Chinmoku Hotei

A big thank you to Buck for reminding me about Chinmoku Hotei with Nagasaku Hiromi (Aoi Tori) as this dubious house cleaner with a muddy history who is suspected of committing murder.

THE GOOD

+ Tanaka Tetsushi as the slimy solicitor who takes on Nagasaku Hiromi's case with ulterior motives. I really like his character and he kept it interesting.
+Sugimoto Tetta and Usuda Asami as the two coppers who investigate the case.

+ Your usual great WOWOW direction and gritty look.
+ Its a show about how perception is reality and sometimes the worst people are right in front of you hiding in plain sight.

THE BAD
- The overacting from the slimy news producer and dodgy cop are too obvious. Its not Hanzawa Naoki bad but I think a bit more subtlety would have made the series more intriguing. What's with Japanese always wanting to make the bad people so obvious?

THE UGLY
= Nagasawa Hiromi has no wrinkles on her face. Seriously a baby has more wrinkles than her. Seriously Japan needs to stop with this wrinkle free nonsense.

SUMMARY

Another quality WOWOW show to add to the list. It kind of reminds me of Hokuto with the climax being a trial but Chinmoku Hotei is a good story about society is too quick to judge and act in one's interests without regard for truth. Very watchable.

Goodbye Games Ma-ya

Today is the last day of Games Ma-ya in Kasai and the whole thing is being streamed on Niconico here. Game Ma-ya is a Japanese gaming shop that has been around for 35 years and I have only been aware of its existence for the last two years reading the shoopkeeper's blog.

I read the blog mostly for Japanese practice but also it was fun seeing things from a perspective of a shop owner. I liked it when she wrote about people who had frequented her store as kids now brought their own kids there or how people went out of their way to buy things from the shop even though they lived further away. I went all the way to Kasai last year to Games Ma-ya but chickened out of talking to tenchou which I bloody regret now.

One thing that was noticeable reading the blog was that tenchou started to take more time off due to her health and finally she announced that she was closing down because of her health.

There will be a couple of big name people from the gaming industry showing up at Games Maya's last day including Arino Kacho from Game Centre CX and Nagoshi from the Yakuza series. Watching the live stream, I'm struck by how many people turned out to congratulate tencho and bid the store goodbye. 35年お疲れ様ですゲームズマーヤの店長！

Legend of Galactic Heroes Die Neue These Episode 1

It is here! The remake of perhaps the greatest anime series ever made! When news appeared maybe two years ago, I was skeptical. How could you remake perfection? As a fan, I only wanted one thing; that the anime become popular that your average anime fan would know the names of Wang Wen Li and Reinhard von Lohengramm as much as Luffy and Naruto. That the name Iserlohn and Rosen Ritter would would bring a smile to people's faces similarly to when people think of the Eclipse or The Bank of the Hawk. (OK, maybe not The Eclipse)

I kept my expectations very low. My initial reaction to the redesigns and voice acting in the trailers wasn't so good. I thought , "hat doesn't not sound like the Reinhard and Yang-Wen Li I know!" Nevertheless, I sat down to watch episode 1 with bated breath.

What I remember about the early episodes of the original LoGH series was that it introduced 50 characters and I was busy trying to keep track of who was who before the story got going.

Die Nueue These solves this very problem by only introducing characters from the Galactic Empire. Instead of introducing all the characters from the alliance side, the audience could guess what was going on and Kircheis gave Yang Wen-Li such a great introduction: What if they had someone as smart as Reinhard on the other side?

Such a compact but brilliant storytelling move because Yang and Reinhard are both sides of the same coin. It also builds up anticipation not only how Yang is going to lead his men to victory like he promised but who is he exactly? I got crazy goosebumps when Kircheis said that line. Episode 1 of LoGH Die Neue These has surpassed my expectations. Absolue must watch.

Anone 6~10 Spoiler review

Anone is a show about a group of people who have been hard done by life and somehow got together to form this little family and got caught up in a scheme to print counterfeit money that could work on machines.

Anone is a widow who had to raise the child of her husband's mistress and now that child won't acknowledge her anymore. Aoba-san lost her daughter and her family did not even treat her as a human being. Mochimoto-san, well he was just too pussy to push back against the world so I've got sympathy for him.

It seemed like Nakaseko-san was abused as a child and something happened to his younger brother and he grew up wanting to be free.  According to him he wanted to be like the guy in black, able to exist outside the system ie not work but I think it was his way of dealing with pain.

Nikaseko was someone who had it all, lost most of it and still had his wonderful wife and child but just could not bury that hole in his heart. I think Nikaseko was someone who did not know how to be happy.

However, no one was as pitiful as Harika and no one worked as hard to better their life and no one was more selfless. This jdorama may be called Anone but Harika was its heart. Hirose Suzu did an incredible job of playing this character who had all the reasons to hate the world but didn't.

