By the jdorama gods, I haven't laughed this much since...... maybe Dandarin? This dorama special is the most fun I've had watching in a while. Not only does it have three of the best actresses in jdoramas today with Takeuchi Yuko, Maki Yoko and Mizukawa Asami, it also has a very funny script by Bakarhythm, the writer of Suteki na Sentaxi.
All 3 actresses play themselves but the story is what if none of them experienced the turning point that led them to be the actresses they are today? Like in Takeuchi Yuko's case, it was getting scouted at Harajuku and calling the agent back. So Kamoshirenai Joyuutachi is a show where they are playing themselves in an alternate reality.
Maki Yoko and Mizukawa Asami are struggling to get acting jobs and the funniest bit is when the hospital scene which I won't spoil while Takeuchi Yuko is working at a publishing firm.
The script is just freaking funny from beginning until the climax when all three meet up. When a script is good, everything just flows and feels natural. Its funny, gives you enough insight on the characters without explaining too much and keeps the story running at such a brisk pace that the one hour runtime is over way too quickly. English subs are available but its one of those livejournal member things so I just watched with Japanese subtitles.
The climax is just full on awesome. I knew what was coming but it was so fun to watch. It kind of reminded me of Kisaragi. Just a bunch of good actors in a room and lots of things happening.
Must watch and I'm looking forward to more Bakarhythm doramas. This dude knows how to write.
Journey to the Shore is my second Japanese movie for the Melbourne International Film Festival. This was the movie I was most looking forward to not just because Fukatsu Eri and Asano Tadanobu are in but also because Kurosawa Kiyoshi (WOWOW's Shokuzai) directed it and won best director at Cannes. I was surprised to see WOWOW films at the beginning credits.
Fukatsu Eri's husband Asano Tadanobu died 3 years ago and all of a sudden he reappears, saying that he want to take her on a journey to meet the people who have helped him. Its your basic dead person comes back to say goodbye movie with hints about their relationship and what actually happened scattered throughout.
Fukatsu Eri is very good in this one but the script is oh so generic. I have no idea how Kurosawa Kiyoshi got the directing award cause I've seen much better stuff from him. (see the first episode of Shokuzai) The movie is way too lethargic and could have used a lot of edits. Actually I think it would have been so much better as a 3 episode WOWOW dorama than a movie.
I feel like Fukatsu Eri really kept the movie from being a total bore through the force of her acting. Watching the movie I was thinking I've never put her on the top echelon of Japanese actresses but the best thing about the movie was watching her character react to various situations and reading her emotions.
As a dorama, Journey to the Shore would have been not bad but as movie, it was kind of meh and dare I say boring. The last movie for me will be Koreeda's My Little Sister. Fingers crossed. Oh yeah, Aoi Yu has a nice cameo as well.
Jyouou 3 has been in my hall of shame for a very, very long time.I was actually thinking about finally getting around to watching it when I found out someone had already timed the Japanese subs! Yatta! For those who don't know, Jyouou is a touching and horribly acted series about workplace bullying.
The baka shoujiki Ando Mai is back along with her two very round assets, her large eyes. She's quit the hostess business after getting second at the end of season 2.
She causes a traffic accident sending the driver to a hospital and the owner of the kyabakura Seaside who just happens to be there ends up paying her compensation to the victim and asks that Ando Mai work at his kyabakura. If Ando Mai could put 2 and 2 together, I'm sure she would have smelled some fish.
The kyabakura is run by the Komiyama siblings and the sister just happens to be a lesbian who loves threesomes.
Asuka Kirara plays Riona the number one hostess who keeps banging some lucky dude throughout the two episodes. (My bet is one curly hair)
Flashback to Ando Mai quitting her job and Kadena Reon getting pissed. Sometimes I find it very hard to concentrate on the subtitles.
Riona has her own posse and they bully poor Ando Mai and this other girl Moe. It was very hard for me to watch the girls getting sexually harrassed.
Riona and gang try to bully Moe into sleeping with one of her regulars.Ando Mai tells Moe she doesn't sleep around although she has taken so much money from these poor guys and Moe says she would do anything for money. Ando Mai says Moe should treasure herself and lots of funny things.
