Gokushufudo Episodes 1~3

 

Tamaki Hiroshi was getting beat up by yakuza in Ryuu no Michi, now he plays an ex-yakuza in Gokushufudo. 

The catch is that he is now a house husband who is very good at his work.

The concept kind of reminds me of one of my favourite mangas, Angel Densetsu where high school kid with the face of a demon is always mistaken for a yankee. The question is how many interesting ways can Gokushufudo milk this househusband concept.

Gokushufudo certainly made me laugh here and there but half the time I was pretty restless watching the 3 episodes. Reason no.1 is that I couldn't give a damn about the 3 people in the above picture who make up Tamaki Hiroshi's former useless clan.

No.2 is that 45 minute episodes are too long for a gag jdorama. The pacing is too slow between jokes.

Gokushufudo should be much funnier but I could not finish episode 3 and I don't feel like watching the next one.

Maybe it gets better later but I don't feel like hanging around to find out. Tamaki Hiroshi does a great job but it feels like something is missing. Gokushufudo is not as fun as it should be. Meh. I got the show hardsubbed from Blitz but I believe someone on d-addicts is subbing as well.

Siren no Zange Episode 1

Wow. It has been a while that a first episode has gotten me really excited. Siren no Zange is of course a WOWOW production Araki Yuko from Suits. More importantly, the writer Shinozaki Eriko wrote Hanzai Shokogun, Good Wife and Saka no Tochu no Ie. On the other hand she also did Ryu no Michi so temper your expectations a bit.

Araki Yuko plays a report for Afternoon Japan and the show is in dire straits because they have broken the journalistic rules twice. A kidnapping of a female high school student happens and the police asks all the media to hold off doing anything to not interfere and protect lives. Unfortunately Araki Yuko and Afternoon Japan do not do so and there are consequences to pay.

Love the script of episode 1. It is basically a discussion about the role of journalist vs police trying to do their job. From the police perspective, media would do minimal reporting until an investigation is complete because releasing of information might interfere with an investigation, particularly when information is wrong.

On the other hand, the mass media believe that people have the right to know. They have the right to be outraged and put pressure on the police to be swift. The world of ratings is cutthroat and just reading aloud police news briefings will not bring in the bread.

I love shows where there are no easy answers and shows that show why rules are there in the first place. I can feel the confidence in the script and the execution for Siren no Zange. WOWOW have also surrounded Araki Yuko with a bunch of good actors including of course Takashima Masanobu aka Moriyama sensei from Doctors.

Fingers crossed my WOWOW senses are correct and Siren no Zange will end up a very good show. The raw from Siren no Zange is up on nyaa and the subs are by HPriest at d-addicts.

35-sai no Shoujo Episodes 1+2

I don't normally go for Shibasaki Kou doramas but she did a great job with Saka no Tochuu no Ie that she is no longer in my actresses to avoid list. If you have not seen, Saka no Tochuu no Ie, I strongly recommend you seek it out as the writing is ace.

35-sai no Shoujo is the story of a 10 year old girl Nozomi waking out of a coma and finding herself in a 35 year old body. Her parents are old and divorced and her sister is in her 30s and her crush is a former school teacher.

I rather enjoyed the first two episodes and I feel the concept has many elements to explore such as Shibasaki Kou's character Nozomi has to grow up a lot in a short amount of time. Normally we would measure that in years and that is by going to school and interacting with similar aged kids but what can a 10 year old in an adult body do?

How long will it take Nozomi to integrate into society? Is having the mental ability of a 10 year old mean that she is disabled? How much longer are her parents obligated to care for her? She would need to finish her middle school degree to get jobs.

I like the character of Hirose Yuto, Nozomi's crush. He is a character who is a nice person but has become disillusioned with society and Nozomi's innocence reminds Yuto of the hope that he once had.

So far, the first two episodes are watchable and it has the potential to be a fun series. 35-sai no Shoujo has a kind of early 2000s jdorama flavour. Forgot to mention, love seeing Suzuki Honami as the mom.

Fukushima 50 jmovie review

Fukushima 50 is a movie about 2011 Tohoku disaster starring Watanabe Ken and Sato Koichi from the perspective of the workers of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant.

The earthquake and tsunami happens and the workers of the Power Plant have to stay back and handle the meltdown and prevent things from getting worse.

This blow by blow account of the challenges that the brave men and women faced to try to contain the situation and how the chain of command worked at that time.

It is a sobering look at the risk of using nuclear energy and the workers who had no choice but to continue working for their families and country.

I don't know how to rate Fukushima 50. Its not a must watch movie but I feel everyone with an interest in Japan should watch it because it was one of Japan's worst disasters in recent memory.

Fukushima 50 is available from avistaz with subtitles and I recommend it if you want something very serious about ordinary heroes. 

First Love jmovie review

Miike Takashi. No other director has directed so many movies that I love: Zebraman, Gyakuten Saiban, Taiyo no Kizu, Salaryman Kintaro, Ichi the Killer and yet created so many bad movies like Laplace's Witch, Yakuza Apocalypse and Mugen no Junin. 

