Hard Days / Saigo Made Iku jmovie review

I am loving Netflix having more jmovies but Hard Days is not the right movie. Okada Junichi is a dirty detective drunk driving when he hits a person and kills him. He puts the in his trunk to hide the incident but keeps running into incidents treathening to expose him.

Ayano Go is the internal affairs police officer who wants to question Okada Junichi about a bribery issue. Most of the tension of the show comes from Okda Junichi trying desperately to keep his secret. There is a twist in the middle and the show is about what desperate people will do to get what they want.

The problem with Hard Days is it is pretty boring. I did not care about the characters and the directing was not good enough to convey the tension. Hard Days is based on a Korean movie which I have not watched and my feeling is this is another The Departed, a remake that completely misses what made the original great.

Hard Days looks and feels like a tv movie rather than something made for cinema. I was watching the movie thinking where is the budget for this movie with 2 big name actors going because I don't see anything visually movielike? I have seen WOWOW doramas that looks much better like Samayoi Yaiba.

Its by the director who did The Journalist which I bloody love and Avalance that was ok. I did not care about anything in this movie except for Hirosue Ryoko. The action scenes betwen Okada Junichi and Ayano lacked that visceral energy. We are left with an inconclusive ending and the final reveal made me say, so what? Boring and waste of time. Avoid.

Geeks: Keisatsusho no Henjintachi

Geeks: The weird people from the police station is a generic police jdorama featuring three women: Matsuoka Mayu as a forensic examiner, Tanaka Minami as physician in the police station and Takizawa Karen who works in the traffic department. 

Our three main heroines leave work on time and gather every friday night and solve cases. There is of course a detective who brings the cases and information to them  and it is mostly Matsuoka Mayu who figures the cases out in the end.

I will watch Matsuoka Mayu in anything especially after Fence but there is nothing interesting in Geeks. The characters have their own idiosyncrasies  like Matsuoka Mayu's character not liking human contact and enjoying puzzles but there is nothing funny or interesting about the 3 ladies.

The on possible interesting point is Shirasu Jin (Nikolaus from Izakaya Nobu) as Matsuoka Mayu's next door neighbour who has a thing for her. He is also a regular on Keiji 7-nin which used to be decent until they got rid of Kurashina Kana. Anyway if the most promising thing about your police show is the possible romance story, you are in trouble.

Geeks is a very soft police story where there is hardly any action and the 3 ladies solve the mystery but unlike Furuhata Ninzaburo, there is no charm or chemistry. I did not find anything funny at all. I really wanted to stop after episode 1 and gave it another episode but I have to drop Geeks. 

Geeks: Keisatsusho no Henjintachi is so bland it is tasteless. Actually the best thing about Geeks is the ending song by Sambomaster! Do no waste your time watching.

The Outlaws kmovie review

It has been a while since my last kmovie review. I stopped watching for a while because a bunch of critically acclaimed movies turned out to be very mediocre and I cbf in the end. There is something that kmovies can give me that jmovies can't and that is straight forward ass kicking.

In the outlaws, Ma Dong-seok is police detective Ma Suk-Do who has a heart of gold, looks like he can take people out and is not afraid to bend the rules and have fun at a hostess bar. There is a war between the Chinese-Korean gangs and the bad guy from China does really bad things and scary things so we are definitely rooting for detective Ma to dish out justice.

The world of the Outlaws is dark, violent and unforgiving and there are moments of light comedy like detective Ma's truth room or how he bullies other gangsters.

The action scenes are awesome and watching Ma Dong-seok kicking ass never gets old. The final fight scene in the washroom is awesome. I think the main thing I enjoy is the tone of the movie. I love the grittiness of the action. Watching The Outlaws I was thinking why doesn't Japan do this straightforward action?

I think the answer is besides chanbara/samurai movies, there doesn't seem to be a market for adult action movies. Japan does not do gritty, see Avalance. They prefer shows to have a sense of unreality. Maybe Japan doesn't have an action star besides Sakaguchi Tak and he is not a star.

Very watchable. The Outlaws is the first of 4 movies known as The Roundup. I have watched all four and they are all good fun. Very watchable kick-ass movies. 

Shinjuku Yasen Byouin episode 1

Kudokan is a very busy man. He finished the very memorable Extremely Inappropriate! and now he has another show, this time for TBS about a hospital in Kabukicho that looks after people at the bottom of Japanese society like foreigners. On a side note, I have been unable to get the songs from Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru! from my head. Despite not being must watch overall, Kudokan has created one of the most rewatchable jdoramas ever.