In the end Moe didn't sleep with the customer.
Kadeno Reon finds out about Ando Mai and is pissed. She calls the Komiyama siblings hyenas.
Its nice to see that HBO is not the only one who does sexpositions.
Turns out Moe gives all her money to her host boyfriend who also beats her up. This type of thing happens in real life and if you're interested, watch The Great Happiness Space.
Ando Mai gives a touching speech to Moe and turns Moe into her helper.
At the end of the episode we find out that Hara Saori is still alive??!!! My mind is blown and guess is twin sister. This could possibly be so bad its good, just like season 2.
Fuck Miike Takashi. I went in with super low expectations and just wasted two hours of my time. Whatever happened to the director who made Ichi the Killer? Seriously, why cast Mad fucking Dog from the Raid if you don't even use him properly. The final 'fight' was so goddamn disappointing. Why cast Mad Dog in the movie at all if you just want him and Ichihara Hayato to stand next to each other and punch each other in the face ten times?
Why shoot the fight scenes for most of the film so up close you can't see shit? I get it for the fights with Lily Franky's character since it was all stuntman but wtf. Somehow he remembered to pull away a bit for the frog fight scene. The frog saved the movie from having no redeemable qualities.
B-movies are inherently stupid. I love Ichi. I love Versus. I love Machine Girl and all of them had a coherence and pacing to their stupidity while Yakuza Apocalypse does not. The sad thing is The sad thing is Miike could have made it pretty funny but didn't. He introduces so many stupid elements into the movie but non of them pay off.
Just repeating the line about yakuza being like vampires feeding on the katagi (civilians) does not give the movie meaning. If you have to spell the point of your movie out to your audience, what's the point of watching a (non-existant) story then? Seriously, Yakuza Apocalypse makes Tokyo Tribe look like Zebraman. Do not watch.
A WOWOW dorama that doesn't feature a cop, reporter and politician as the main characters? Colour me interested. Moriyama Mirai plays an temporary art teacher named Kumagai.
At the beginning of the episode, he has to go on patrol to catch any students loafing around the city at night along with another teacher, Oyamada.
Kumagai and Naoko are invited into a blackmail scheme by Oyamada.
The plan is to blackmail the headmaster they call hedgehog (harinezumi) by videotaping him with his mistress.
They want Harinezumi to make them regular teachers and allow the female teacher Naoko to continue singing. Kuma-san is also in debt.
They catch Harinezumi in the act but the blackmail is not affective.
The teacher who came up with the plan has a second thing to blackmail Harinezumi which I'm not sure what it is.
Kumagai and Naoko leave the scene of the blackmail but are unable to contact their Oyamada and they go back to discover they may be in over their heads.
Enka ~ Gold Rush ~ is really hard to understand not because of the Kansai-ben but because they speak really fast like real Kansai-ben. I had to watch it twice to understand the dialogue. Even then, there are parts I don't really get.
It looks like Enka is going to be a dark comedy which I like and is something we don't usually see from WOWOW. I can do without any conspiracy doramas from WOWOW. bframe says episode 2 is really good so I can't wait for it to be uploaded to nyaa.
Risk no Kamisama Episode 2 didn't lose me with a story that had nothing to do with risk.
Risk no Kamisama didn't lose me with the poor attempt at a corporate blackmail story that's not even 1/10th as exciting as Lady Joker.
Risk no Kamisama didn't lose me with the cartoonish villain boss that gave me flashbacks to Hanzawa Naoki.
Risk no Kamisama didn't lose me with a story about people who still had jobs whinging about being made to do menial tasks. They should have been looking for new jobs while they still had a place to stay and salary coming in. What is it with jdoramas and blaming other people for inconveniences?
Risk no Kamisama really lost me when Tsutsumi Shinichi started blaming the President of Toyokawa foods for choosing meek employees and somehow linking it with the blackmail problem. The 'cool action' music made it even worse. WTF.
Is this the same writer who wrote Unmei no Hito and Untouchable? Why do mainstream jdoramas have to dumb things down to the point of stupidity? Its as if the Fuji TV mandated a villain be in the story and we have downtrodden survivors of a company downsizing.
