Themis no Kyukei jdorama review

HPriest has been on a roll subbing old WOWOW shows and Themis no Kyukei is a legal drama with Naka Riisa in the leading role. Naka Riisa's father was a policeman working at a police box/koban one night when he was murdered. On a side note, I love the use of yellows in the above screenshot. When it is all drab colours and raining, a bit of colour brings attention to the main character and the look of shock on her face.

The suspect was Kentaro someone Naka Riisa's father had questioned before. Kentaro pleads guilty to prosecutor played by Kishitani Goro and is sentenced to jail. Naka Riisa respects Kishitani Goro for extracting the confession and becomes an administrative officer at the public prosecutor's office and she respects Kishitani Goro for her father's case. 

Naka Riisa get's a phone call from Kentaro's dad and goes to see him and he shows her Kentaro's suicide note pleading his innocence. A reporter confronts Naka Riisa with allegations that Kentaro was not the killer and she begins to suspect Kishitani Goro. 

It is interesting I am watching Themis no Kyukei after watching Keiji to Kenji Tokidoki Hanki because in jdorama-land it is kind of weird how police and prosecutors both exist to extract confessions from suspects. In American shows it is more persuading someone to plead guilty to get a lesser sentence but in jdoramas it feels like the suspect is just going through another round of interrogations.

I watched Themis no Kyukei straight after HPriests subs them but I have to say I was somehow disorientated at the start of each episode even with the short 30 second recap so I recommend watching the 4 episodes in one go. Either that or I am losing whatever brain cells I have left. It is a show about how if people in power do not do their job correctly, innocent people will suffer.

I enjoyed watching Naka Riisa in the lead role and while the bad guy is very obvious from the beginning, the way the mystery is solved step by step is still interesting. Themis no Kyukei went from a fugitive show back to a court case show which also coincided with me playing Gyakuten Saiban so I felt like the two stories melded into one for me lol. A decent WOWOW show to spend you time watching. 4 episodes make it short. Its not that memorable but its not a waste of your time. Watchable especially if you are a Naka Riisa fan. I remember seeing her for the first time years ago in 81 Diver. That was a fun show.

Vivant Episodes 1~3 jdorama review

Vivant has to have the biggest budget ever in jdorama history. No I am not talking the big names but rather the scale of the story. It is an international espionage story set it the fictional republic of Balka which looks very much like Mongolia.

Sakai Masato aka Hanzawa Naoki works for this company Marubishi and accidentally transfers too much money to a foreign company and goes to Balka to recover it. Sakai Masato is mistaken as an agent of Vivant, gets involved in an explosion klling Balka police and he meets Abe Hiroshi who works for foreign affairs and Nikaido Fumi who is a doctor and as they are chased by Balka Police.

WHAT I LIKED

+ The scale of the story is huge. Usually TBS likes to shoot an opening scene with 100 extras and call it a day. Episode 1 has a huge hospital scene, beautiful Mongolian scenery with horse riding scenes and cars getting knocked around. The amount of effort for a 1hr 30 minutes episode is crazy. I was thinking about how many months they must have taken to prep for the first episode because it was basically a movie. I think shooting in Mongolia helped a lot with the cost but it must have been a difficult shoot and definitely not the type of action you normally see in jdoramas because of the cost.

+ Whatever happens I admire the ambition of TBS to spend this insane amount of money and try to do this sprawling story.

+ You have two of the greatest Japanese actors in Abe Hiroshi and Yakusho Koji in the same jdorama. Nino is also in it and he and Yakusho Koji are Balka people so story will most likely circle back to Balka. I would think it is much cheaper to shoot action scenes there than Japan.

+ Did I mention Mongolia is beautiful?

+ For once the English dialogue does not sound like it was auto translated from Japanese.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Nikaido Fumi's doctor is bloody annoying. I wished they had left her in the desert. There's something about the character that makes me think why is she here? Probably because she has no chemistry with Sakai Masato.

- I don't understand how the Balka character Drum can have his thoughts come out of his mobile phone. It would have been better to make him a mute character and have him communicate with his eyes and gestures.

