike is that it was a drama special, but I don’t get what that is suppose to mean, because there were no previous clips for it, or afterward, and they should of just called it a movie. What I like about this was that it didn’t drag and just built up from the beginning and climaxed at the part where it needed it, and finished the whole thing up with a simple, fresh, relax kind of feeling at the end. Like a new beginning. Which I think is where “Heart Strings” were suppose to be, like that invisible thread that connects one person to another, but through our hearts and feelings and other things connected with that particular string, and it doesn’t go away, but a new one can be created to start it off on another path.

If you want some slice of life, as well, as learning to appreciate what you have, as well as just wanting something to do, but it might make you cry, then this is what you need to watch.

Lire davantage

Do yourself a favor and watch this for the ending alone.

I remember when I first came across this movie. One day I came back to my dorm and there was my roommate watching this. Big Man Japan. I remember thinking: “what a catchy title.” Then the strangling monster proceeded to eject a giant spear then drip white pods into the cement. I asked him to shut it off shortly after.

Now here I am two films into the hoops and spoops. Of course I had to tackle this thing and you know what it’s glorious. The everyday man who leads us through the film is great. The comedy stems from not only the ridiculous cgi but also the mundane life of our hero. The music here, when I noticed it was also superb.

Also the ending scene makes everything in life worth it. Do yourself a favor and watch this for the ending alone.

Lire davantage

Witty

Install takes... shall we say... a unique look at a girl's budding sexuality. Based on Risa Wataya’s 2001 coming of age novel "Install" the film follows the life of Asako (Aya Ueto), a girl who's not only trying to cement her own personal identity, but who is also dealing with some tragic loses at school. In order to find her way Asako begins to play hooky and eventually crosses paths with her 10-year-old neighbour Aoki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) who takes a broken home PC off Asako's hands for a very unorthodox reason. It runs out that Aoki has taken over an online sex chat room for a internet friend who has just had a baby, but he needs a second pair of hands to make sure the site runs smoothly. He turns to Asako who very quickly comes face to face with her burgeoning sexuality while chatting with toal strangers online. See what I mean about "Install" never getting a North American release? Yes, the film is a minefield of ethical and moral issues, but it never takes the path that one would think it would. There's no predatory pedophiles, no abuse and no cautionary finger-wagging. It sounds hard to believe but "Install" is a smart and often very funny look at one young woman's transition from the girlhood to the complexity, grief and possibilities of adulthood.

Lire davantage