Jmovie review: Outrage

I was in serious need of some a dark and violent Japanese movie and turned to Outrage, a yakuza film by Beat Takeshi. I think his last film that I saw was Zatoichi which I didn't like but really needed to watch something Japanese that wasn't set in fairytale land.

Outrage has your typical yakuza stuff of people in suits sitting in dinghy offices shouting all the time and using words like konoyarou and namenjaneiyo. Its also got a healthy dose of violence including pinky finger cutting, beating people up, gun violence and various entertaining ways of offing people. The movie is basically lots of yelling, shouting and politics in the first 40 or so minutes followed by someone dying every five minutes in the 2nd half.

Now I'm having second thoughts about hitting random snack bars in Japan.

Problem with Outrage is that there's not much of a story besides everyone tries to screw everyone and last man standing wins. The movie is called Outrage but there's no outrage to be seen or felt. Just characters inhabiting a dog eat dog world where one's life is tied to who your immediate boss is. There are no interesting characters, no relationships to explore just a bunch of random yakuzas.

Outrage is cold and hard yakuza violence porn. Besides that, it doesn't much anything beyond the violence. If only Beat Takeshi did the adaptation of Ryu ga Gotoku instead of Miike Takashi. The story from the first game and Beat Takeshi's gritty violence would have made an awesome yakuza movie. There's also a subplot involving a foreign ambassador and as always, they've cast someone with bad acting and wrote some cringing English dialogue. Watchable but nothing much beyond the violence.

Yup, Kita Yoshio is in every Japanese movie.

Heaven Cannot Wait

Looking for something to watch after Rich Man turned into Magma and Iki mo Dekinai Natsu had no idea what it wanted to be about? Heaven Cannot Wait was one of my first jdoramas and the DVD rip is currently being subbed by Avallac'h. Looking at the cast does set off alarm bells. It takes a special type of awful acting ability to overact to the point of stupidity like Matsuoka Masahiro did in Yasuko to Kenji. Coincidentally, his band mate from TOKIO Nagase Tomoya also set a new low for awful overacting in Mukodono 2003. Not to mention Mr Overacting and beady eyes himself Jinnai Takanori.

I must have seen it over 12 years ago but I remember the dorama fondly. Haven't had time to really sit down and see if it still holds up. Got too much to watch and play and not to mention kanji to study. I did skim the first episode and its still like I remember it. The reason that I remember Heaven Cannot Wait so fondly is hopefully not because I was new to jdoramas but because it it has a good concept and it was executed well.

One day, sunglasses wearing Angel pops in front of young lad Shiro and tell him that he will die that day unless the completes a certain task which involves helping somone. Yup, basic plot is down on his luck, average guy has to complete 10 tasks or he will die. The fun part is figuring out how he should have died in each episode and how helping someone will save him. I remember being impressed by the funny situations the writer came out with.

On the acting department, at least it has the two guys from GTO and my memory says the two leads were pretty funny. So I am going to declare Heaven Cannot Wait a light heated must watch comedy with the caveat that I might have been more easily impressed by jdoramas when I first saw it. I've seen a lot of doramas and I've got old doramas that I don't even remember anything about except the name like Suiyobi no Joji so there must be a good reason I can remember this vividly. Give it a go, I'm going to help seed for a while but will have to get rid of it on my bt com as its taking so much space.

Dragon seinendan eps 1+2

Last year, we had Yuusha Yoshihiko, a really funny love letter to Japanese RPGs that spoofed the whole genre and made fun of many RPG conventions. This year, we have Dragon seinendan, yet another love budget love letter to RPGs but instead of making fun of RPG conventions, it sets the story in the modern age and uses the conventions in the real world.

When I say real world, I don't mean nitty gritty, just that its set in the modern era. So instead of our heroes getting a quest from the king, they get it from the the head of the youth group. Instead of killing monsters, its participating in a social activity which leads them to uncovering a map in the unlikeliest of places. The fun is watching the characters do RPG like stuff in an everyday setting.