SUMMARY

Vivant is a TBS show so I can't get too excited. It could still collapse under its own weight spectacularly but I am liking the immense effort they took to make this show. What Vivant if you want to see one of the most ambitious non-Netflix jdoramas ever in terms of scale. Vivant is being subbed by SARS fansub who have risen from the ashes and can be downloaded from drama otaku. Back in the old days SARS were the premiere fan subbing group.

Kanojotachi no Hanzai Episodes 1~5

I have no understood how Maeda Atsuko aka Acchan was at the top of AKB48 during their heyday, how she kept getting acting roles and here we are many years later with another Acchan dorama Kanojotachi no Hanzai. I don't hate her, I am just indifferent because after so many years I have never been impressed with any of her acting.

Kanojotachi no Hanzai as the name implies is about 3 women who get together to commit a crime: doing a false suicide. We have Acchan as an emotionless housewife stuck in a loveless marriage and of course mother in law from hell, Fukugawa Mai does PR for a clothing company and Ishii Ana is a police detective.

We already know the crime from the first episode and the first five episodes is setting up how our three women are connected and what their impetus was for committing the crime. The concept is interesting with these three seemingly unconnected women but the execution is sort of meh, especially the acting.

I was excited to see Asakura Aki but unfortunately she is only there to play a minor supporting role. They should have replaced Acchan with her and I think the show would be better for it. End of the day, it is also about how many eyeballs you can draw to a show. Asakura Aki is one of those forever stuck in supporting role actors who never get their chance which is why I super enjoyed Cold Game when Hada Michiko was given the chance to play the main character.

After episode 5 is where the show should get interesting since we reach the beginning of the story and now anything can happen. I am hoping that the novel that it is based on is good enough to cover the lack of acting.

Ultimately the concept of Kanojotachi no Hanzai is interesting enough to make the story slightly watchable as long as you are not watching for the acting The first 5 episodes have been hardsubbed by luwang so you can download from the discord. Give it a try if a mystery dorama about 3 women faking a suicide sounds interesting.

Daifugou Doushin season 3 Episodes 1+2

I have finally decided to drop Daifugou Doushin after starting season 3. Normally I will watch any jidaigeki regardless but Daifugou Doushin has two things that annoy me. First of all is of course the main character being filthy rich, not experiencing any hardship and his friends help him win the fight when he faints.

The second reason is that the bloody main character Unokichi basically stays away from love interest played by Shinkawa Yua despite the ending of last season so they have no chemistry and no reason for me to care. They've introduced Wakamura Mayumi as the aunt in the devil mother in law training the future daughter in law role but it is not funny and  I don't care.

I suppose that is why the main characters in Jidaigeki are usually some poor samurai living with the locals, to make the main character empathic. If you want to make a main character able to solve any problems with his wallet, you have to make him super smart or super entertaining.  I know characters have to be flawed so they can grow but I am past my limits after 2 seasons of watching Unokichi doing nothing and everyone doing things for him. Avoid for me. 

Fixer season 1 jdorama review

From Inoue Yumiko, writer of the underrated Harassment Game and the legendary Shiroi Kyoto (White Tower) come Fixer, a Karasawa Toshiaki WOWOW show where he pays this mysterious person who apparently does a lot of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing.

Fixer comes out of prison in the beginning of the episode greeted by Kaname Jun who plays the Fixer's muscle. Fixer gets a phone call from the Prime Minister of Japan and that night the Prime Minister is involved in a car accident where he went on a trip without telling his security team.

With the Prime Minister out of commission, there are a bunch of characters who get dragged up in the power struggle aftermath of the accident including Uchida Yuki as a newscaster, a journalist, Koizumi Kotaro as a police detective and most importantly Naohito Fujiki as the Prime Minister's private secretary. It is interesting that they cast Koizumi Kotaro not as the private secretary because I would have cast him in a political role due to his father being a former PM of Japan and his brother being former environment minister.

