HAMSAPSUKEBE AWARDS 2012

Now that Tsumi to Batsu has been subbed and I've tried everything I want to watch, its time to look back at the best and worst doramas that came out in 2012. Not really a memorable year because nothing that was an absolute classic came out and it was more a year of doramas that could have been. Actually 2012 is the year many great 1st episodes which are followed by crap.

I CAN'T BELIEVE AWARDS 2012

I can't believe Hancho has been around for 7 seasons and averages 11% rating.

I can't believe Fuji TV expected Going My Home to get good ratings.

I can't believe all the I.T. and business bullcrap in Rich Man, Poor Woman. Now I understand characters in the old trendy doramas always worked in advertising.

I can't believe someone tried to remake perfection. (GTO)

I can't believe the producer of Renai Dekinai still has a job.

I can't believe Ishihara Satomi's lips won best actress for pouting through 10 episodes.

I can't believe the scripts for Suitei Yuuzai and Magma were so bad after great episodes.  Surely someone with common sense must have read the scripts first?

I can't believe I never really called out Nagasawa Masami's lack of acting ability until Bunshin.

I can't believe there's a second season of Legal High.

I can't believe I'm still spending so much time watching jdoramas.

BEST ACTRESS

Kaho - Hitori Shizuka. She has gone from child actress to showing that she can be the main actor.


Honourable mentions -
Koizumi Kyoko - Shukuzai and Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi.
Kimura Yoshino - Hatsukoi. The first time I can remember being impressed by her acting.
Nakatani Miki - Seinaru no Kaibutsutachi. Its a horrible, unwatchable dorama but she kept me in it for 6 episodes. An actress of her caliber deserves better scripts.
Matsu Takako - Unmei no Hito

BEST ACTOR

Abe Hiroshi - Going My Home. Its always Abe's award to lose.

Honourable mentions -
Nakai Kiichi - Saga Kara Nibanme no Koi
Masahiro Motoki - Unmei no Hito
Kora Kengo - Tsumi to Batsu
Tanihara Sosuke - Tsugunai


BEST DORAMAS OF 2012

5. Nemureru Mori no Jukujo.

4. Unmei no Hito

3. Shokuzai

2. Hatsukoi

1. Hitori Shizuka

BEST OF THE REST

1. Double Face (dorama SP)
2. Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi
3. Going My Home
4. Tsumi to Batsu
5. Kodoku no Gurume (1st season)
6. Tsugunai
7. Spec Sho (dorama SP)

Minna! Esper Dayo! ep 8

What's happening to this dorama?! Its just no longer funny. Episode 8 is about Tengaman getting bewitched by a fat overweight but it was so boring, even with the team working together. The best bits were of the Yoshiro-Miyuki-Asami triangle with Asami not believing in espers and Yoshiro and Miyuki being able to hear each other's thoughts.

The episode ends with Yoshiro finally responding to Asami's thoughts instead of always running away. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to label it a 'do not watch'. Come on Sono Sion, I believe in you!

Tightrope no Onna

Was looking through the 2012 fansub map when Tightrope no Onna caught my eye. Name sounded familiar and then I realised that I had bought it along with Toranaide Kudasai!! Seeing as the first two episodes have been English subbed, might as well give it a go. Tightrope no Onna is a daughter v former mistress/second wife business dorama. Tokura Yuri (Ikewaki Chizuru) is the naive ojousan of a wire manufacturer and Takaoka Saki is his second wife Tokura Kyoko.

Mr Tokura passes away leaving his company to both his daughter and wife and of course the daughter Yuri hates the 2nd wife, blaming her for the family's breakup and Yuri's mother's death. Kyoko, however needs Yuri's help in order to save Mr Tokura's company which is in dire financial trouble.

First of, I've got two main problems with this dorama. Number 1 is that Yuri is such a slow and naive character that its hard to root for her. Being the focus of the dorama, it takes her too damn long to grow brain cells and even then the master plan to save the company.

