JFF 2022: Dreaming of the Meridian Arc review

 

The Japanese Film Festival is back! Actually it never left and went online after the pandemic started but I never bothered with online. The opening night movie is Nakai Kiichi's Dreaming of the Meridian Arc or Taiga e no Michi which is a more suitable and funny name.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

In Dreaming of the Meridian Arc, Nakai Kiichi works for Katori City where the famous Ino Tadataka who made the first accurate map of Japan lived and proposes they idea that they should get a taiga dorama made about Tadataka to increase tourism. Nakai Kiichi tries hard to get this famous screenwriter who has not written anything in 20 years to do the synopsis of the show but on the way they discover that Tadataka may not have actually made the map! The movie jumps back to the past to show what actually happened with the modern cast playing the characters in the time of Tadataka.

THE GOOD

+ Very good cast of Nakai Kiichi, Matsuyama Kenichi, Kitagawa Keiko and Nishimura Masahiko.

+ Matsuyama Kenichi was the source of most of the laughs

+ It is a feel good movie about people coming together to do an impossible task much like The Great Passage.

THE BAD

- The directing is very pedestrian. It feels more like a tv movie than a movie made for cinema. There isn't much budget despite the incredible cast but it makes it feel more like a movie paid for by Katori City about Katori city trying to get a taiga dorama up and running.

THE MEH

= Feels like a  weaker version of The Great Passage with more humour. 

SUMMARY

Dreaming of the Meridian Arc did its job. They were funny bits and touching bits and it made me think about visiting Kotori city to see Tadataka but it was more like a tv movie or 2 part tv dorama. Between meh and watchable. There's nothing to dislike about it.

Akunin/ Villain 2010 jmovie review

I came across a poster of this movie on yahoo auctions and I thought I am pretty sure I watched this movie. Searched on my blog a few times to make sure. I vaguely remember watching it but for some reason I never got around to reviewing it. After watching Akunin, I have no idea why I did not do that straight away because it is one of the most unforgettable jmovies I have ever seen.

Tsumabuki Satoshi is this blue collar worker Yuichi who lives near Nagasaki and takes care of his grandparents. His only hobby is his car and he meets Yoshino played Mitsushima Hikari who lives in Fukuoka and he drives all the way down from Nagasaki to meet her.

Yoshino who is in insurance sales is a bit of a bimbo and she is playing Yuichi while having her eyes on Masuo, this rich student whose parents run a high class ryokan. Mitsushima Hikari is supposed to meet Yuichi but ditches him when she accidentally runs into Masuo and gets into his car. The next day Mitsushima Hikari is dead and Masuo is on the run.

It is hard to talk about Akunin without spoilers. Akunin is a movie about loneliness and what desperate lengths people will to to find something to live for and what lengths people will go to for the ones they live for. Acting is superb especially Fukatsu Eri as the suites saleslady who gets involved with Yuichi. I won't say its a must watch but if you want a serious and dark movie that pulls no punches, then Akunin is for you. You won't be feeling happy after watching this movie.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The obvious spoiler is that Yuichi is the villain. As Fukatsu Eri says at the end of the movie, Yuichi killed someone and must be a bad person. The movie shows that it is not so simple because he takes care of his grandparents and his loneliness and naiveness allowed him to be played by Mitsushima Hikari and it was when she threatens to accuse him of rape that Yuichi loses it.

Does it excuse what Yuichi did? No. As the movie shows us, Yoshino has parents who deeply care for her and she may be a bitch but she did not deserve to die. I think Yuichi ultimately did it because he had nothing to lose and he found Fukatsu Eri too late. The question is was he really trying to choke her to death in the end or was he trying to get her to leave him?

SUMMARY

One of the most memorable and well acted jmovies I have seen. A must watch in my book but only for fans of dark and depressing jmovies. The raw is available from dramahd and I got the subs from avistaz.

Where to download jdoramas and subs in 2022

Once upon a time, there was a d-addicts tracker and all the shows were uploaded onto the tracker and life was good. You just needed one site to keep track of everything. Nowadays, everything is different and I remember someone saying recently that you basically need a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

Someone asked in the comments if I could make a mini guide with essential sites to follow. The good news is keiko1981 has already made a where to find doramas and subs guide which I encourage everyone to read through as it is the best starting point.

The most useful site for keep track of everything is the jdorama fansub map. This is the most important page because it is basically the spreadsheet to keep track of who is subbing what and where to get it. Big thanks to the people who maintain the fansub map because I would be lost without it. Looking at the map, it is encouraging that although jdoramas are such a niche hobby, so many shows are being subbed.