Fixer is basically a whodunnit mystery. We have various suspects who of course have the most to gain seeing that they are faction leader in the political party from Jinnai Takanori to Tomita Yasuko and Kobayashi Kaoru. Speaking of Kobayashi Kaoru, he is such a good actor that his scheming politician character is so far removed from the master from Midnight Diner that it seems like it was played by a different actor!

I think the reason Fixer did not impress me as much is that while it is called Fixer, Karasawa Toshiaki does not do much political fixing. Only a little bit but it is mostly a whodunnit mystery set in politics instead of a lot of political fixing which is mostly done not by the main character played by Karasawa Toshiaki this politician in a wheelchair.

Watchable show for me because it has got a good cast and watching the morality play that Naohito Fujiki goes through is fun. It just never got really good for me. You can stream the subbed series at Machida Keita Unofficial. Doesn't look like anyone is subbing season 2 yet but I will watch at some point. Hopefully there will be more backstory on Karasawa Toshiaki and Kaname Jun will have a lot more to do.

Kono Subarashiki Sekai Episodes 1~3

 

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Kono Subarashiki Sekai is a life swapping feel good show for the suburban housewife. Instead of your girl next door swapping lives with princess, an ordinary housewife played by Wakamura Mayumi is hired to stand in for very famous actress Wakana Kinuyo and do an apology press conference when said actress escapes overseas after a scandal.

This show is about a housewife living out a dream life. Sawamura Ikki is the husband of the actress who seems to be a hanger-on and has suspicious motives. The comedy is watching all the staff trying to help Wakamura Mayumi succeed while she does things that the normal Wakana Kinuyo would not. Of course the question is how long can she pretend to be a famous actress and will she become a different person the more she becomes the role?

WHAT IS GOOD?

+ The cast is excellent. So many of my favourites from Sawamura Ikki to Kimura Yoshino to Nishimura Masahiko.

+ You can't go wrong with a fish out of water story plus it is about an ordinary person trying to inhabit the life of a supposedly bad person.

+ I have to mention so good to see Sakai Masaaki in episode 3. The moment I was singing Wasuremono from his jdorama Muri na Renai. 

+ I can see the seeds of many storylines being planted throughout the 3 episodes so it will be interesting to see what the writer has in store.

WHAT IS NOT GOOD?

- I really dislike this soft lighting thing they keep doing to Wakamura Mayumi's face. It weird lighting really bothers me and supports my theory that lighting in non-WOWOW shows are decided by makeup and skincare companies and not by the people shooting a story.

SUMMARY

Jdorama fansub map says no one is subbing. I got Japanese subs from Jptv but I could not be stuffed retiming them since the show is pretty easy to understand. A decently watchable feel good show with a good veteran cast. Watch it if you like the veteran actors and if the concept sounds fun to you.

Edit: Thanks to anon, subs for pointing out that subs are available at subscene.

MIFF 2023 Monster / Kaibutsu jmovie review

 

The movie I had been waiting for since I saw it was Koreeda Hirokazu movie from a Sakamoto Yuji script. Ando Sakura is a single mother who notices something weird with her son. She find his hair in the bathroom, there is soil in his water bottle and a wound on his ear and he says that his brain has been switched with that of a pig. Ando Sakura presses her son for answers and he says that he was being bullied by his teacher Hori played by Eita.

Ando Sakura goes to the school looking for answers and all the principal played by Sakamoto Yuji regular Tanaka Yuko can do is give the most generic and lifeless apology ever. The teachers see Ando Sakura is an overprotective parent rather than get to the truth, they want to get rid of the parent.

More things happen and when Ando Sakura goes to the school a second time, Eita says that her son is actually bullying another boy called Yori. We then see the series of events from Eita's perspective and the final act of the movie is showing the audience what really happens. Kind of like Rashomon.

The tagline on the movie poster says 'who is it?' which refers to the title of the movie Monster or Kaibutsu. Monster is a mystery movie told from different perspectives and the Monster in this movie keeps changings according to whose perspective the story is told from.

I wonder if Mitsushima Hikari fought for the mother role with Ando Sakura? Only 3 actresses are worthy of a Sakamoto Yuji script, and that is the before mentioned actresses along with Matsu Takako.

