Jmovie review: TOUCH

Touch is a movie based on the Adachi manga of the same name. While I am familiar with H2, I've never read the manga. Surprisingly, the story is very similar to H2 with Koshien being the background story. Instead of two best friends, we have twin brothers played by the twins from Hotman. And of course, the childhood friend/neighbour who happens to be a very kawaii. On the minus side, there's no Haruka-chan equivalent. :(



I've got 2 main criticisms of the show:

1) Horrible pacing.

There's something that shakes up the story at around 45 minutes. Problem is, the story stalls there for like another 40 minutes before we get to the grand finale. So basically we get a very fast 40 minutes, then it slows down like a soap opera before we get to the ending. The ending is done well, its just that it takes so freaking long to get there. They should have have the plot development thing further back and have the show get faster after that cause it took so long to get to the end that the movie lost kinda lost steam.


2) No freaking humour/fan service.

A movie based on a Adachi manga with no fanservice. I mean at least H2 had the sense to incorporate some minor ecchi stuff. Humour is what keeps thing interesting when the story stagnants. Couldn't they have used the supporting characters more for jokes?

Hello legs............

Anyways, its only an OK movie and it really made me wanna watch H2. Its like H2 light without the charm and humour. Of course, my main purpose for watching Touch is Nagasawa Masami who I 1st saw in Dragon Zakura. She has the hard job of combining the maturity of Hikari and the kawaiiness of Haruka from H2 and she does an good job. There are a lot of scenes where there's no dialogue and she has to convery Minami's thoughts using her facial emotions.

kawaii!!!!!!!!!!! She's really got a nice, slim figure... :)

She's definitely got the acting chops and screen presence. She kinda reminds me of Hirosue Ryoko in a way. And she's going to be in a show called: Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu. Wheeee... did someone say Silor fuku?

It Started with a Kiss ep 1-9

WTF am I doing watching a Taiwanese drama. I blame it all on my brother who smsed me to watch this series. With his recommendation, I was sure that the girls in this show would be uber hot. Unfortunately, that's probably the only thing this show has going for it.

You know this wouldn't be a hamsapsukebe post with at least one sukebe shot.... or two...

I've been on a steady diet of jdoramas for the past few years. Maybe a bit of variety would do me good. The last Taiwan series I saw was My MVP Valentine and it was really crap. So let me start of by whinging about this series and perhaps do a little Jdorama V TDrama comparisons:

1) Goddamn freaking 20 episodes. Double the length of ur typical jdorama. Not to mention with eps running slightly over an hour, basically 2 1/3 times the length. Now this would not be a problem if there was a story to fill out the 20 episodes. But there's not.

I really hate those jdorama soaps like Heaven's Coins or With Love that just go on and on. Now amplify that to 9 1 hous eps (so far). I mean FFS, its a girl meets boy story. How much longer can those two beat around the bush?

Haven't they heard of efficient storytelling? Pacing? Unnesessary scenes? Yeah I know it based on a shoujo manga but manga is manga. You can control how fast or slow the story is by the speed you read. Seriously, I basically fast forwarded through the last 3 eps. And I can't believe these's like 11 eps more to go. WTF????? They're basically throwing everything plus the kitchen sink and house the heroine but I'm so freaking bored.

I can't believe they actually shot Tiffany Xu climbing the gate in that skirt. I thought they'd do the 'she starts climbing - cut to camera on other side showing her coming down'. Only problem is the cameraman needs to stand more on the left.

2) Horrible supporting characters. You can always count on decent supporting actors in Jdoramas. In this show, their like freaking amateurs who are too self conscious of the camera. Take the teacher from the 1st few eps. OMFG, who's dick did he suck to get on the show???? Are Taiwan shows that bereft of decent supporting players?

WTF casted Xiang Qin's father? Is the fact that his moustache is so fake suppose to be funny. The best supporting cast member would be Zhi Shu's mom. She's truly like those anime mums.

Speaking of animes, I bloody realise who the acting sucks. People who appear on the show show be forced to watch 1000 house of Cardcapter Sakura, Slayers and Ranma so they can act properly like anime characters. Afterall its based on a shoujo manga and the style and tone of the show is very Japanese.



3) Running very few jokes and using them over and over again does not make it funnier.

4) And the wire dunk scenes. The dude is 1.88 metres tall. Can't they just find a 9 foot ring for him to dunk or something? WTF do they need to use wires? The basketball game was so crap and fake I just couldn't stand it.

5) No sets. Seriously they need to build sets for the indoor house scenes and stuff cause a lot of the camera angles are really crap. Not mention the lighting. And I thought jdorama camera angles were very pedestrian. Furthermore, not having room to set up ur also means lack of focus on faces and lots of group shots. It also means extra difficulty in shooting scenes from multiple viewpoints. Most of the time its crappy groups shots with a fixed camera angle cause they can't take down the walls to use a different angle.

I don't really regret downloading the damn thing cause of Ariel Lin but after 9 eps, I'm just friggin' pissed off at how fucking slow the story is going. I mean FFS, at ep 4 I was already wondering WTF else can they do for the rest of the series? Apparently, nothing new.



Now that I'm done with whinging, let's talk about the best thing about the show: Ariel Lin. Fuck, she's one bloody good actress. She's like the Taiwanese version of Mun Geun Yeong. She's got the same child-like innocence that makes men go 'kawaii!'. But she doesn't look as good. Some angles she looks really old and sometimes her lack of a chin is really obvious. However sometimes she looks like a 23 year old Kago Ai. In short, she's a joy to watch on screen.

If you're into Eurasian chicks, there's Tiffany Xu to oogle act but I'm content with Nana and Maria Ogawa. Oh yeah, my bro was having his exams when he recommended this show to me so the lesson for today is, long and boring shows with nice girls may seem really nice when you're having exams but not when you're looking to unwind from work and basketball.

AKB48 - Guilty pleasure?

Can't believe how much I'm listening to AKB48. Seriously, I'm probably going to hell for listening to them. AKB48 is a group that goes straight for its audience: otakus. I mean, the name AKB48 comes from Akibahara, the promised land of otakus. What else gets otakus riled up than cute girls flipping their skirts? The answer is lots of girls dancing in short skirts.

The producers seemed to have taken the HP concept and expanded it to many more girls. Its just throwing more shit at the wall and hoping something sticks. None of the girls look like superstars though and I doubt any girl with big time potential would want to be associated with AKB48.

But hey, gotta admit Skirt Hikari and Sakura no Hanabira Tachi are pretty addictive songs. Somehow they're songs that catch the ears of the otaku public. Its like a rat looking at cheese on a trap. You know its specifically mean to entice you and you can't help liking it. Watch the PVs and look at the dance moves. Its all too familiar and somehow enthralling.

Thought AKB48 may have wiggled their way into my playlist, I doubt they'll last more than 2 weeks at most. Maybe I'm just saying that to feel less guilty. Someone once said that pleasure's no fun without some guilt.........