Just adding to keiko1981's guide I just want to mention where I get my shows. First one is dramahd. My no.1 reason for liking them are the smaller file sizes and that they upload jmovies as well. All the pages come with a quick synopsis and if I like a show I like up the subs on the fansub map. Smaller file sizes is important to me because some jdorama file sizes can get really huge and unless a jdorama looks like Kenja no Ai, I am not so particular about resolution and detail. I think keiko1981 said on twitter that someone was hacked from using dramahd but so far so good for me. Can't guarantee dramahd is safe but it is my most used site.

For private trackers, I am on avistaz, jptv.club and jptvts.us. I use avistaz the most and sometimes you can find some from those invite only places at avistaz. I remember getting some invite only subs recently from avistaz and in the past I have avoided those invite only 

Recently I have joined luwuang's discord server and drama-otaku. With luwuang, you get access to 4 subbers; donsubbers, edwardwong and madman and lilac so its worth joining. Unfortunately madman have been uploading their hardsubs onto terabox lately and you cannot download the file from the website and need to download the app which will show ads on your pc. I am rather suspicious of terabox and am staying away for the moment. 

There are a few hardsub websites around such as brokensubs, irozoku and blitzfansub. While keeping up with jdoramas is difficult, there are a lot more shows being subbed today then back in the early days of d-addicts, jem and getting jdoramas from Kiku TV in Hawaii and there are too many shows for me to keep up. 

Subete Wasurete Shimau Kara episodes 1~3 jdorama review

Now I have access to drama-otaku, I decided to check what other shows they had and Subete Wasurete Shimau Kara caught my eye since it had Abe Hiroshi! Abe Hiroshi has been hit and miss recently. The Sniffer and DCU were crap but KDO2 and Dragon Zakura 2 were good. Plus Ono Machiko and Kudo Kankuro are in it!

Subete Wasurete Shimau Kara is about this not so famous but published mystery writer played by Abe Hiroshi who frequents bars in order to find inspiration for this stories. He has been in a relationship with Ono Machiko but on Halloween, she disappeared and he has not heard from her since.

Subete Wasurete Shimau Kara is a slow mystery/ slice of life about this mystery writer who does not seem to know much about his partner who has disappeared and who does not seem that desperate to find out. There is also this funny thing about his narration being down by a female voice hinting that Abe may no be who we are seeing?

The humour is very dry and the 3 episodes has not gotten me excited one single bit despite the appearance of Oshima Yuko at the end. Ono Machiko's sister is annoying and Abe Hiroshi letting her run all over him makes me dislike his character more.

I might take a peek at episode 4 at a later date but if a jdorama cannot even remotely pique my interest after 3 episodes, I think its time to drop it. IMO, 20 minute doramas need to have enough humour or be a feel good show and Subete Wasurete Shimau Kara has neither. Meh.

Ryojin no Ono episodes 1+2

I could not contain my excitement when I saw there was this WOWOW dorama starring Arata, Shibata Kyohei and Takaoka Saki. When these people have acted in WOWOW shows, they have done excellent shows such as Chase, Satsui no Michinori, Lady Joker and of course the very beautiful Kenja no Ai. Will they bring us another must watch jdorama?

Unfortunately, getting the raws and subs is not so straight forward. The subs can be gotten from luwang's discord and which has instructions on getting the raws from drama otaku. jptv.club have the raws also which are freaking huge and its better to get the less than 800mb raws from drama otaku. It is pretty easy to register and I got my membership approved pretty quick and the downloads are fast. 

Arata and Shibata Kyohei are police officers with a kouhai senpai relationship and we see their families mingling happily in the beginning of episode 1. It was a bit confusing for me in the beginning because I thought Arata and Shibata Kyohei were related by marriage or something. Of course, this being a WOWOW show means someone must die and that is Shibata Kyohei's oldest daughter.

Fast forward 15 years later and the case is still insolved. Shibata Kyohei is retired and his wife Miwako is in the hospital. Arata's daughter is getting married and suddenly a special investigation is reopened for the cold case. 

For the first episode, I thought I knew very well where Ryojin no Ono was going because I had watched so many police jdoramas and the name double sided axe was the key. It is still well done and the emotions and grittiness of WOWOW doramas is second to none. 