Dragon seinendan is fun. Its not going to make you laugh 10 times per episode like Yuusha Yoshihiko but its amusing. Plus its got Renbutsu Misako. :) Not going to declare it must watch until at least the half way point and see how they are going to keep it interesting and get around its budget limitations. Since its not a spoof, they can't just throw around a stuffed koala and pretend its an evil creature attacking. Dragon seinendan is recommended for people who love their RPGs and those looking for an amusing jdorama.

Jmovie review: Ace Attorney / Gyakuten Saiban

Everytime I review a Miike film, I always start of with how much a hits and miss director he is. In terms of videogame adaptations, I am still angry at him for wasting the potential of Ryu ga Gotoku movie. Instead of adapting a hard boiled yakuza movie with some absurd situations, he turned it into an absurd movie and with a yakuza story that wasn't built up properly. Still, Ace Attorney is my most anticipated jmovie this year besides the Berserk movies and word from the festival screenings has been good. I wanted to see at the MIFF but unfortunately, tickets for two screenings were already sold out.I played Ace Attorney for a bit a long time ago and finished the first game this year in anticipation of the movie.



Ace Attorney is undoubtedly the greatest video game to movie adaptation ever. Miike has embraced the absurd in this one and cut down the 6 cases into 3 with a 2 hour and 15 minutes runtime. Instead of grounding it in 'reality' Miike has taken all the elements of the game and made them real. The three cases though are inserted into the movie in passing. Most importantly, the movie takes itself seriously. The actors are really the game characters come to life and there's no winking at the camera.



From the beginning, I had a huge smile on my face because the movie is as faithful to the source material as Watchmen. I can't believe the actors actually succeeded in making the facial expressions from the game. Its the first time I've seen real live action actually look like drawings. It shows Miike has actually played the game, unlike Ryu ga gotoku. The only thing missing were Mia Fey's cleavage.



For people who have played the game, Ace Attorney movie is a blast to watch. Most of the time I'm just goes oohhh I remember this or ahhh, I can't believe that appeared in the movie! No idea who it would play for people who have not played the game but I suspect they mind find it a bit long. With 3 court cases and not much character stuff. Must watch if you've played the game. If you have not, I recommend the game more than the movie.



Just ran out of upload space on blogger. WTF. Uploading from photobucket is a pain. Sigh. I wonder if there's a way to store pictures on gmail and upload it to blogger? One complaint though is that the subtitles used the English names from the game which doesn't work in a Japanese movie. Its like watching Macross and Hikaru is translated as Rick. I understand its for fans of the game but I'm pretty sure the fans will recognise the characters even with Japanese names. It was very jarring for me with different names being spoken and written and some of the puns with Naruhodo's name didn't work with the subtitles saying Wright.






Kita Yoshio had to show up somewhere. :)

Jmovie review: Noriko's Dinner Table

The first Sono Sion movie I ever saw was Suicide Club (Jisatsu Circle). It was a very weird movie with lots of gore and I stopped watching halfway cause there was one scene involving cats I could not stomach and the movie seemed like shock porn.  Years later, I watched Love Exposure because it came highly recommended by TwitchFilm and it was four freaking hours of getting my mind blown. Since then, I've seen Cold Fish, Guilty of Romance and Himizu; non close to the brilliance of Love Exposure but always entertaining.

Noriko's Dinner Table has been mentioned a few times in the comments and I had to check it out. Its sort of a sequel to Suicide Club since it is set in the same world but is more similar to Love Exposure. I would even say that its sort of the beta version of Love Exposure with chapters of multiple character viewpoints, and characters slowly peeling back layers and everything coming together in the end.

Noriko's Dinner Table starts of with Noriko, a 17 year old girl living in a peaceful town suddenly finding herself in Tokyo and her chapter goes on to explain how she got there in the first place. The next chapter is about her sister Yuka played by Yoshitaka Yuriko and so on.

The middle of the movie is a much better version of Kazoku Kashimasu with twice emotional charge. Instead of playing it like a fairytale, Sono Sion uses it to explore the people playing the fake families than the people needing and willing to pay money for pretend families. It very much reminded of watching the first half of Audition, a subplot of a movie that is so fun that I wished the movie was just about that.

However, Noriko's dinner table is about much more than that. It is an exploration of many ideas like human relationship and how people seek them out but the exploration never feels shortchanged. *cough* DKR *cough* I don't know how Sono Sion does it. He writes damaged characters, puts them in absurd situations and creates great drama.

