Suzuki sensei eps 8-10

I tried watching Ep 7 of Suzuki sensei without subs but couldn't understand the discussion so I waited for the subs. I've been checking Chuk's blog everyday waiting for ep 8 subs and then decided to give it a go. Turns out the the files for the last three episodes had built in Japanese subs and that really helped me in understanding the dialogue. It also helps that there wasn't any complicated discussion in ep 8 and 9 and both episodes were story based episodes setting up the major 'trial'/discussion in ep 10.

My Japanese is pretty basic and I rely on catching verbs and nouns to understand what is being said. Having kanji on screen helps me catch some words when they are speaking fast and I had my kanji dictionary on hand to quickly search as I was atching. I never got 100% understanding of ep 8 and 9 but I think I got the jist of it. Ep 10 was a lot harder to understand but Suzuki sensei already voiced his stance on hinin (避妊)earlier so that healped a bit. If I had actually watched it with subs, I wouldn't have caught that word.

Episodes 8 and 9 basically sets up this huge discussion at ep 10 but the real star is Taruko sensei (Tomita Yasuko). She is such a fun villain to watch because she not a 2D cutout character. Yes she is scary and vindictive but also a person with wants, desires and dashed dreams as seen in ep 8. She is a source of comedy relief but at the same time I did feel for her, a bit and can see why she felt threatened. IMO, Tomita Yasuko deserves much credit for making her character work.

As mentioned, episode 10 is one huge discussion and frankly, its too big, unweildy and goes all over the place. Also, Suzuki sensei is reduced to mere spectator until the end. Clearly, ep 7 is the highpoint of the series yet I can't really fault the structure of ep 10 because it does bring a lot of issues throughout the series together and allows the rest of the class to show their acting skills or lack thereof.

I love the jealous look Kawabe gives when she sees Ogawa and Takechi sharing a moment.

I was kind of disappointed with Tantan's acting. She's the catalyst character for the trial. Her hysterical crying just looks forced and is no match for Kawabe's (Ono Karin). She is the only disappointed young actor with a significant role in this series and that's a remarkable thing cause everyone else has been spectacular. The young actors have more acting ability than most jdoramas.

While Suzuki sensei does not finish with a bang, I think its still a decent ending because it makes sense and I can't really think of better. We get more hints that Asami and Ogawa can read Suzuki's mind but its never stated clearly. Perhaps some things should be left unexplained though I would still like to know whether it was Suzuki fantasizing about Ogawa by himself or Ogawa projecting herself into Suzuki's fantasies. Oh well, gotta leave something for the movie. :)

So don't expect the ending to be brilliant but by the same token its still good. Its just that the quality of the series is of such high quality that the slight drop from fucking brilliant to good of is felt. Kudos to all those involved in making this dorama and Chuks for subbing it. Now I have to meditate on whether Suzuki sensei or Soredemo Ikite Yuku is the best dorama of 2011. Shame it only averaged a 2% rating.

Anime review: Clannad & Clannad After Story

I remember watching this anime a lifetime ago called Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. It wasn't a Dragonball shounen manga wannabe or a trying to be cute Fruits Basket shoujo anime. The storyline was soapish with memory loss as its set up but the execution was interesting and more towards reality than fantasy. It was basically anime style jdorama story and to my surprise it was actually based on an eroge!

Over the years, I have always heard about how good Clannad was. How the story was awesome and that it was a famous eroge without and ero in it which makes it uuh an adventure game. Finally decided to give it a go and Clannad feels like watching someone playing an eroge with the happy endings for all the characters. Its basically a harem anime with our main generic character Tomoya befriending all the girls who of course are variations of your harem anime cliched characters.

All the female characters look exactly the same with different hair colour and length. The main girl, Nagisa is the ultimate girl next door. Innocent, dojikko (clumsy), weak, kind, honest blah blah blah. The kind of idealist female that only exists in 2D. So I just skimmed past Clannad and decided, what the hell, I'll try out After Story which is part 2.

SPOILER ALERT! HIGHLIGHT TO READ!

Luckily, After Story is no longer a a harem anime and goes into the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa. Lots of realistic elements like Tomoya's dad being an abusive drunk who gets caught for selling drugs and that causes him to lose a promotion or Tomoya struggling with his work. Great stuff. 