Towards the end, I really feel in love with the characters and this is a phrase that can only be used for Sakamoto Yuji doramas like Quartet. He has the ability to write idiosyncratic characters and imbue them with interesting dialogue almost like a god breathing life to clay models. It is an ability that very few writers do have.

That said, storyline-wise Anone wasn't terribly exciting show. The Anone crush with deadly disease and ojousan girl part was too soap opera for me but it did produce this great Hirose Suzu scene where her face was saying one thing and her words another.

I really enjoyed my 10 episodes with the characters and Hirose Suzu showed that she can really act but my first instinct is that Anone is not a must watch. I would like to award it a must watch but I can't.

I remember reading somewhere that Sakamoto Yuji is taking a break from scriptwriting. Jdramas are not the same without him. He has written some of the best jdoramas of the past 10+ years except for Ryokiteki no Kanojo. Very watchable.  

5 reasons not to watch Creepy 2016 movie

1. Nishijima Hidetoshi's very wooden portrayal of the ex cop with an obsession with serial killers. I know he's supposed to be a detached character but Nishijima's acting felt so fake.

2. Kawaguchi Haruna's character who seemed like such an important character until she is forgotten in the middle. Did her agency contribute 50% of the funds for the movie or something?

3. The movie is way to long and the pacing is too slow. Should be 1hr 40 instead of 2 hours. The Kawaguchi Haruna parts could have easily been excised.

4. Too many things that the bad guy managed to do are unexplained. I know movies can't explain every little thing but this show is very much about the killer's motus operandi and some thing of the things he pulls made me scratch my head thinking, "The method he did this can't be so simple, can it?"

5. The final twist that does not make any sense. All I could think of was since when? Ultimately, its the final twist that kills Creepy for me. It feels like someone realising a twist is required despite the fact that it does not make sense.

SUMMARY

Kurosawa Kiyoshi is a good director but when a story is full of holes, bland execution cannot save this. Disappointing. I feel like rewatching Gukoroku or Destruction Babies if get rid of the bad stench of Creepy. Avoid. I'm just pissed off watching two crappy movies in a row with Creepy and Museum and both having so much talent.

Museum jmovie review

Museum is a Se7en-ish crime thriller/gore fest about Oguri Shun playing a cop who trying to find the identity of this serial killer who runs around in a frog mask. Ono Machiko plays Oguri's wife who had just walked out on him and her main job is to say although he's a good cop, he's a horrible father.

A bit of a side bar, the spouse who is never at home reason for leaving does not work unless there is alcohol, drugs, affairs or gambling involved. The reason is without time for the audience to gain empathy, showing Ono Machiko leaving just cause Oguri Shun forgot birthdays just makes me not care for her character.

I think Museum just fails at making the little details necessary to make thrillers work. For example, when the big reveal that Oguri's wife was a potential target happened what followed was not the other police officers asking when did you last see her, has she used her credit card or withdrawn money from the bank, or have you checked with relatives and friends but rather policemen running around finding dead bodies and Oguri Shun acting angry until someone FINALLY asks him if he remembered what they last wore.

Before the movie went around showing the dead bodies, the first thing should have been police officers extracting information from Oguri Shun cause the 'I don't know where they are' is unsufficient.

Forgot the mention the car chase seen early in the movie was pretty bad. If you don't have the proper budget to do a proper car chase seen, just do a foot chase.

A lot of things just feel contrived like the identity of the doctor or the twist of the final plan which sort of makes sense but then where's the 'art' in it? Its just the more exciting they try to make it, the more lame and boring the movie became. Maybe if they made Museum a drama series it would be better because they could have given more time to the punishments. If you want a good Japanese serial killer story, Yami no Bansosha is must better. Avoid.

Hamsapsukebe Jdorama Awards 2017

It is time for this small blog read by 5 people to honour the best that Jdoramas had to offer in 2017. The year started with the incredible Quartet and the whole year has been about whether anything would get close to being as good.

I just want to mention when taking screencaps for Quartet, I realised to my horror that I was missing the final episode of Quartet on both my backup hdds. Always triple check everything before deleting. While jdramacity is no more, through the powers of google I was able to find a working torrent somewhere with the 480 versions. Hhm, maybe I should get this in 720 format since its that good...

If you are new to this, the awards are decided by a one man panel of myself having watched as many jdoramas as I could from 2017. I avoid most if not all johnny and Fukada Kyoko jdoramas so that means no Code Blue and whatever that Kimutaku show is. Its pretty much scientifically guaranteed that those two shows are crap.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

OHSUGI REN FINAL FANTASY DADDY OF LIGHT

Has there been an actor as good at portraying the stubborn dad with a heart of gold? He is dearly missed.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

MITSUSHIMA HIKARI QUARTET

She is almost in a statosphere of her own.

BEST ACTOR

NAKAYAMA YUMA HOKUTO

I never thought the day would come when I would give the award to an aidoru but there you go.

BEST ACTRESS

MATSU TAKAKO QUARTET

I hardly ever get to see her in shows anymore but she shows in Quartet that she is right up there with Mitsushima Hikari.