Laplace's Witch was really, really bad. It was like a songwriter who thought he had written a good song because he copied some beats but did not realise that nothing flowed together. Will Miike get his groove back?

In the beginning of the movie, Miike feels more focused. We are introduced to a young boxer, Katsuragi Leo. We are told that he is an orphan and that he boxes because its the only thing he knows.

Next we are introduced Sometani Shota and Omori Nao as a yakuza and corrupt cop who cook up a plan to steal from the yakuza. There is a drug addicted prostitute who has hallucinations called Monika who runs into Leo.

There are two main stories in First Love. First is the story between Leo the boxer and Monika the prostitute. The second is this yakuza dark comedy mix up where nothing in Sometani's plan to betray his yakuza group happens according to plan. Sometani really steals the show as the slimy Kase who has no conscience and I did not want him to die because I wanted to see what he would do next.

Two-thirds of the movie, I really enjoyed. I was grinning ear to ear thinking this is going to be one of Miike's best. The last third, not so much because it turns into a really badly shot 'action' mayhem. The camera work and choreography is truly C level. 100 movies later and Miike can't shoot action to save his life. 

There are some scenes with low level, can't see anything camera work that feels like it should have been edited out of the movie. I think he convinced Uchino Masaaki to be in this movie on the promise he would play a yakuza with a sword but what's the point when you can't see anything? Where the hell is quality control?

I am not against close cameras and quick cuts for action. I love Paul Greengrass's work because he knows how to frame action and make it coherant like manga panels. Miike's framing feels lazy as if they ran out of time and budget to shoot the final action scenes or maybe he didn't care.

I just hated how the turned such a promising movie into a nonsense, badly shot action scene. Why is the Chinese mafia lady in there with her talk of chivalry (ninkyou)? What is the whole point of Uchino Masaaki's character? 

Miike is trying to merge the nihilistic action comedy from Ichi and Yakuza apocalypse with the story of Leo and Monika and they just cancel each other out. He is such an infuriating director to me. First Love could have been just a great movie.

Loved the first two thirds of First Love and hated the last third. I don't know how to rate this. I think I will be staying away from Miike movies for a long while. I wonder what Sono Sion has been doing lately?

Strawberry Night 2013 movie review

I rather enjoyed the Strawberry Night dorama series but this 2013 movie to cap off the Himekawa (Takeuchi Yuko) story, not so much. The movie starts off with some exposition talk between Himekawa and Kikuta (Nishijima Hidetoshi) that felt so off and awkward.

I was thinking surely someone could write something more natural. Kikuta was too much like a puppy trying to please his owner which he sort of is but the tension between Himekawa and Kikuta from the series is not there.

I can see what the personal Himekawa story this movie is trying to tell. She is so damaged from the trauma that she can never be with the pure Kikuta and can only be with someone who is similarly damaged like Osawa Takao's yakuza character.

While this is going on, we have another police coverup story. Everyone looking extremely serious saying we have to protect our benefactor and the organisation blah blah blah.

To cap it off, the final 'action' scene did not make sense to me geographic wise. Anyone could see what was going to happen but why it had to happen that way, did not make sense to me.

Plus the whole Himekawa team was relegated to bit parts in this movie. I feel like the movie is let down by poor writing and execution and I could not find anything about it that was exciting. Its not do not watch but a huge drop in quality of story. Meh.

Strawberry Night Episode 4-11

 

Still can't believe Takeuchi Yuko is gone. I didn't know what to do so I decided to finish the one Takeuchi Yuko series I never got around to finishing: Strawberry Night.

Strawberry Night Night started out as a dorama special back in 2010 and it continued into a series in 2012. Looking back at my reviews, I liked the SP but had my misgivings about the dorama series, especially the boss played by Watanabe Ikkei who keeps shouting at Himekawa (Takeuchi Yuko) and saying this woman this and this woman that without showing any leadership qualities.

Many years later. I'm not as annoyed by his character as I have come to accept that this is part of Japanese working culture where there are people who care more about hierarchy and thing must be done a certain way instead of what is right or wrong.

That said, I breezed through Strawberry Night and I regret not pushing on with the series back in 2012. It certainly starts off weaker but I found the stories got better in the second half. Each story was also told in 2 or 3 episodes so it was more like watching a series of movies.

I have come to enjoy the competition between the various hans or groups in the division to capture glory in the investigation. One sticking point is Himekawa owing Kinpachi Sensei aka Gantetsu a favour and him not collecting. Maybe it will come up in the movie?

Love Endo Kenichi in Strawberry Night. He looks like a hardass yakuza but is a cop who is too concerned with getting enough evidence before drawing conclusions. I want to see him in something where he just kicks everyone's asses.

In the end, I was watching for Takeuchi Yuko. Not her best work which was Dandarin but she has command of the screen and the ability to play a believable cop unlike certain people *cough* Ueto Aya *cough*.

Definitely better than the Ishi no Mayu series but below the Gaiji Keisatsu/Rinjo level. Watchable and on to the movie next!