Then Nagisa gets pregnant in dies during childbirth which gave me more of an ehhhhh response instead of WTF because I wasn't sure she was died. My first thought was that she was just too tired and fell asleep. It was not as if the midwife told Tomoya Nagisa was dying or he was checking his breathing to make sure. Clannad could not have received so much praise for this boring death scene?

Story moves five years ahead and the child Ushio is being raised by Nagisa's parents who have access to the fountain of youth. Tomoya is a wreck and the story is about him connecting with his daughter and the best part of the series is Tomoya realising that he is going through what his father went through and is doing a worse job at it.

Finally, the writers decide to kill Ushio. WTF. I didn't care about Nagisa dying since she was an impossibly perfect anime character but not Ushio!!!!! This is uber tragedy anime. Is this like the Eva ending of all eroges? Just to mindfuck the audience? Magically we get out story reset and an explanation of the mysterious vignettes we see at the start of every episode.

END SPOILERS

I've watched 46 episodes of this anime and I still can't tell you which characters are which cause they all look the same.

I think as a game, the story works. You have good endings and you have bad endings. Its supposed to encourage the player to replay the game. As an anime, Clannad was a bloody chore to watch cause every single girl's story arc was shown. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien went the main story arc and had me wanting to play to game to try other story arcs.

However, the game probably does allow the player to see every character's story. For a game, that's fine for pacing but not for anime. I would assume the ending works in the game because it is something to be achieved rather than being a cop out in the anime. Kind of wish I had one of those MIB memory stuff to forget the anime and play the game.

Bunshin ep 4 and how good is Nagasawa Masami?

Finally! The first episode was intriguing. Second episode was about Futaba who I didn't give a crap about cause I just wanted to see where the story was going and it was more about Nagasawa Masami trying to show she can act as two different characters. The third episode just reinforces what the audience already knows and finally episode 4 has some high tension scenes and the great revelation that had my jaw dropping.

Antspace made a very interesting comment; ' I think Nagasawa Masami does better at light comedy roles. She seems to be unable to act unhappy : ) (like in Last Friends or this one)'.

Clearly this is true. Could someone like Mitsushima Hikari have done a better job and made the two characters interesting? Is the fact that episodes 2 to 3 very slow due to the writing or Masami not being up to task to play a troubled young woman who was never loved by her mother?

I have always considered Masami to be a good actress. Sekachu. Touch. Dragon Zakura. Nada Sou Sou. Sono toki wa kare ni yoroshiku. Gold. Probably my favourite Masami performance was from Nada Sou Sou where she played the cute sister from the inaka. Yet, has there been any movie or dorama where I thought Masami really nailed it? She can do the girl next door and act cute but there hasn't really been a show where I thought she really carried it or made it a lot better than it should have been.

It doesn't mean that Masami can't act. One can never confuse her acting with some overpushed 'actress' like Horikita Maki or someone who can only act baka kawaii like Fukada Kyoko. Actually I just looked at my review of Last Friends ep 1-5 and I had written;

'I think she's good but my gripe is that she's not been in a really good dorama/movie or showed that she can carry one. The best thing I've seen her in is Nada Sou Sou and that movie was carried by Satoshi Tsumabuki who should have been in Proposal Daisakusen. My point is, she hasn't shown that she can elevate mediocre shows into good shows like Hirosue Ryoko or Matsushima Nanako.'

I had forgotten all about that show cause I couldn't stand it and somehow did not remember how disappointed I was with her acting in Last Friends.  I think looking at her body of work, she's not that good of a dramatic actress. Her acting just lacks the weight to pull the audience deep into her character's emotional maelstrom. She's done her share of serious stuff but a lot of it is sad love story where she doesn't need to stretch her acting skills.

Actually the one actress I would have preferred to see tackle Bushin would be Fukuda Saki. Its been too long since she impressed me in LIFE and Daisuki!! and she was good in IS but she's mostly been doing fluff doramas.

