Hatsukoi eps 2-6

I am very, very happy to say that Hatsukoi has managed to stay good for seven episodes so far. Everything is consistently excellent. The direction, camera shots, music and acting all are to use to words of a commenter, cinematic quality. The flashbacks keeps the story intriguing as we slowly get the whole picture. What is good is that we don't just get flashbacks for Mishima and Midori but also Jun and Midori.

You know how fling doramas always start off hot and cools at the middle after the affair happens? Hotsukoi does something different in the second half which I should have seen coming that keeps the story from getting stale. Usually the couple will run off and come return to their homes later for a boring ending. Hatsukoi does something that keeps the tension going but in a different way.

The interesting thing for me in Hatsukoi is exploration of how what happened in the past influenced the characters' lives. Why Mishima and Midori chose their respective professions. Midori's painful secret that only her father knows. Why Mishima broke up with her.

Ever wondered how blind people could watch movies/dramas? Well, the vid for episode 7 actually has audio description. The narrator will say out the setting of the scene, ie Murakami house and describe important actions such as a character avoiding eye contact with another. It was kind of unsettling at first I like it now because I have trouble studying Japanese verbs especially descriptive ones.

Two more episode two go. At this point, I don't really care how it ends because I feel like I know the characters pretty well now. I love taking screencaps of Hatsukoi because there are so many beautiful images. I probably should do a write up of every single episode so I can take more but couldn't resist watching the rest. If only most jdoramas can look like Hatsukoi.

FAV SCENES. !!SPOILERS!

- All the flashback scenes cause they are so elegently crafted
- Jun dealing with all the obasans at work which is the source of comedy for Hatsukoi.
- Scenes with Midori being too cheerful and you can see the unease in Jun's eyes.
- Any scene with Midori's old dude patient. He is such a useful supporting character who can say so much with so little. Like him holding Midori's hand in ep 1 when she tells him she has cancer or talking to her about secrets.
- Mishima says Dori's name in ep 6.
- Midori's dad offering the piggy back scene. I love how we don't see his face and just see his shaking back.
- And of course, when he finally finds out the source of his anger after so many years. Look at the screencap below. Such a short but so powerful scene.

The Dark Knight Rises

Just came back from a 3am screening of the third movie in Nolan's Batman trilogy. What a disappointment. I can't believe all the positive reviews online. Were they watching the same movie? Don't read on if you haven't watched it. If you're going to watch it, dial down your expectations.

What I didn't like:

- Batman is chased by cops on his bike to a dark alley and then flies off with his plane the bat. Did he just leave the bike in the alley for the cops to grab or is he able to store it on the bat? Whoever did the CG for the bat did a poor job on it.

- Alfred getting all weepy just because he's seen a video of Bane taking people out. I don't buy his fear because Bane is strong. Batman's got all sorts of gadgets in his utility belt.

- 50 day fusion bomb hostage situation where the hostage is Gotham City. In a movie about a guy dressed as a bat who doesn't use guns or kill. The movie needed 10 extra minutes to sell me on this cause I just don't buy it. It somehow did not seem believable to me. The scope is so big that short scenes of some army people talking, Scarecrow running  a mock court and people going nuts outside a hotel are not enough for it to seem real.


- Cops with guns running headlong into bad guys with guns?! I know Nolan wanted his Tale of two cities image but WTF? 300 people with guns don't rush at people with guns in a confined area. They take cover and have a shoot out. All the cops should have been mowed down. Batman comes in with the bat, shoots/disables a few batmobiles and the flies off. Uumm, how about gunning down some baddies. Oh yeah, Batman doesn't use guns to shoot people.

- Bane's got the time to smuggle an injured Bruce Wayne out of the United States into some prison somewhere (let's assume Africa) which is at the bottom of a well and is unguarded. Wow, hope no one comes across this 'prison'. Anyone thought about making some rope with cloth, attaching it with a something to grapple on and maybe throw it up from the halfway point of the climb?

- TDK had 'plot holes' but there wasn't enough time and the narrative was strong and tight enough that it didn't matter. We didn't need to know when and how Joker managed to put bombs all over the hospital because I bought the big picture story of Batman vs Joker for the soul of Harvey Dent. We've got head scratching stuff like Batman rescuing Gordon and then straight after that rescuing Robin which is happening in another location. The movie depicts Gordon and Robin's life as being in danger at the same time and I was expecting Catwoman to rescue Robin. 


- Nolan had big ideas but TDKR is lacking execution. The narrative was all over the place. The tale of two cities stuff was unnecessary. The have vs have nots narrative didn't lead anywhere.

What I liked:

- Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. Wow. Imagine if Nolan had kept the story simpler.