Shinjuku Yasen Byouin is a very chaotic jdorama. We are introduced to the various colourful staff members of this hospital including a dermatologist who wants to open his own beauty clinic but the main thing is that the hospital is losing money and does not have a surgeon.

Koike Eiko is a American Japanese who gets too drunk and finds her way to the hospital. I cannot stand her character. Her English is so bad and has no hint of someone who grew up in USA. I mean, this is a jdorama right and this is supposed to be funny like Furuta Arata Galcir but she is not funny at all. She is a super annoying stereotype for a Japanese audience.

The funniest bit of episode one was when the old doctor stood up and asked which company was involved in the shooting but overwise, I could hardly keep my attention during the first episode. Episode 1 was too chaotic for me and I could not latch onto any character. I want to like Shinjuku Yasen Byouin because it is about people with no place to go but nothing in episode 1 clicked with me.

Maybe Shinjuku Yasen Byouin gets better after episode 1 and this is Kudokan after all but there is too much to watch and I don't think I can ever stand Koike Eiko's character.

Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru / Extremely inappropriate Episodes 2 to 10

1. Futekistsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru is about Showa vs Reiwa values set against a story about time travel and workplace practices. The first thing I want to point out is this scene Abe Sadawo talking about how much stronger due showa economy was in episode 2.

Naka Riisa's husband agreed meekly and he could have easily said that the bubble burst in the end due to the recklessness of those same hardworking showa people. While the bubble did burst in the Heisei era, it was the excesses of the showa and all the property and land speculation that brought the lost decades that followed.

2. I bloody love the musical bits which take a popular showa tune and imitates it to become the climax of the episode. Some of the showa songs I spotted were 17sai by Moritaka Chisato (ep 6), Sannenmei no uwaki (ep 8) and I know I heard something that sounded like Yazawa Eikichi's Tomaranai. I am sure there must have been a Yamaguchi Momoe song in there somewhere.

3. I think Naka Riisa is one of the best actresses in jdoramas today after this and Rikon Shiyou! The above screencap has become so disgusting lol.

4. I liked how it talked about how Japanese tv has become so safe now. Shimura Ken might not have survived in reiwa tv. I don't really watch variety anymore but I miss more risque shows like Shimokita Glory Days. I feel like Yoshida Yo's son shouting I just want boobs in my jdorama!

5. Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru is a fun show about a showa man learning the lessons of reiwa and a feminist learning that showa isn't all that bad. I like that it shows all the warts from the showa era as well as what happens when reiwa compliance goes overboard.

6. Furuta Arata makes every jdorama better by being in it. Makes me want to rewatch Yami no Bansosha and Galcir.

7. That being said, Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru feels a lot less focused the longer it went on. The laughs become less frequent. The first episode was perfect. The subsequent episodes were good but I never get that musical number that would make me laugh non stop for 5 minutes.

8. Episode 6 was about a writer who had trouble writing his final masterpiece because the writer was too preoccupied with determining the ending first so he can do all the foreshadowing. I totally agree because shows like Anti Hero are good because all the foreshadowing payed off.

However, Abe Sadawo argued where is the fun in that? I wonder if KudoKan did not know the ending of Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru when he wrote it because the second half feels like he is dumping and repeating his ideas about all sorts of harassment and cheating etc through a showa lens. It made me wonder if KudaKan actually had a plan?

9. One payoff that KyonKyon finally showed up near the end but there are things he did like bringing Kiyoshi's parents together earlier without any reason or payoff . We do not know what happens to Junko because she decided to change. Nothing makes sense in the time travel story anyway and since it is a comedy, it does not matter because there is no ending of consequence and we get a song about tolerance but I prefer the message of the first episode which is talk it out instead of just put up with stuff.

10. The quality of Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru did not sustain itself after the perfect first episode. I guess it was an impossible task. I just wanted it to make me laugh all the way through except for here and there. That doesn't mean it is a bad show. It is very good. The finish was not as strong as the start. Not must watch but very worth watching.

Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru / Extremely inappropriate episode 1

By the jdorama gods, I have just 1 hour laughing non-stop and I just want to put my thoughts to paper before I watch episode 2. Kudo Kankuro is one of the greatest and funniest writers in jdorama history and episode 1 of Futekisetsu ni mo hodo ga Aru might be one of the funniest episodes I have ever seen. Forget about whatever you think you want to watch, get on Netflix and watch the first episode and prepare to laugh all the way through.