There's this Shibata Kyohei scene in episode 2 where I just want to give him the hamsapsukebe award for best actor right then and there because it really helps sell the rest of the series. At the end of episode 2 we finally get to where the story is going and it is an exciting one. There is still one more twist which is heavily foreshadowed but I can't bloody wait to see what happens next!

I will temper my expectations now and not give Ryojin no Ono a must watch until it is finished. I am probably going to watch episode 3 raw after this. Nothing gets me excited like a good WOWOW show. Thanks to luwuang for subbing!

Atom no Ko episodes 2+3

I know I gave the first episode of Atom no Ko a promising review. Unfortunately, the series has come crashing down to TBS earth for me. Atom no Ko just feels a bit too much soap opera formula for me, like the writer could have easily replaced video games with any other industry and the show won't not have been any different. It doesn't feel like the story was tailored for video games and rather it feels like they just inserted videogames into an underdog going up against big corporation story.

It felt like things happen for the sake of things happening. I did not buy the Tominaga character who is the president of Atom, who is supposed to be mature one going around showing their video game either to the enemy. 

I feel like Atom no Ko should have explained a lot of stuff to the audience such as high digital distribution has allowed the indie games industry to survive, all the various costs involved with game development, which platforms do they want to release their game on and how important marketing is with hundreds of games released each day.

I know that I am not the main audience for this show and it bothered me that the game they are making is Chu Chu Rocket which came out a 20 years ago but I feel like the details about gaming and the industry are not there in the story and they should be.

I enjoyed the Street Fighter element of the story in episode 2 and marked out for the appearance of Mikado in Takadanobaba. It is one of the famous retro arcades in Tokyo besides Hey in Akihabara so please check it out if you are ever there. Last time I was Takadanobaba I tried to find my way to Mikado from memory but failed and could not be bothered looking on my phone and ended going somewhere else.

I will still check out the series by fast forwarding for any future video game fanservice and cameos but I jumped the gun with this show and shall endeavour never to do so for any TBS show again. Meh. 

Nobody to Watch over Me jmovie review

I am pretty sure I watched this long time ago but did not write about it and came across it recently and could not remember anything so decided to watch it again. Part of blogging is just to keep track of what I have and have not seen.

Juvenile crime is a commonly used in jdoramas and movies because watching someone escape punishment because of their age can easily arouse anger but the answer is always not so simple. Nobody to Watch over Me comes into the issue from another angle, that from the suspect's family.

Shida Mirai is the sister of a brother who is suspected of killing two girls. The outside of their house turns into a media circus and the most memorable scene in the movie is the police trying to protect the parents by getting them divorced and remarried so that the koseki or family register has the children using the mother's last name. In other words the parents divorced so that the husband can enter the wife's koseki thus changing everyone's last name. Koseki is one of the things that make Japan so unique whereas in most countries anyone can change their name easily.

Sato Koichi plays the rough cop with a daughter and estranged wife who is assigned to look after Shida Mirai. Sato Koichi's only concern is giving his daughter her present and trying to patch this up with his wife. Bad things happen to Shida Mirai's family and Sato Koichi finds out that he not only has to protect her from the press but also from the public at large.

I enjoyed the scenes with Ishida Yuriko and Yanagiba Toshihiro as the couple who run a bed and breakfast  that Sato Koichi brings Shida Mirai to. I can't complain about anything but I don't think it is good enough to have been represent Japan for best foreign film at the oscars.

Nobody to Watch over Me is a watchable movie about how the family of a criminal is also victim of a crime and how society's eagerness to fee righteous anger and lead to people doing wrong things in the name of justice. Watch it if you feel like a serious movie about people's response to crime from the perspective of the suspect's family.

Uzukawamura Jiken jdorama review

Uzukawamura Jiken is WOWOW's attempt at a suspense thriller set in a remote village in Nagano. Matsuda Ryuhei is a doctor who's wife has disappeared and he has come to her home village of Uzukawamura with his doctor in search of her.

This show reminds me of one jdorama series which is Trick. The staple story of the series is always some remote village with a funny religious ceremony and superstition and Abe Hiroshi and Nakama Yukie will uncover how the magic trick is performed.

Uzukawamura Jiken is very similar except its a pretty serious show and non of the humour. Its more the psychological suspense of murders happening in a village that is has no power and is cut of civilisation because of a landslide. There is also village politics with the powerful Yahagi family and the young people who do not like the Yahagis.