- Thanks goodness the ending wasn't Batman flying off into the sunset and exploding into a mushroom cloud.

Rich Man Poor Woman Ep 1

Can you spell foreshadowing?

Rich man poor woman is an updated version of Pretty Woman which was of course an updated version of Cinderella. Prince was changed to rich businessman and now updated to the Japanese version of Mark Zuckerberg. The poor, abused stepsister was changed to a prostitute and is now a dojikko University graduate struggling to find work. End of the day, the concept is the same; regular meets Knight in Shining Armour to rescue her from regular life and she becomes a princess.

What makes Rich Man Poor Woman different? Its got Oguri Shun as Hyuga Toru, the Japanese Mark Zuckerberg who's company looks like a copy of Google headquarters and he's a big plan about online database for Japanese citizens. The interesting about his character is that he has a disability whereby he is unable to remember names and faces. Fingers crossed in doesn't advance into a debilitating fatal disease. If this were a kdrama, its almost a guarantee and Poor Woman would end up being his sister.

Wait, we're suppose to believe Poor Woman is really poor and would cry over 3000 yen of pocket money while she has a Galaxy S III? This is where product placement is opposite of what the story needs.
Ishihara Satomi is the poor everywoman, Sawaki Chihiro. She has a photographic memory and is graduating from a top Uni but lacks confidence. Blah blah blah. You know the drill. There's of course a scene where rich man brings poor woman to buy very expensive clothes which is probably every woman's wish fulfillment.

The interesting thing for me, is the portrayal of the Japanese job hunting process. There seems to be a uniform for it including flat, rounded shoes for women. When Poor Woman goes to buy the shoes, the saleslady automatically knows it for job hunting. Who was the person who decided that everyone has to dress a certain way for interviews? Does that mean that anyone who looks different is basically out?

The main hook for me in Rich Man Poor Woman is that Poor Woman has a name that Rich Man remembers and there is a pretty good cliffhanger at the end of the episode. The writer has definitely put enough substance in the first episode to make it more than another Cinderella story. I wonder if the recent laws against pseudo gambling in online games will appear in this dorama. Pretty entertaining first episode. The main things I'm looking forward to are the business side of things and the mystery of who Poor Woman is. Arata is a good actor and I want some backstabbing! Very watchable.

Magma ep 1

Hohum, yet another great first episode from WOWOW. It seems like a standard thing for them. They churn out doramas with good directing and acting with such regularity. Problem is the last few WOWOW doramas have all faded towards the end including Tsumi to Batsu. Still, I'd rather watch a WOWOW dorama that crashes and burns rather than the usual generic, cliched ridden jdorama that plays it safe and doesn't aspire to be great.

There are three layers to Magma's story. Firstly, it is about geothermal energy. After the 15 March 2011 quake, much attention is being drawn towards alternative forms of energy. It is becoming an important political platform and politicians and businessmen have much to gain from it. We also have people who would like the ensure the continuous use of nuclear energy.

The second layer is that it is about a company restructure. Japan Geothermal Development has gone bankrupt and was bought over by a foreign fund shades of Hegataka. Taeko (Ono Machiko) has been appointed by the fund to restructure the company and make something happen.

The third layer is a politician, Ryuzaki Daisuke (Ishiguro Ken) who is backing another geothermal company and has a vendetta against the former president of Japan Geothermal Development, Ando Koji (Tanihara Sousuke). You've got politics, real life issues of alternative energy and people losing jobs along with a strong female character who is going to be fighting with a small geothermal company against plenty of odds. Sounds like a recipe for a great dorama.

I'm not going to award 'must watch' status to any promising 1st episode anymore unless its so bloody awesome like the first episode of Hatsukoi or Shokuzai that it doesn't matter if the rest of the series goes downhill. Highly recommended and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't suffer the WOWOW curse. Potential to be a Soratobu Taiya.

Hatsukoi ep 1: Stay Gold

Wow. I certainly did not expect the first episode of Hatsukoi to be this good. I came to this dorama not really enthused because affair doramas usually fizzle out cause nothing really happens at the end but found myself awed by the execution of the story.

Kumira Yoshino is Midori, a happily married speech therapist with a son who finds out that she has cancer. Her first love, Mishima (Ihara Tsuyoshi) is a doctor specialising in liver cancer and the only doctor in Japan able to operate on her. Hatsukoi takes its time building up the characters until Midori and Mishima meet. Midori and her husband Jun are happy but its not the so cheesy its too happy. *cough* Beautiful Rain *cough*

Mishima also has his issues. He was married to his mentor's daughter and then divorced her before moving to France. Mishima has come back to Japan in order to operate on his mentor. When Mishima finally meets Midori and realises who he is, she proclaims that she doesn't want him operating on her. Hhmm, something to look forward to.