I absolutely adored 85% of the movie. Unfortunately, the ending was way too long for me. Sono Sion wanted to get somewhere but the felt it needed some bloodshed at the end. Actually I didn't mind the bloodbath but what followed afterwards took too much time the emotional charge had fizzled and by the time the ending scene came I couldn't be stuffed working it out. The movie is still 1 1/2 hours shorter than Love Exposure but the story lost me in the end.

As much as I want to, I can't put a must watch tag for Noriko's Dinner Table. Its like the WOWOW dorama Chase. Everything was perfect until the end and the first thought that comes to me is if only it had ended better. Its very much worth watching though. Acting and directing is awesome. Lots of brilliantly funny, moving and messed up scenes that only a director like Sono Sion and maybe Park Chan Wook can bring.  

Ahh screw it. Inserting the screencaps made me think about how brilliant most of the movie is. Flawed brilliance is still brilliant.

Furuhata Ninzaburo ep 11

The best episode yet! I wasn't that sold on the crime seeing it was done with two efficient blows to the head. How was she sure the blows were fatal? Nevertheless, the rest of the episode was a sublime combination of mystery, comedy and great acting. It is an absolute delight watching Furuhata playing catch and mouse with the suspect, especially when the role is well written and acted. I rejoice at not having the urge to skim a scene because I am hanging on every words and savouring every delicious facial expression. Masakazu Tamura's defining role for me used to be the dad from Oyaji. Now its Furuhata Ninzaburo. Absolutely not be missed.

Iki mo Dekinai Natsu eps 3-7

Yes, I was still watching this. More like half watching, half skimming. Its kind of like Tokkan in the sense I like the subject matter but there are superfluous elements that I just skip. What is wrong with Iki mo Dekinai Natsu is that it tries to do too much. There's this family history of violence thing which started off with a young girl finding out that she's not in her family register.

There is of course my favourite bit which is the exploration of people who do not belong in any family register. Let's not forget abusive dad who is dying and seeking redemption. Boohoo. Let's not forget the dad looks 30 which means he did the mom when he was 13. Who the fuck was in charge of casting the dad? Last of all is the Kiyama - Rei relationship whic is a complete fail.

Even though I'm 31 and you're 19!

Why even bother trying to turn it into a love story? Eguchi basically plays the vice president of common sense in Iki mo Dekinai Natsu. Rei gets all emotional about have the her name moved to mom's ex-husband's family register and Eguchi basically asks her if that really actually matters?  She gets all panicking about who her real dad and Kiyama tells her to stop worrying about what she can't find out and asks her if it really matters who her dad is.

He will always be Manpyo Daisuke to me.

Kiyama is more Yoda to our young heroine is having all sorts of problems thrown at her. The writer tries to convince us there's something more going on by turning the wife into a yandere, claiming that she notices Kiyama has changed and is more lively which break the very important rule of show, don't tell. If they wanted to make this work, episode 1 should have sold us more on Kiyama's habits before meeting Rei. They tried but I don't see it. Takei Emi just does not have the ability to elevate the material.

Iki mo Dekinai Natsu is not a disaster but I don't see any hope. Episode 8 will be the family history being revealed to the media and only in Japan can news about unfortunate people actually cause them hardship instead of sympathy. Its watchable but there's no chance of it turning the corner.

Jdorama news ramblings 25/8/12

TBS AND WOWOW JOINT DRAMA - DOUBLE FACE

You can read all about it here. I love the Infernal Affairs trilogy and the idea of two doramas set in the same world featuring characters on both sides of the coin, showing at the same time is mind blowing. How awesome would it be to see something happen from one perspective and then the same week from another? TBS and WOWOW better not fuck this up though Japan has rarely shown they can do good serious cop shows with the exceptions of Gonzo, Rinjo and Gaiji Keisatsu.

Here's hoping they explore the duality in Infernal Affairs with subtlety. No stupid moral preaching and hope it doesn't turn into The Departed which completely missed what made Infernal Affairs so good in the first place. If this turns into Rondo, I will completely give up on Japanese cop shows. Actually just realised that Densha is in it. WTF? I don't see him pulling an Ijyuiin in Tetsu no Hone and showing us he can actually act.