Jmovie review: The Last Ronin / Saigo no Chuushingura

The Last Ronin is about the aftermath of the 47 Ronin incident. I've not seen a movie about the 47 Ronin but its such a famous story that I've heard of it. Basically, 47 ronin took revenge for their lord who was forced to seppuku and in turn the 47 did seppuku after the succeeded in their revenge. Its one of those tales that romanticise the whole live and die for your lord and honour thing.

The Last Ronin is not another Twilight Samurai clone nor is it another 100 minions running at our protagonist with katanas in the air so that he can chop them up. Not only is it a continuation of the 47 ronin story but it also subscribes to the same themes. One's enjoyment of The Last Ronin will depend on how much you can buy into these romanticised samurai ideals.

For me, the main enjoyment is that this is another variation of the 'Hikaru Genji Kaikaku'. The Hikaru Genji Plan which I learned from watching City Hunter is from Tales of Genji, which if I'm not mistaken is from Japan's first and most famous novel. Basically this dude, Hikaru Genji kidnaps this kidnaps this girl and raises her with the sole purpose of marrying her when she comes of age. The intentions are a lot more pure in The Last Ronin but you get my drift.

In The Last Ronin, this girl Kane is played by Sakuraba Nanami. (Kane as in Japanese for money no the Undertaker's brother) Sato Koichi plays Kichiemon who is the sole survivor of the 47 and Yakusho Koji plays Magozaemon, a samurai who abandoned his post the night before the 47's attack and who is Kane's guardian. Mixed in the story is a former oiran, merchants and lots of talk about duty and what a warrior must say and do but during most of the movie, there was only one thing in my mind: Sakuraba Nanani is so utsukushii!

Beautiful is too rough a word for Kane. Sakuraba Nanami's performance makes her the yamato nadeshiko of all yamato nadeshikos. Grace, beauty, purity, class and some moe scenes. :) I was just transfixed. Yes, I admit it. I am a goddamn shallow jmovie watcher. The screencaps don't do her justice. It felt like its been ages since I last saw her in Futatsu no Spica and she showed so much promise and then I looked up her wiki and realised she was in that 99s days crap dorama which I had banished from my memory. She definitely has mastered the Hirosue Ryoko art of gazing longingly at something in a distance.

The acting is great and Yakusho Koji is one of my favourite actors but its hard to give The Last Ronin a must watch without being able to view the movie objectively. After watching I just couldn't decide whether it was a must watch cause I kept seeing Sakuraba Nanami's face. By the gods, I love typing her name.

Classic Hirosue Ryoko sad look. Someone cast here in Summer Snow remake!

On an unrelated note, Jadefrost wrote a nice preview of the Gaiji Keisatsu movie which you can find here. Does it happen before the dorama series?

Jdorama ramblings 12/3/12

Someone suggested I change the blog to white. Which do you prefer? White is too white for me and yellow is not white if that makes sense. Lots of blogs and web pages are white but the formatting of the template makes it seem like there's too much space. I'll see how I feel in a couple of days. Probably due to using the same template for 5 years.

6-jikan Ato ni Kimi wa Shinu

Eiji from KDO walks up to Maki Yoko one day and tells her that she has only six hours to live. Pretty fun to watch story with the drawbacks being the usual ones for prediction stories. If the prediction was that you would die in a dark area somewhere, why not go to a brightly lit karaoke room and sing for six hours instead of looking for your potential killer?

Great cast and they made it work with limited budget. Not must watch but its more than watchable. With this and Lupin, I'm really enjoying the Wowow dorama specials. Need more Maki Yoko. She certainly has potential.

Shaken Baby!

Some story about some uni students trying to do Shakespeare plays which is just an excuse to put a lot of young actors in a dorama special cobbled together with not that funny gags. Shaken Baby! lost me in the beginning when this dude with Mick Jagger lips, make up and half a can of gel in his hair is trying to convince the audience that he is a normal/futsu guy. Avoid.

Kyogu

Very watchable TV Asahi special about two women who grew up as orphans and have always been best friends. Matsuyuki Yasuko plays the wife of a politician and Ryo is the best friend who works as a journalist. One day Yasuko's son is kidnapped and she receives a ransom note demanding that she reveal the truth. Pretty fun show about friendship though the ending was not as impactful as it needed to be.