Well that brings me to me second dislike, its not an exciting business dorama. It reminds me of Magma, I expected exciting business twists and turns and all I want to shout at the screen is kirei koto iu na! (Stop saying beautiful words). It wants to be a touchy feely dorama but at the expense of business logic. For example, why wasn't the guy who has been cooking the books canned in the first episode? So it can lead to this idealistic, forgiving moment at the end.

This brings me to why I finished the 6 episodes. I like the daughter who hates the 2nd wife story. Lots of complicated stuff amidst some soapy plot lines but it is kept afloat immensely by the acting ability of Ikewaki Chizuru and Takaoka Saki. I like how the 2nd wife manipulates the naive daughter to do certain things and pushes her buttons. Doesn't happen successfully and there are deep emotions involved but it certainly reminds me of Doctors. Smart characters are always a happy thing for me. Speaking of Doctors, why hasn't anyone uploaded the special yet?

You could say the acting from the two actresses has lead me to see it as a half full dorama instead of a half empty one. Good acting does make generic doramas tolerable. Plus when was the last time Japan produced a good business dorama since Hagetaka? Watching jdoramas can certainly mess with your expectations. I certainly do not regret watching it but it may also have to do with the story's simplicity making watching with Japanese subs easier. If you want something to watch, no harm giving it a try, I guess.

Toranaide Kudasai!! Gravure Idol Ura Monogatari eps 1-3

Bframe has been talking about Toranaide Kudasai!! for a bit so I decided to check it out. Behind the scenes show with gravures? Can't think of a reason not to watch it and frankly, I'm disappointed I did not notice it sooner. Checked out the d-addicts torrents and no one is seeding them. :(

My only choice was to go down to my local DVD shop and get those chinese DVDs. The original price was $25 but they were doing a 3 for $30 special so I grabbed Tightrope no Onna and Taburakashi, too shows I have not seen that looked remotely interesting.

Bframe told me that at the back of his DVD box, it says this dorama was fiction and it really is. I know reality tv is scripted but Toranaide Kudasai!! doesn't even try to pass itself off as reality. Way too many shots where the lighting is better than cheap doramas cause you want to get the girls in their best light and sometimes with conversations, the camera goes back and forth from two viewpoints.

So Toranaide Kudasai!! is a dorama about the making of a documentary that doesn't even try to pretend to be a real documentary featuring real gravure idols playing themselves in situations that true to life. So far at the end of each episode, every girl gets to have their JCVD monologue moment. If you've not watched the movie JCVD, its this famous long monologue where Van Damme bares his soul to the audience in a monologue.

I really like Kawamura Yukie's monologue. I think she was pretty good at that part because a lot of it is true. This is unreality, the opposite of reality tv. Gravure idols playing fictional characters based on themselves you keep wondering how much is real but it looks more like a dorama than a documentary. I guess it just weird me out why they don't make it more realistic

I'm only three episodes in but the formula of one girl per episode will probably wear thin soon. It will be very hard to do interesting individual stories for all the girls. I like the connectivity between the stories with girls running into each other.

I was really happy when the back of the DVD box said it had Japanese subs. Then I realised the Japanese subtitles aren't even correct. They sort of correspond with what is being said on the screen but are not accurate. Its as if auto translated the Chinese subs into Japanese!

Jmovie review: Be Sure to Share / Chanto tsutaeru

This movie has been sitting on my hard disk for years and I finally got around to watching it after looking for Ito Ayumi movies because of Tsumi to Batsu. I always had a thing for her since Wedding Planner but I hardly see her in jdoramas/movies. I completely forgot Be Sure to Share was a Sono Sion movie, probably cause Akira from Exile is in it and surprisingly, he actually does a decent job in this movie.

Be Sure to Share is Sono Sion's most mainstream movie ever, even more than Land of Hope. It is also his most personal movie. I think he did it after Love Exposure. If his name didn't appear in the beginning, you would not be able to tell its the same director who is doing Minna! Esper Dayo!

Be Sure to Share is a father-son movie. Akira's father is hospital for cancer and everyday, he goes to visit him. Over the course of the movie, we get to see details of their relationship through very well done flashbacks. We see that Akira's father was the demon coach of the school and how their relationship was as he was going up. Actually its as much a father-son movie as it is a movie about two people at different stages in their lives.