HIGASHINO KEIGO DOESN'T LIKE HIS MYSTERIES?

Jadefrost wrote about the writer not liking the dorama series. I am up to episode 5 and I feel like the stories should have been done as 2 hour doramas specials. Just not enough time to build up the characters and all you have left is the twist. It doesn't suck but nothing really stands out either. Seems like writers don't have much power in jdorama land. I wonder whether its common practice to have writers on set rewriting and reworking stuff? I suppose jdorama schedules are tighter and they don't have the luxury of time unlike movies.

DRAGON SEINENDAN

Just realised from Jdrama Weblog that there's a jdorama about a dragon appearing in Tokyo. Hope it is stupid fun like Yuusha Yoshihiko. Its got Santamaria Yusuke and Renbutsu Misako so I am definitely checking it out!

Jmovie review: Byakuyako

Someone asked for recommendations dark doramas and the first dorama that popped into my head was Byakuyako. I remember that dorama most not for Yamada Takayuki nor Ayase Haruka's acting but for Fukuda Mayuko's acting. Its one of those godlike first episodes that I will always remember like the first episode of Shokuzai. The Byakuyako dorama started off pretty good but got bogged down by Kinpachi sensei's character. It was basically a boring wait watching him uncover everything that the audience knew and there wasn't anything to his character.

I was working through a list of dark doramas when I remembered there was a Byakuyako movie. Why didn't I get around to watching it? Looked it up and realised it was because of Horikita Maki. By the dorama gods, I hate her because she is so overpushed. She couldn't even keep a straight face doing Teppan Shoujo Akane. What have I got to lose besides two hours of my time? Plus its got Kora Kengo who is the go to guy for dark WOWOW doramas.

Byakuyako the movie is very different from the dorama. The dorama starts from the shocking incident and is about the two characters. The movie is more mystery as the policeman slowly unravels the plot through a long period. Instead of being about the two characters, its more about the people around them. How everyone is like them, looking for happiness despite their bitter past experiences. I couldn't help thinking how I wished I could erase my memory of the dorama so I could enjoy the mystery more.

The movie finishes very strong and I would say its stronger than the dorama in terms of structure. I need to rewatch the dorama again. Can't remember much and I only reviewed up to ep 7 but the movie finishes strong. I would say the movie and dorama are both different animals and the movie is definitely darker. Less emphasis on the main characters also means Horikita Maki doesn't have to carry the movie whereas the dorama hinges upon showing the relationship between the two characters.

Acting wise, the movie is not as good as the dorama but that has a lot to do with it being more of a mystery movie than an exploration of two people with a horrible past. If you like dark stories, this is a must watch.

For a dark dorama list besides Soredemo, I would go for (in no particular order)

1. Byakuyakou
2. Shokuzai - weaker middle with strong start and finish
3. Tsumi to Batsu - Strong first half and slow second half
4. Koukou Kyoushi 1993 - not that dark though
5. Marks no Yama
6. Youkame no Semi
7. Ai nante iraneeyo
8. Enka no Joou - dark comedy. Don't think they succeed but I like the effort.

Tokkan ep 4

Tokkan is a show where I know what I like and what I dislike about it. There are moments of this is very interesting and moments of pure mediocrity.

WHAT I LIKED:

- No stupid arbitrary workplace abuse. Sure Inoue Mao gets shouted at and stuff but that's more towards her inexperience and jealousy from her uni-mate played by Kinami Haruka. The revelation that Unoue Mao's boss caused her to be set up was funny.

- The whole department is not incompetent. (Shocking, I know) Sick of doramas where no one does their work and the protagonist has to teach them one by one.

- The four episodes was actually one big story which had some nice twists and turns.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Still way too preachy and too many moral debates. Tax has nothing to do with morality! They are trying to put Inoue Mao's moral struggles at the forefront of her story but it should always be about tax.

SUMMARY

- I'm not expecting it to be as good as Chase but finger crossed the writing  for ep 5 onwards concentrates more on tax investigating than Inoue Mao's emotions. Watchable.