Extremely Inappropriate is a time travel story. Abe Sadawo is a strict teacher from the 80s who travels to 2024 using a bus and goes back to his time though a wall in the washroom behind a Kyonkyon poster. What I love about this show is that Kudo Kankuro shows all the inappropriate behaviour from the 80s. All the swearing, sexism and bullying and I love it. 

Some shows set their story in the past like the1940s but they don't include all the things going on in society at the time like smoking and try to supplant modern sensibilities instead. Stories should show how society acted and perceived things at that time and not try to scrub it out.

Futekisetsu ni mo hodo ga Aru, at least for the first episode is a conversation about the clash of values from the 80s and values and expected behaviour from today and it culminates in the greatest Japanese musical I have ever seen. Every freaking line in the song killed me especially the 'this is my 13th year and my mental health is long gone!'.

There are so many levels to the jokes especially the guy who says 'that goes for all organizations'. So many things in the song are funny because they are true. Someone once said if you want to tell the truth, make them laugh and the first episode of Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru does it so well.

My favourite line from the show is the time traveling mom played by Yoshida Yo asking the son why he prefers showa to reiwa. He gave the above answer that made absolute sense.

Episode 1 is so perfect I have to give it a must watch. It is also so scarily good I am afraid the next episodes won't be as funny. Fingers crossed this will be the next Tiger & Dragon. Must watch. Thanks to notpenk for recommending this because I did not know it was a Kudo Kankuro show. On to episode 2!

Edit: Kudo Kankuro's Rikon shiyou yo / Let's get Divorced also started out really amazing and had a meh second half with pacing problems. Hopefully this doesn't happen again.

WARAU MATROYSHKA EP 8

Episode 8 didn't get uploaded to nyaa but then I realised that I could watch it from the tver link from the official homepage. Everytime at the end jdoramas they always say you can rewatch on tver but I never took it up. The only catch is that I needed to set my VPN to Japan but I quickly turned my VPN off after the video start loading. And the video came with Japanese subs! You just have to provide a random year and month of birth and Japanese postcode to watch. I think I am going to watch more Jdoramas on tver to support them and because they come out first. As for the episode, we get more info about the grandmother but it all depends on what the plan is and what will happen at the end.

Anti-hero jdorama review

I am living in a weird timeline where my 2 favourite recent jdoramas are from TBS: Warau Matroyshka and now Hasegawa Hiroki's Anti-Hero. TBS has always been the station with the most budget but worst jdoramas with WOWOW and NHK at the top but is this just a rare occurrence or crappy shows like Bloody Monday and Black Pean a thing of the past?  On a side note, I keep refreshing nyaa waiting for episode 8 of Warau Matroysha to show up. 

I enjoy jdoramas about lawyers who do some grey area things. Off the top of my head, Zainin no Uso, Bengoshi no Kuzu and Akuma no Bengonin. Hasegawa Hiroki is a defence lawyer Akizumi who will do dodgy things to win and wears an oversized coat making him look like a serial flasher. He also speaks very slow and hams it up like he is a villain in an anime which I enjoy

At his law firm, Akizumi has two lawyers working for him. The idealistic Kitamura Takumi and mysterious Hotta Mayu who like digging into Hasegawa's past. Nice to see Oshima Yuko as the paralegal. She is the only one from AKB48 who can act which I must admit is not saying much.

What made Anti-hero fun for me was two things. First is that it is a very exciting revenge dorama. I like Akizumi's plan and the pacing is fast enough that the plot holes don't bother me that much. Second is that it has a lot of great villains especially the chief who also hams it up but nowhere near the overacting in Hanzawa Naoki. Nomura Mansai's acting feel kabuki-like to me but dialed down and rather enjoyed it.

I love seeing Hayami Akari ever since she did Nanyobi ni Umareta No? as the receptionist who might be lying for the police and prosecution.

My other favourite villain besides the chief prosecutor is the Judge who act's all holy but has done horrible things. 

I had a blast watching on Netflix. It is a well done show about a defence lawyer and his plan of vengeance and you WILL support his plan and to see the bad people get theirs. The most important thing in any story is to give the main character pathos make the viewer support him and Anti-hero does it well, especially with the villains.

Well done to TBS. I did not see this coming. My only complaint is that I don't think they ever revealed Oshima Yuko's past because she Akizumi probably forgot why she was there in the first place. Very watchable and available on Netflix.