While Uzukawamura Jiken has a stellar cast with Renbutsu Misako and Masato Ibu, the series was not suspenseful for me because I kept thinking about Trick and how this seems like a higher budget Trick episode but I think the directing needed to be more raw and movielike. I think it wasn't real enough to sell the scariness of the story and just seemed weird. Its like someone made a serious version of one of my favourite comedy jdoramas but doesn't do it different enough that it seems like a unfunny version of the original show. 

I applaud WOWOW for trying something besides their usual corruption jdoramas and it would have cost a lot to bring so many people to some remote village to shoot this show but all that effort ended up creating a forgettable jdorama. I think people who have not watch Trick might enjoy Uzukawamura Jiken and though I watched the whole thing, at no point was I excited about what was going to happen next. Meh from me. 

Atom no Ko Episodes 1 jdorama review

I love videogames and its been a long while since the last good video game jdorama No Con Kid. I was hesitant to jump into this because I was afraid Atom no Ko would be about some stupid mobile game like that Nino kidnap dorama My Family.

Atom no Ko starts off with a short recap of the history of video games and daring to omit Sega although they did have Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast on their list of consoles. The main thing I want is to feel the love for gaming from the writer and creators just like No Con Kid.

Atom no Ko is about two characters, Nayuta played by Yamazaki Kento aka Mr Alice in Borderland who created this game called Downwell which is an actual game. Usually when videogames are shown in jdoramas they are some fake game that doesn't exist. Hopefully they will show more real games in Atom no Ko. And speaking of Alice in Borderland, part 2 comes out in December I believe and I am keeping my expectations low because Yamapi is in it but I would love it if he dies in the end.

The second character is Tominaga Umi played by Kishii Yukino. Umi is the daughter of this toy company Atom which is losing money and not popular but is known by fans for their high quality figures. Nayuta who has since quit gaming since the release of Downwell is a fan of Atom and Umi who grew up watching her father make toys in Atom is a fan of Downwell and she wants Atom to make games in order to survive.

Rounding up our characters is Odagiri Joe as the bad guy who caused Nayuta to quit the business, wants to buy Atom for its patents and uses gaming to make money from selling player information.  I want to see him lose so badly.

I am cautiously optimistic that this could be a decent TBS show. I also need to finish Old Rookie which is another TBS show. I was watching episode 1 of Atom no Ko noticing all the video game references in the backgrounds. I hope to see more video game easter eggs in upcoming episodes and have noticed they are showing a lot of Capcom game.

I like the theme music which is uplifting. The ending of episode 2 is very interesting. Please don't screw this up TBS! If you like videogames and an underdog story about small business fighting against big companies Atom no Ko is for you. Watchable first episode. Hardsubs are available from blitzfansubs.

Elpis: Kibou, Aruiwa Wazawai Episodes 1+2

I think its been a long time since I've seen such a promising Nagasawa Masami show. I am usually singing the praises of WOWOW and NHK but Fuji TV is doing not bad this year with the decent Mahou no Rinobe and now Elpis.

Elpis is the story about an innocent person who is on death row and a bunch of people who have to find out the truth about the murder of little girls. The fun part about Elpis is that our main characters are not journalists but rather belong to the variety tv world. In this case, the show is the lowest rated show on the station Friday Bonbon.  

Nagasawa Masami is Ena, a former newscaster who lost her job due to a scandal and has been banished to Friday Bonbon with her own small 'news' section. Everyone on the show are unwanted people and Maeda Gordan is a young director of the variety program who comes from a rich family and is blackmailed into investigating the guy on death row.

Rounding up our trio of heroes is Suzuki Ryohei as a political reporter with a connection to Nagasawa Masami and who once reported on the killing of the little girl. All 3 characters have their own past traumas and issues they have to overcome.

The first thing I noticed about Elpis was the directing. Its not the WOWOW signature style but its better than the usual generic directing. Turns out it is Hitoshi One, director of River's Edge, Moteki and Akihabara@Deep. 

The second thing I enjoyed was the depictions of sekuhara in the variety industry. I like that they did not hesitate to show the cutthroat world of variety world and how awful women get treated in and out of the workplace. Enjoy is not the right word but I like to see jdoramas reflect what actually happens in the real world. Sometimes I watch tv shows and everything is too politically correct.

The pacing of Elpis is stead. Acting has been good and directing awesome. Still too early to judge but so far so good. Big thanks to edwardwong for subbing. Watchable and promising show and the tag of the title which means hope or disaster is very ominous.