What is interesting as well is that Jun doesn't feel like the throwaway husband who should not be married. In fact he comes across as a strong and sympathetic character. I hope that the writing will be able to stay strong. The scriptwriter is Nakazono Miho who wrote Call Centre no Koibito, OL Nippon, Star no Koi and my favourite, Yamato Nadeshiko. I've yet to watch Age 35 Koishikute which is sitting in my HDD.

The most impressive thing for me was the directing and acting. It looks like a Wowow dorama. Softer lighting unlike your usual jdoramas which have no darkness at all. Awesome music that rises and falls. It feels like I'm watching the first half of a pretty good movie. No idea who the director is but I'm pretty sure he/she is a movie director.

Hatsukoi also reminds me of Sekachuu with the high school flashbacks. Even if the rest of Hatsukoi turns pear shaped, ep 1 is still worth watching, kind of like the first episode of Shokuzai. Must contain my excitement and be prepare to be disappointed while hoping it turns out to be good.

Beautiful Rain ep 1

Overdose of sickening family friendly sweetness.

The Ashida Mana juggernaut keeps rolling on. When I first read about Beautiful Rain, I was praying to the jdorama gods that it would be as good as Shiroi Haru. Toyokawa Etsushi is a good actor and its got Nakatani Miki! Unfortunately, alzheimer is a handicap and fatal disease rolled into one so chances are its going to be another Ichi Litre.

If you're one of those people who enjoy show and tell doramas like Ichi Litre, you'll adore Beautiful Rain. I call them show and tell doramas cause they are about showing you certain scenes and telling you how to feel about them. For example cute father-daughter scene and you can hear the producers telling the audience to go awwwwww or in Japan ~~kawaiiiiiiii~~~. Or the little girl losing her pink bottle and the writer telling the audience 'isn't she so adorable and sad? Cry together with our perfect father and daughter!'

The opposite of show and tell is show and not tell. Soredemo Ikite yuku is a prime example. The audience is shown the emotional journey and tense situations that the characters go through and its not manufactured to make the audience feel one way or another. The characters don't tell/monologue their emotions to the audience.

I can't stop seeing him as an evil doctor after Spec.

The jdorama watching public will eat this up. For me, I couldn't skim this dorama any faster towards the end while thinking of Shiroi Haru. Completely different stories, redemption story vs look how cute/sad/brave they are. Could Japan produce a fatal disease dorama I would like? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Kanno Koi no Hanashi.

 Is this factor working dude wearing eye-liner?????

I guess I can't enjoy anything that is so obviously emotionally manipulative. Its like rewatching the Transformers cartoons and realising that they are designed to sell toys. Beautiful Rain is tear porn. It is designed to illicit tears from viewers. I can't really call this crap cause I dislike the show and tell genre itself. How do I judge whether this is a better manipulator of emotions compared to Ichi Litre, which I only watched for Sawajiri. At least Beautiful Rain not about a schoolgirl who gets alzheimer.

Furuhata Ninzaburo eps 7+8

Episode 7 turned out to be the worst one so far because the correlation between the moon being lifted up and the murder was too flimsy. The killer could have easily denied it. Fortunately for Furuhata, the killer was a man of honour and had already decided to give up to prevent the props master from taking the fall. I guess it was supposed to be a sentimental ending but Furuhata didn't really have decent proof.

On the other hand, ep 8 guest starring the Iron Chef guy was superb. Furuhata had to sweat and while I was dreading another flimsy behaviour deduction, it turned out to be an interesting and desperate trick by Furuhata. I liked that he had an explanation for the killer not to notice the person behind him.

Four more episodes to go and I am still enjoying this series. Even episode 7 was pretty well down until the WTF ending. Noticed that people downloading the subs have dropped off. What a shame. They don't make doramas like this anymore.

7 rules that make GTO great.

After taking some screencaps from ep 1 of GTO, I could not resist rewatching it again. I can just rewatch classic doramas again and again. However, this time with more of an eye towards looking out for why GTO worked so well. It is the archetype that so many doramas are based on yet no one can even duplicate the formula. Even Dragon Zakura which was good as not as perfect though Suzuki sensei is IMHO equally as good without being the same.

Now that is a sukebe face.

1) Onizuka is playful sukebe who accidentally does good.

In other words the anti hero. Onizuka is the best friend in harem anime, the 'loser' friend to the generic protagonist who is not afraid to voice the thoughts of the male audience. He pervs at anything in a short skirt and low cut top. Onizuka does things for selfish reasons such as entering Tomoko in the idol competition and then making money of her. Onizuka doesn't care that he needs to score 400 points in the exam or else he would get fired and has to be dragged kicking and screaming to study by Fuyutsuki sensei. His response to any problem is that somehow things will work out. He does what he wants without a thought about consequences to himself and that is what endears him to the students and is the cause of comedy when things just work out in the end.

