Tokkan eps 1-3

If you want a pretty good jdorama about tax evasion watch Chase. Five episodes of must watch goodness with a bad final episode but IMO its worth watching. Its something we don't normally see and its fun watching the cat and mouse game of people trying to hide their money the tax inspectors try to find it.

I didn't really like the first two episodes of Tokkan. As someone said, it had the generic moral ending and generic dorama feel. Still I kept watching because of the subject matter of tax evasion. I like how the dorama just explains technical stuff to the audience without the need of a newbie character asking 101 questions.

However, episode 3 was pretty good with a nice twist ending. I like that their is the main story of the mamasan building up during the three episodes. Tax evasion dorama should be about the chase, not feeling sorry cause someone's too poor to pay their taxes because they kept running an unprofitable business.

The key to success for me is simple; show rich people evading and tax people chasing. Its probably easier to write than murder mysteries or police shows because the goal post can always be moved. Watchable because of episode 3.

Jmovie review: Boys on the Run

After going mad for Minami Akina in the dorama version of Boys on the Run, I decided to check out the movie which came out in 2010. The dorama basically follows the movie with the exception of the boxer girl story which always felt like it did not belong in the dorama. The difference between the movie and dorama version is similar to Densha Otoko; the movie is grittier, more raw and a lot less overacting.

The first hour is basically the first 3 episodes of the dorama. The problem is the 2nd half of the movie where its basically our main character Tanishi doing some boxing training, getting a mohawk, challenging Aoyama to a fight, getting his ass kicked and finally rejecting the girl.

My impression is that its suppose to be a dark comedy similar to what 101 Proposals was suppose to be before they changed the ending but the main character Tanishi isn't very interesting. He is an underdog but he feels more like an idiot rather than an idiot in love. I get what they're trying to do.

Its kind of a reverse romantic comedy. Tanishi and Chiharu like each other in the beginning but they both keep stuffing things up and it doesn't work out in the end. Somehow the journey just feels so empty.  Its not bad but I wasn't really interested from the boxing training part onward and judging from the movie, the dorama is probably going to be even worse.

Kazoku Kashimasu - Family Complex SP

Kazoku Kashimasu is about this company called Family Romance that rents family members to people. At the beginning of the movie, we see the boss played by Tamaki Hiroshi acting as the husband to various single mothers sitting in school interviews to get their child accepted to schools. I've seen this idea of people hiring fake family members before in doramas/movies but to show it from the perspective of a business that provides such services is a brilliant idea.

Tanaka Rena plays of course the idealistic newbie who comes to the company and straight away we get to see the company run a job where they are playing the guests of bride at a wedding ceremony because the bride's parents are divorced and she used to be a prostitute. It was fun watching the employees of Family Romance play the relatives, colleagues, former classmates and friends of the bride. I'm just thinking that this concept  is a gold mine for stories. Its like watching a dorama about people trying to act as characters in a dorama but in real life and on the fly.

The main story of Kazoku Kashimasu is a dying rich man played Takenaka Naoto. His wife and daughter has left him and he wants to hire a wife and daughter to film his last days. Good news is not so much overacting from Takenaka Naoto and the story actually turns out to be pretty good. I was expecting  it to turn into a cliched, overly sentimental mess but it turns out to be pretty funny and touching.

Kazoku Kashimasu feels like the pilot episode of a great dorama series. It is practically screaming to be made into a dorama series with the ending talking various interesting jobs that the staff of Family Romance are doing. This will make and awesome dorama series as long as they don't try to force feed a moral lesson in every episode. The fun is watching characters pull things off and seeing how they deal with various problems. Kazoku Kashimasu is somewhere between pretty good and must watch but Tanaka Rena pushes it closer toward must watch for me. :)

Hatsukoi 7-8

Hatsukoi is the first real must watch dorama this year that has been consistently good. Mixing Sekachuu with the tired affair genre has produced a really beautiful story about a hatsukoi that never ended. As I've said previously, I never thought Kimura Yoshino could really act but she really rose to the occasion.

The ending is good. I love it when we finally get to hear Stay Gold and we get the beautiful montage at the end. In a lot of doramas, the music + montage at the end usually feels so cliched and unnecessary but in Hatsukoi's case, it was built up slowly. Littering the dorama with flashbacks and slowly feeding the audience with little snippets of Mishima and Midori's past has been good for the pacing.

Regrettably, the one other thing that stuck to my mind was the whole Midori not seeing her son thing. How a father can forbid the mother from having contact with the child just because she was the one who had the affair. Japanese custody law is different but Hatsukoi is a prime example of how it should not be about fault but rather the best interest of the child. That look of happiness from Midori in the above screencap is reason enough that every child should not be deprived from contact from either parent with the exception of serious family violence issues etc.

We're more than half way through the year and nothing on the level of Suzuki sensei or Soredemo Ikite Yuku has turned up yet. Hatsukoi is pretty good but not in the classic level of the above two though its pretty much now sitting in the no.1 spot of my top five shows for 2012 which is currently looking very thin. All the other must watch shows have fizzled out at the end. Hatsukoi is a must watch dorama that is absolutely beautiful literally and storyline wise.