FIRE EMBLEM IF : BYAKUYA OUKOKU
I fucking hate moe. Its brought us K-on but ruined JRPGs forever. Fire Emblem if should have been called Fantasy Marriage Simulation. Not only is the story, at least for Byakuya Oukoku (White Night Kindgom) so freaking boring, there is no character development and every conversation is basically moe tropes that have nothing to do with the story.
At least Stella Glow limited access to conversations until you reached a certain stage because the tuning/dating had something to do with the story. Let's not mention you as the commander calling your troops into your abode so you can molest them with your 3DS touch pen and somehow all of them like it.
Did I mention its a war story but really its about how everyone likes the main character because he or she is so nice or how the kids who magically grow up into teenagers in an instant bit is shoehorned into the game for whatever reason. (At least it fucking made sense in Awakening with the time travel) I married Akua but the relationship with her in the main story is more like a comrade. I'm never buying another Fire Emblem game ever again. Fire Emblem If makes Stella Glow look like Shining Force. Fuck moe.
Oh yeah, I'm now playing through Anya Oukoku (Black Night Kingdom) and Nintendo is basically using all the assets from the first story. Seriously, the only effort they've done is come up with stupid boring conversation between all the characters. Sigh.
UTAWARERUMONO PORTABLE
A remastered hentai strategy RPG for the PSP which is more like a visual novel with some easy strategy elements. Actually, it feels very much like listening to a radio play with minimal visuals. Most surprisingly, the story is pretty good and the characters very memorable. It made me really excited for the sequel coming out soon.
Until the science fiction twist that killed the story for me. It works for stuff like Grandia 2 cause the twist was awesome but in Utawarerumono it feels like a twist for the sake of a twist. I enjoyed the warring kingdoms and Hakuoro having to make difficult decisions.
I was so hyped and was going to preorder the collector's edition of Itsuwari no Kamen until the twist. I'll probably get Itsuwari no Kamen just for the characters from the first game.
I was really looking forward to this cause its got 3 of my favourite actors; Koizumi Kotaro, Toyohara Kosuke aka Mr Lan Evo and Konishi Manami. So a body of a young woman is found by Koizumi Kotaro in a forest where people go commit suicide and her liver has been removed.
Mr Lan Evo is the cop who orders an autopsy on the body. Two people were injured during a scuffle and taken to a hospital where it is discovered that they were liver donor and patient. Kinpachi sensei is the doctor suspected of doing the operation.
The last story thread is that Koizumi Kotaro wrote an article about a young girl who was confined by her stalker which resulted in the girl committing suicide and him getting blamed. Yep, Japan loves blaming everyone else but the criminal.
To be honest, the first episode is pretty boring. It looks great but every revelation just makes me go "......and?". Hopefully it gets interesting for episode 2.
Toda Erika is a young executive at Sunrise, a huge company that does everything like Sony etc. She is in charge of the development of this super long lasting battery. Like a WOWOW dorama, something goes wrong with the battery and the God of Risk, Tsutsumi Shinichi gets involved.
First off, the first thing that made me go WTF was casting Toda Erika as a young executive. I thought they should have at least cast someone who looks 30 something. Luckily, her age is a big part of her character so that's cool. Thank the jdorama gods they did not cast Ueto Aya in this.
The talent in Risk no Kamisama is pretty good with Furuta Arata and Yamaguchi Sayaka. I like the concept of this show; a high flying executive who is way too young and naive not works in risk management and has to clean up other people's problems.
There's also the issue of company politics with the bad guy from Moteki in one corner and Kita Yoshio as always in the other. (Can they please cast someone else as the smiling, good guy puppet master besides Kita Yoshio. Not saying he's bad but there must be other actors out there. How about Toyohara Kosuke, Mr Lan Evo from Densha?)
Really promising first episode. Risk no Kamisama feels like a WOWOW show with a getsu 9 budget. Let's see how many interesting stories they can get out of Sunrise creating defective products. Thanks to shikashitsuji for subbing ep 1!