He does however, have his own set of principles which could be kind of flimsy. He says he is saving his first time for Fuyutsuki but would he have done it in the enjyou kousai episode if the girl wasn't his student? Could he have done it with Kunio's mom? Onizuka is a force of nature and the ultimate wish fulfillment for guys.

2) GTO is a romantic sukebe comedy.

From the first episode, Onizuka is already perving on Fuyutsuki sensei, something sorely missing in the remake. He is the bad boy and she is the nice girl who is repulsed by his behaviour but attracted to him. Everytime Onizuka scores a point with Fuyutsuki, his sukebeness makes her angry and Fuyutsuki is so cute when pissed off. *ahem*

Anyway, Fuyutsuki is as important for the dorama as Onizuka. You look at all the GTO clones, the young female teacher is way more reactive with no discernable characteristic and has as much screentime as the students. Onizuka is not as funny without Fuyutsuki's reactions.

3) Supporting characters get a lot of screen time and backstory.

Specifically Fuyutsuki and Uchiyamada sensei and his family. With Fuyutsuki, we have her backstory of wanting to be an air stewardess and doing the teaching gig not by choice. You have her problems at work such as always been told to do menial jobs and serving tea because she is a woman which is a source of comedy when Onizuka calls her out on it. Even her personal problems get linked into stories such as Fuyutsuki identifying with Tomoko's dream to be an idol.

With Uchiyamada, he is the henpecked husband who dreams of slapping his wife and daughter thus earning their respect. School is the only place where he has power yet Onizuka is ruining everything for him. I wrote two posts here and here about how those superiors who are just against the protagonist and ignore the protagonist's success without reason piss me off.

Uchiyamada is not there just to provide opposition to Onizuka. In addition to being a constant source of comedy, he is a well developed character that the audience can have empathy for. Uchiyamada is not evil and doesn't shout at Onizuka all the time for no reason. He is someone who craves respect and power since he can't get it at home and Onizuka is wrecking the only place where he has control of in his life. His wife and daughter also get involved with Onizuka.

Let's not forget Fujitomi sensei, the old guy who is Onizuka's other ally. Compare that with the remake where they are wasting valuable screentime on Onizuka's buddies who should function merely as plot devices.

4) No abandoned factory action scenes.

I'm sure 99% of actions scenes in jdoramas take place in abandoned factories. Even the fight at the end of episode 10 where he rescues Miyabi, we don't see much and that is a good thing. Just Onizuka doing a couple of moves and the aftermath. If you can't do an action scene that doesn't look like a Tokusatsu show and doesn't defy logic, don't show the whole thing! Trust the audience can fill in the blanks. Actually the one full action scene in the original series is the Kunio's mom truck scene which looks pretty stupid cause the hole Onizuka's foot got 'stuck' in is very big and the truck was so far away when they started panicking. A small easily overlooked deficiency.

5) No trying too hard pretending to be tough guy posing like the picture below.

Onizuka shouldn't have to pretend to be tough because he is tough. Most of the time he acts goofy. Even Onizuka's policeman friend doesn't even overact like a your typical biker gang parody.

6) It doesn't feel like win a student over to your side per episode formula.

That's because it mixes it up very well. First two episodes are about Onizuka winning Nanako and Kikuchi. Episode 3 is the bullying episode so that's more like Onizuka's second victory against Miyabi if you consider Kikuchi the first. Episode 4 is about Tomoko and is more Onizuka helping her to find confidence in herself plus Miyabi basically throws her away.  Ep 5 is saving Fuyutsuki from glasses teacher. On the surface the plot sounds like Onizuka has to win one student per episode until the whole class comes back but the structure of the story is very different and varied.

7) Miyabi

This is the one part the remake has yet to fuck up since Miyabi hasn't done anything yet. Miyabi is a great villain. You hate her for what she did to Oguri Shun. Like so many doramas, she finally turns but she turns not because Onizuka wins a long debate with her or because he save her. Miyabi turns because of her friends, specifically Tomoko who can only see the good in her.

SUMMARY

What I find interesting is that so many doramas follow the formula yet they don't try to execute the formula in the same way. See Hammer Session and Gokusen. I'm not saying copying GTO exactly but asking themselves how do I make this entertaining and compelling when deciding to make all the teacher anti the main protagonist except for the young female teacher. The way I see it, GTO 2012 is less a remake of GTO and more similar to GTO clones like Hammer Session which just copy cliches without thinking about how to make them work well.