Seinaru Kaibutsutachi ep 6

Nakatani Miki kept me watching but everything else in this dorama doesn't work for me. The main problem is the audience knows the truth since the beginning. Its mostly about this boring main character uncovering what the audience already knows and acting all shocked and angry at every discovery.

Bunshin eps 2-3

Huge drop off. I don't really care about the personal life of the other Masami character. Ep 3 finally gets into what we want to know but its just about the obvious stuff that the audience would have guessed. Hopefully episode 4 gives us what we want, Masami talking to Masami and why all the secrecy and deaths.

Ai wo kudasai eps 1+2

Kanno Miho plays Ririka sensei, a nursery school teacher who grew up in an abusive orphanage and loves singing in the street except she can only sing one song. Ririka has issues about growing up an orphan who never felt love and tried to kill herself but was saved by Eguchi Yusuke who becomes her pen pal. Ririka's colleagues constantly remind her that she grew up an orphan and somehow that makes her unsuitable to take care of children.

Sigh, not Jinnai Takanori and his overacting eyeballs.

Basically Ririka is your poor orphan who was abused in the past and is still being abused by society and is still looking for love. Except that she tries to find love through sleeping with the fathers of her students. Her reasoning is that she wants to latch onto the happiness of those who have a happy family. 

THE GOOD

Kanno Miho's acting.

THE BAD

How every single thought and reason has to be spelled out to the audience in clumsy exposition dialogue. Its like the writer has great ideas but is so scared the audience will miss out any of the ideas if it were to be implied and so decided to talk down to the audience.

The whole orphans vs society theme that this dorama seems to be pushing is so forced.

THE UGLY

Whoever this guy is who plays Ririka's friend from orphanage. His bad guy wannabe acting is truly one of the worst I have ever seen. He makes Jinnai Takanori look like an award winning actor. That must mean he's a singer and most likely a johnny.

Ai wo kudasai is a very contrived dorama that is being held up by the usual Kanno Miho acting. I going to give it a few more episodes to see where it goes. If Ririka were played by a generic actress, Ai wo kudasai would be a disaster. Only for Kanno Miho fans.

Jmovie review: Sword of Desperation/Hisshiken torisashi

Another movie based on another book by the same dude who wrote Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade, I think. If you have not watched the above mentioned too movies, I strongly recommend you do. If you have seen them and Hana no Ato didn't do much for you then don't expect too much from Sword of Desperation.

Sword of Desperation has all the elements that made Twilight Samurai and Hidden Blade so good. Our humble stoic hero Sanzaemon who is a widower and is faced with difficult choices. The dedicated heroine Rio, who is sweet and kind and in this movie happens to be Sanzaemon's niece. Of course to makes things more kosher, Rio was previously betrothed and her marriage annulled. Clan members and their political schemes. A secret move that we get to see at the end ala Hidden Blade. Finally, its a samurai movie with Toyokawa Etsushi and Ikewaki Chizuru, two of my favourite actors!

Someone needs to do a website called 'Kita Yoshio is everywhere!'

Watching Sword of Desperation, there is a sense that something is dragging this movie down. It dots the i's and cross the t's of everything I enjoy in samurai movies including plenty of build up and one great final battle but the movie felt it was plodding.

The only answer I can come up with is that it was lack of on screen chemistry and the Sanzaemon and Rio story felt tacked on instead of being central to the story. The central story was rather the politics of it all and Sanzaemon's role in it. The best things in Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade was not the fights at the end but rather the build up and what the main characters fought for. Sword of Desperation has those small moments including some back washing but it felt cold compared to Twilight Samurai's beautiful scene of Tomoe helps Seibei dress up.

I think in the end, there just weren't enough scenes between Sanzaemon and Rio. Even in the flashbacks there was hardly any interaction between them. Maybe Ikewaki Chizuru was too loli for Toyokawa Etsushi. Could Yamada Yoji directing have made a difference? Perhaps. His camera work is more close up and personal which the cinematography in Sword of Desperation is more distant. Doesn't change the fact that it is a disappointing movie. Its still watchable and has the ingredients to be great but just falls short of even being a good movie.