It is hard to talk about Monster without spoilers but it is very well written and acted movie about bullying and being kids and the adults trying to make sense of them. I 100% did not expect the story to unfold the way it did. The ending is very vague but not in a good way like shoplifters. Very watchable and well done, just not must watch for me.

MIFF 2023 Perfect Days jmovie review

 

The Melbourne International Film Festival is here and when I saw it was a Yakusho Koji movie, I clicked buy. I did not know that it was directed by a German director Wim Wenders and that Yakusho Koji had won best actor at Cannes!

Yakusho Koji plays Hirayama, a professional toilet cleaner who cleans public toilets in Tokyo. When I say professional I mean his van is loaded up with all sorts of equipment and he has a hundred keys strapped to his belt to open all locks in public toilets along with a lot of cleaning tools.

Hirayama takes pride in his toilet cleaning job. He is thorough, does not half-ass it like his useless kouhai and checks every nook and cranny. Hirayama lives a simple existence with his plants, books and cassette tapes but what he has is dignity and pride in his work even though everyone looks down at him from the mother with the lost child to his sister. I recommend not watching the trailer below because it spoils so much of the movie including the memorable lines. It is best to watch it with no knowledge at all.

Perfect Days is a slow movie about someone doing a manual labour job that comes with interesting challenges but I was captivated all the way through because the acting was so good, most of it from Yakusho Koji. I never thought watching Yakusho Koji cleaning public toilets would be so interesting. Hirayama barely speaks in Perfect Days but he is able to convey so much with his acting.

I won't spoil what happens but there is a very nice cameo from someone playing the mama at Hirayama's usual bar. I thought she looked very familiar but it was only after she sang that I figured out who she was. 

Perfect Days is a well done artsy movie that appeals to most people because the acting is so strong and it is a simple movie that will stay with you long after watching. I've seen artsy movies try this slow artsy style but fail most of the time. *cough* Koibitotachi *cough* A must watch movie for me because it is so simple yet so deep. I love that Perfect Days does not fully explain Hirayama's past but offers enough glimpses that you can surmise why he come to chose his current life. I recommend you seek it out at your nearest film festival. 

I feel like visiting the toilets featured in this movie especially the glass one and it looks like they are part of this Tokyo Toilet Project.

Keibuho Daimajin Episodes 1~3

I never imagined that one day I would be watching a Miike Takashi movie. I also never imagined that Miike would make so many bad movies after I first saw Ichi the Killer many years ago. I think the last Miike movie I liked was Shield of Straw. He's made so many bad movies but he also did Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney and Sun Scarred. Miike can make good movies if works within the stories and does not do whatever he wants.

Keibuho Daimajin is about Daiba Jin, a detective how finds out that a serial killer is a high ranking police officer and Daiba kills the guy because the law won't touch him. Mukai Osamu finds out Daiba's secret and blackmails Daiba into working for him in his special investigations team which was created to investigate cold cases but Mukai Osamu wants to use for something else. Tsuchiya Tao is also chasing the serial killer case and is keeping an eye on Daiba.

In short main Keibuho Daimajin is about a character killed for justice and is being blackmailed by mysterious and manipulative person while trying to fend off another police office is on his tail.

WHAT I LIKED

+ Miike's directing style is different from what we usually see in jdoramas and is refreshing.

+ Mukai Osamu is great as the manipulative Hirayasu Saimon.

+ Tsuchiya Tao and Narumi Riko are in it! Not enough Narumi Riko in the first 3 episodes though.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Miike's colour palette is very muted. Feels very earthy with a lot of yellow. Maybe he wanted Daiba Jin's coat to stand out. I don't think it looks particularly good.

- You cast Tsuchiya Tao and she doesn't get to do action scenes? There is a scene in episode 3 where she is supposed to be chasing Daiba but doesn't do anything. Has anyone seen her in Alice in Borderland. She better have some action scenes soon!

SUMMARY

I am keeping my hopes low and expecting an ok show. I still don't know how to rate it but so far I don't dislike Keibuho Daimajin. Thanks to monchi for subbing!