Boys on the run eps 1+2

Boys on the run feels like Moteki light with a lot more fanservice. Weak indecisive dude getting bullied and making stupid decisions who will grow a pair only at the very end. For me, the most enjoyable thing is Minami Akina. Not the first time I've seen her but I think I'm in love. :) Thanks to Izydata for the recommendation! If you get a bleeding nose for Minami Akira, its a must watch. Otherwise it is a watchable Moteki light.

Jmovie review: University of Laughs/Warai no daigaku

 There's only one screencap because this is how the movie looks like most of the time. :)

Utter freaking genius. I've been watching a lot of Mitani Koki stuff this year with Furuhata Ninzaburo, Minna no Ie, A Ghost of a Chance looking for something that could come close to Radio no Jikan and Warai no daigaku is it. Big thanks to Captain Banana for recommending it!

There are two types of comedies; first is the one that tries to throw 100 jokes against the wall and hopes that at least 50 of them stick.You know the ones where the best jokes are in the trailer and the movie feels like its wasting time in between jokes. You're satisfied if it can makes you laugh out loud at least 5 times and that's all you remember of the movie.

The second is where the plot itself is the joke and the movie is not concerned with manufacturing 1 laugh every five minutes. It is concerned with executing the plot well. One such movie that comes to mind is Bowfinger which is about a bunch of misfits trying to make a movie starring a movie star without him realising that he is in it. Warai no daigaku is another such a movie where the the plot is a stage comedy writer Tsubaski (Inagaki Goro) trying to get his script approved by the stern and unsmiling government censor Sakisaka (Yakusho Koji)

I did not laugh out loud once during the movie but I was smiling all the way through because it was just that funny. The joke is the censor Sakisaka who keeps heaping unreasonable requests on Tsubaki and everytime Tsubaki makes the changes, somehow the script turns out even funnier than before.

Warai no Daigaku just oozes comedy from the banter between the Sakisaka and Tsubaki and the ways Tsubaki turns the requests into more gags for the script. It is a movie where the characters become real. After all, it is basically a movie about two men in a room with a script and it actually started out as a play. Plus there is of course the political subtext about government censorship.

Inagaki Goro actually does a good job as Tsubaki. Everytime I've seen him in doramas, he is always so wooden and in Warai no daigaku he looks like a real actor. Yakusho Koji is his usual awesome self. Is this better than Radio no Jikan? I don't think so, though its been years since I last saw Radio no Jikan and would need to rewatch it to be sure but it doesn't change the fact that Warai no daigaku very, very good.

Warai no daigaku made me smile throughout the movie made me feel for the characters and appreciate how polished the script was. If you've seen Kisaragi, its very similar where despite the fact the whole movie is set in one room, you are hanging on every word. Truly magnificent movie and I hope to see something of this level again from Mitani Koki.

Higashino Keigo Mysteries ep 1-3

Higashino Keigo is apparently a famous mystery writer and he is the guy who wrote Yogisha X no Kenshin (Suspect X). Each episode is a stand alone mystery starring big names with Nakai Kiichi's mystery at the beginning of each episode. The first three episodes so far are well done, very watchable but somehow nothing really stood out for me.

I guess its because I'm comparing it to Furuhata Ninzaburo which I rate as must watch. The stories are pretty much about the twist and less about the criminal trying to hide the crime. My reaction to episode 1 was, 'her whole plan hinged on that one small clue?'. Episode 2's twist was pretty good except they didn't need to drive all the way. Episode 3 was interesting character-wise but it was over pretty quick.

The best thing for me in Suspect X wasn't the twist but the character and acting and there's not enough time in one hour to develop any characters well. Can't complain. Higashino Keigo Mysteries is what it is: very watchable short stories.

Jmovie review: Himizu

Set against the backdrop of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Himizu is a story of despair. Sumida's mom runs a boat rental business and he is neighbours with a bunch of people who were left homeless from the tsunami. His dream is to take over the business and live a regular life although his teacher gives him the everyone is special and should dare to dream speech.

Sumida is stalked by this mysterious girl Chazawa who writes all of Sumida's quotes and posts them all over her room. In this post tsunami, apocalyptic like backdrop, Sumida's mother leaves him for another man and his father comes around beating him up for money and telling Sumida that Sumida would have been better of dead.

I love the bleak nature of Himizu. Apparently it was shot at real locations and its provides a perfect metaphor for the story. Its the story of how Sumida's life is fucked because of his parents. How even his dream of living a normal life is impossible because his parents are stuffed up. Its a metaphor for the earthquake and its a metaphor for Japanese society.

You've got your usual beautiful Sion Sono scenes of poetry reading set to classical music, disturbed characters and ugly violence. However, the movie just feels all over the place. The narrative which should have stuck to mostly Sumida and Chazawa feels disjointed because the director wants to say something to Japan and I get what he is saying which is not to give up in the face of despair but I'm not feeling it.

I'm disappointed but I can't hate the movie. I have a feeling I might like Himizu more with a second viewing when I'm not concerned with the movie as a whole and enjoy all the little moments. Actually after thinking about it, I would say Himizu is more a story of hope. A story of hope in the face of absolute and certain despair. Only for Sono Sion fans.