HONORABLE MENTIONS OF 2017

RAKUEN

PAPAKATSU

MILLION YEN WOMEN

FINAL FANTASY DADDY OF LIGHT

KAHOGO NO KAHOKO

MEISHI GAME 

CHINMOKU HOTEI 

OKAASAN, MUSUME WO YAMETE II DESU KA?


TOP 5 BEST JDORAMAS OF 2017

5) ISHI TSUBUTE

4) HANZAI SHOKUGUN

3) BYPLAYERS

 

2) HOKUTO

1) QUARTET

SUMMARY

While the year started off with a bang, it sort of fizzled out in that the quality was not as strong as in previous years. One could argue that the only true must watch jdorama released in 2017 was Hokuto,  Quartet and Ishi Tsubute.

Hokuto ga Gotoku review

Ryu ga Gotoku Studio's latest game after the disappointing Kiwami 2 is Hokuto ga Gotoku, a mashup of Fist of the North Star and Yakuza series of games. The Yakuza series is no stranger to spin offs set in someone else's story such as Kenzan! which was about the Miyamoto Musashi story and Ishin! which was about Sakamoto Ryoma and the Shinsengumi.

Both Kenzan! and Ishin! featured Yakuza characters as historical characters and it was fun figuring out who was going to play which famous character. Hokuto ga Gotoku has the Yakuza voice actors portraying the famous anime characters without changing their appearance.

Alas Hokuto ga Gotoku happens to be the worst spin off Yakuza game ever, not counting Kurohyou 2 on the PSP. 


THINGS I LIKED
+ Kiryu kills people or rather we have a RGG game where the main character kills.
+ The Bounty Hunter Reaper story.
+ Kenshiro's exploding moves look nice.
+ Befriending the shopkeepers by pouring them drinks though the storylines feel half assed.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE
- The most grindy RGG game ever. There isn't that much content and budget so they made it this super grindy look for parts and bolts festival.
- They've turned the fun cabaret club management sim from Yakuza 0 into a boring grind fest.
- They made it very hard to get skill points which are essential to unlocking moves or rather its not very balanced such as needing to perform poorly during the music game in order to attain them.
- Inability to skip exploding scenes with a button.
- The city of Eden does not feel very alive.
- Stupid ending with twists and turns that defy any logical explanation. If you thought Crystal Skull was bad....

SUMMARY

Disappointing game. I think Nagoshi said they went with the old Yakuza engine cause it was easier and the team was younger but this plays like a game made with no vision that was hastily slapped together. Stay away.

Anone Episodes 1~4

There were quite a few comments about Anone and I was supposed to do the Hamsapsukebe 2017 awards but I could not wait to see what the fuss regarding Sakamoto Yuji's new jdorama was about. It starts off with two characters looking for a place to die and turns into a sort of comedy about fake money.

THINGS I LIKED ABOUT ANONE
+ The twist regarding Hazure's past is really cool. I feel like Sakamoto Yuji could have milked it even more and turned it to more of a horror show.
+ Any scene between Anone and Hazure.
+ The ghost daughter story.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT ANONE
- The kid in the hospital, Kanon. I know he gives Hazure impetus to do things but I don't give a shit about him. Maybe he'll end up not being the person she's been looking at.
- Abe Sadao's character being such a pussy he lets people trample all over him.
- Still haven't figured out where the lawyer guy fits into this.

SUMMARY

Anone still hasn't hooked me yet. I kind of still don't get what this show is about except that its about a bunch of people with problems. Its got the acting and writing pedigree but I can't see the whole picture. I'll keep watching just because its Sakamoto. I've been really busy with Hokuto ga Gotoku so its going to be a while before I get to the awards.

Ishitsubute

Ishitsubute is yet another WOWOW corruption dorama, this time Kitamira Kazuki as the employee from the Ministry of Foreign affairs who is involved in a very interesting corruption case with Sato Koichi and Eguchi Yusuke as the police investigators from the second division.

If you've seen a WOWOW corruption show, you've seen Ishitsubute; the two main investigators who can't get along, the usual Japanese office politics of people applying political pressure and the slight overacting in showing anger when characters get bad news delivered to them.

Ishitsubute was still fun for me because its still an underdog story about investigators trying to go after some very big fish. The step by step investigation into how the corruption was carried out was interesting and how the investigators slowly built their case.

Ishitsubute was really hard for me to watch and was going to drop it until someone suggested I try to look for Japanese subs and to my surprise jpsubbers had the subs! Before this, I could never get Japanese subs for WOWOW shows and its got my wondering what other WOWOW subs I could find. If I can find Japanese subs for Mosaic Japan, I might be tempted to sub it cause I love that show so much.

Anyway, I just want to say Ishitsubete is a pretty standard WOWOW show that doesn't suck but doesn't do anything good either. I had fun learning all the political jargon, most of which I have forgotten.