I love how Sono Sion structures the flashbacks to tell the audience what we need to know and how it affects the present day. It prevents to need for exposition dialogue and takes us deeper, step by step into the characters, their relationships and their thoughts.

It is a mark of how great Sono Sion is as a writer/director that he can write something as crazy as Love Exposure and also do something as simple and touching as Be Sure to Share. The only thing remotely Sono Sion-like occurs in the end but its such a beautiful scene.

Ito Ayumi is great in this as well as Akira's girlfriend and she does the emotional heavy lifting in this one. I want to see her in something where she has a career defining role. Looking at her filmography, there are plenty of her movies that I haven't seen so she may have already done it.

While I would still place Love Exposure and Noriko's Dinner Table as Sono Sion's best films, Be Sure to Share is his best mainstream movie. Its what Japanese melodramas should be, simple, poetic and memorable. Absolute must watch.  

Tsumi to Batsu: A Falsified Romance ep 5+6

I first watched this series a year ago and the first few episodes blew my mind. The last two episodes I didn't really like but didn't write about it since I watched there were no subs and lots of dialogue was lost on me. Luckily, Unsolved Cases subbed the whole series and I could finally decide whether Tsumi to Batsu belongs among the top doramas of 2012.

The one subbed scene I was hoping would flip the switch for me was the prosecutor's talk with Miroku. Miroku has basically gotten away with murder. Someone has confessed to the crime and certain people in power want the matter swept under the rug. Yet, this idealistic and delusional writer Miroku is haunted by his crime. He is haunted becauses he discovers that he is not a predator like Sudou. That his ideas about justifiable murder are not true.

Frankly, Miroku is interesting when he is doing stuff out of his misplaced daddy issues. When he is wallowing in guilt not so much. Tsumi to Batsu is about Miroku's guilt and him seeking peace in the form of a life sentence. I just don't buy that talk with the persecutor in his room. Not sold that living with guilt is better than life imprisonment or a possible death penalty. Plus, who's going to guarantee his safety in prison from the yakuza?

The most interesting character is at the end is Echika. I finally understood the falsified romance part of the title. Echika is not a character who wallows in self pity but she embodies the term misery likes company. As Miroku says, her love is violent. Echika just wants to be needed by hopeless men and Miroku is even more hopeless than her husband.

There's always something interesting about two totally screwed up people getting together but alas, the last two episodes are about Miroku making peace with what he has done and making peace with himself. I can see Tsumi to Batsu is trying to do a psychological story about someone who believed he has done righteous murders realising his guilt but it just doesn't work for me. Miroku is only interesting for me when his resentment causes him to do stuff. Good try by WOWOW though. I'll take this over  any nonsensical police dorama any day.

Minna! Esper Dayo! ep 7

Episode 7 is a disappointing filler-like episode.

First of, I just want to say I want to be a teddy bear when I grow up.

Second of all, nothing really interesting is being done with Mano Erina's character besides her not believing in Espers.

We do finally get to see the creepy long haired guy in action.

Let's just say he's responsible for the town's female population becoming Tenga girls.

I'm quite impressed they got so many extras but I guess most of them are probably real Tenga girls and Tenga is a sponsor.

Creepy long hair dude's aim in this episode was to get our hero to a simple realisation.

Its unfortunate that this could have been an awesome zombie parody episode and instead it fell flat.

I guess its more mind control than zombie but nothing really funny happened except Tenga dude getting swarmed by Tenga girls.

I must have missed something in this episode because it doesn't advance the story at all.

I never thought one day Mano Erina would be a Tenga girl.

I still have no idea what Minna! Esper Dayo! is. It doesn't seem to be a super power team up.

Its not funny enough to be a gag dorama. 7 episodes in and it hasn't built any threat.

The triangle relationship has been stalling so its not really a relationship dorama. Whatever it is, Minna! Esper Dayo! needs to find its voice soon.