Onimusha review

Once upon a time Capcom created a game called Onimusha. It was Resident Evil with swords game set in the sengoku period starring actor Kaneshiro Takeshi (Golden Bowl) and it was good. It was a puzzle action game like resident evil with the main character having this magical gauntlet which could absorb the souls the bad guys and give him special powers.

Very excited to see an Onimusha anime on Netflix. Very surprised to see the main character look is Miyamoto Musashi and they made him look like Mifune Toshiro! Even better, they got the legendary Otsuka Akio (Snake/Batou/Skull Knight) to the voice! I thought it was a cool idea.

The story is a straight copy of Seven Samurai. Musashi who is past his prime has to go with a bunch of samurai and a monk to defeat this bad guy Iemon. Musashi borrows the Onimusha gauntlet for this mission and they say this girl and fight lots of genma/zombies.

Onimusha started out ok. Then it was revealed that the gauntlet would turn Musashi into a demon/oni so he can't wear it all the time. I guess they want to do the Ryu because Evil Ryu stereotype story which is fine.

Then Onimusha started to become a rehash of Musashi's greatest hits with his famous antogonists turned into genma. It started to feel like someone just wanted to mash Seven Samurai with Musashi and didn't care about the game at all.

Can you guess who the director is? Miike Takashi. The same director who took Ryu ga Gotoku ip and mashed whatever elements he like and turned it a crazy Miike movie instead of a good RGG movie. Why can't he pay the same respect to the actual games he adapted like he did for Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney? It was the one game adaptation where he was faithful to the game. 

Speaking of Ryu ga Gotoku, I am so scared for the amazon adaptation. Takeuchi Ryoma does not have the I will eff you up fKiryu aura but I hope I am wrong. Will be getting prime to support it regardless. Giving money to streaming services to support jdoramas is so much cheaper than buying overpriced jdorama blu rays. A new jdorama blu ray box set costs around $200,00 yen. Crazy.

I got freaking bored with the Musashi rehash and it just gets worse. The fighting in Onimusha is just bad especially in the end when it just went Dragonball Z recycle the same animations to show how fast they were swinging their swords. This is bloody Miike doing whatever the hell he wants. Maybe its more the writer's fault but I have seen this from Miike before. He should have done his own Musashi rehash movie and didn't need the Onimusha IP. Such a freaking waste of Netflix money. Miike should have done the story of the first Onimusha game. Do not watch. 

Kanzen Muzai Eps 3~5

Thank the jdorama gods director Oomori Tatsushi went less crazy with the zooming and funny camera angles after episode 2. He still did it sometimes but it was not all bad. There is one scene in episode 5 where the camera is on the old detective's back and he turns around while the camera is slowly zooming on his face and the audience try to read from his face whether he did it or not.

There are too things I can say from Kanzen Muzai. First is that Kitamura Yukiya is a very, very good actor and his performance as Hiyama is powerful.

The second is the script is very good. There are 3 main characters whose life was forever changed by the kidnapping and death of a girl 21 years ago also known as the Ayagawa case. Hirayama who was convicted and spent 20 years in prison. Matsuoka Chisa (Hirose Alice) who was also kidnapped but survived and lives with survivor's guilt and is driven to find justice for the other two victims. 

The third character is the old detective Arimori. He believed with fierce certainty that Hirayama was the killer that he had not qualms about planting evidence against Hirayama. He is a good person as he continues to participate in the victim's of crime association but good people can do horrible things.

Kanzen Muzai made me think about not only how a person falsely imprisoned should act but also how society expects them to act with supporter's party and this incident at the party where no one went to help Hirayama.

Episode 3 really made the show work for me with the possibility that Hirayama was actually not innocent. This is the ultimate horror movie and you see Matsuoka Chisa struggle with that possibility. Hirayama talks about giving up in prison and living for his sister who committed suicide a and talking about how Chisa lived for the two girls who died. Hirayama could not fight on.

While I was busy trying to figure out whether Hirayama was falsely accussed, Kanzen Muzai was about how an innocent person could survive 20 years in prison: planning one's revenge. There was nothing else Hirayama could do and he said he became a monster. Hirayama had nothing else to live for after his sister's suicide. On could comprehend what he had gone through. Just want to say rewatching the above scene after the ending, the old guy really did a great job with his acting.

Maybe except for Matsuoka Chisa was also trapped in a prison with her desire for justice for the 2 girls. Now she can finally lead her own life after the ending.

I really dislike the camera work especially for the first 2 episodes but this is one depressing and haunting jdorama. If only Oomori Tatsushi had not been too experimental with his camera, this would have been an absolute classic but I can only award it a watchable rating.