Going My Home ep 1

The very anticipated Going My Home by Koreeda Hirokazu, director of After Life, Nobody Knows, Still Walking, Air Doll and last year's Kiseki (I Wish). Out of his filmography, Nobody Knows is the best IMO, with After Life and Still Walking being pretty good, Air Doll being an interesting movie and Kiseki being a miss for me. If I were to describe his style, especially from his last three movies, I would say Koreeda's movies are like a constant flowing of a quiet stream and his aim is to arouse a certain kind of feeling in the audience.

The first thing that its obvious about the first episode of Going My Home is that it is very long. Clocking at 1 hour 40 minutes, it is basically a movie. Abe Hiroshi does his usual great acting, this time playing a father who is a useless boss in an advertising company who shirks his responsibilities. Yamaguchi Tomoko is the wife who is does food photography. The best part of ep 1 is Abe relationship with his family, especially his mother and sister played by YOU.

Kareeda's strength is playing all those regular conversations that you find in any family and somehow making it interesting. Though I find the pacing really slow with the story taking its time to get to Miyazaki Aoi's, I was glued to every word. Its not Nojima Shinji rapid fire verbal jousting but he conversations are more subdued and there are plenty of punchlines. Any dorama that can keep me from forwarding to the next scene is doing something right.

When we finally get to the revelation about Miyazaki Aoi's character I was disappointed not just because her being the half sister would be hilarious with more scenes of Abe's mom and sister using him as the middle man but also that the dorama seems to be heading into the 'cuna' territory. Seems like this is going to go into a mythical creature hunt dorama to invoke certain feelings or ideas, ala Kiseki as can be seen from the promo picture below.

I am skeptical whether that can make a compelling 10 episode story. I would like to see Koreeda succeed but doramas are about creating anticipation and payoffs. Great directing, great acting but first episode is too long and did not get me excited for the second. Can't give it a must watch but let's see what episode 2 brings.Very watchable if a bit long.

Can't wait for Double Face to be uploaded. I recognise plenty of shots straight from Infernal Affairs from the CM. Thought it was going to be a series but looks like its going to be two dorama specials.

Game review: Time Travelers

Just finished Time Travelers on my Vita and I feel a huge need to write about it. Two weekends ago, I was checking out the PSN store somehow got the demo and to my surprise, the game had furigana! Japanese games don't usually have furigana. The only one I know which has is Pokemon. I'm so tired of looking up kanji through kanji recogniser or through radicals. Its so time consuming. With furigana I just type the pronunciation in my dictionary get meaning and I'm off to the next line.

Time Travelers is an epic visual novel type game. You have 5 characters with their own storylines and you continue until that character meets his/her end and you travel back in time to fix things, usually involving a different character to do something. Think of five parallel storylines and you're jumping between the characters and into the past to fix things so the story can move forward.

That's how the switching between characters and replaying the past thing looks like.

That's basically the extent of your control besides quicktime events, making decisions and answering questions. There's usually a 5 or 10 second countdown to make decision so I can only read the first choice by the end. Storyline is great and it took me about 16 hours to finish and there's probably an hour or two of kanji searching and cigarette breaks in there. The main reason it took two weeks was that my head hearts from reading too much Japanese.

So that's how you market gaming to Japanese girls...

Being a sort of interactive anime, it does run into the same problems that plague most anime and doramas. Tendency to for too much melodrama and even sacrificing attention to detail to do so. There are parts of the story that just infuriate me but because its a game and not an anime, I'm more willing to let things slide. Halfway through the game I was thinking Time Travelers would make a great action dorama/anime but towards the end when all the super cheesy stuff happens, I changed my mind.

Great music and probably not as good as Stein's Gate. I've got Stein's Gate on my Vita but the Japanese is a lot harder than the usual game so its sitting on my to be played list. The furigana means its a great game for learning Japanese and its pretty easy to understand except for some of the sci-fi stuff. Also look out for plenty of references to Back to the Future. Time Travelers is a hodgepodge of different stories from terrorism to high school romance to otaku hero wannabe comedy. Sometimes to mix of storylines is jarring but most of the time its pretty cool and they are a lot more wow moments than uuggh. Not a must buy game but I definitely had fun.

Fall 2012 jdoramas that should not be subbed.

This is part 2 of my Fall 2012 jdorama round up. It all comes down to this season as to whether 2012 is the worst jdorama season of the last 5 or 6 years. While it seems like we are getting a year's worth of possibly good doramas in a season, there are plenty of shows I would avoid.

PRICELESS

Kimutaku in a Kusanagi Tsuyoshi dorama. Seriously, does that overly photoshopped poster tell you its going to be anything besides a fairytale catering to the lowest common denominator with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and everyone playing themselves. If you get excited over this poster, do yourself a favour and watch Kusanagi Tsuyoshi's Boku series or Koi ni Ochitara, which I'm pretty sure Priceless is an inferior version of. Someone obviously saw Freeter and thought they could put Kimutaku in the Nino role.

KEKKON SHINAI

Wait, the powers that be at Fuji TV saw Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu thought it was such an incredible dorama about love challenges women face in the 21st century and decided to reward the producer with a show about the love lives of 30-40 year old women? Did I somehow wake up in bizzarro land where failure is rewarded in Jdoramas?

Is this the same Fuji TV that did Soredemo Ikite Yuku? Do they not realise that Renai Dekinai Riyuu was a directionless soap masquerading and marketing itself as intelligent? I'd normally watch anything with Yoshitaka Yuriko but couldn't stand that dorama. Renai Dekinai Riyuu looked good, sounded good and came in a great looking package but there was nothing underneath. As bframe said, Kekkon Shinai has got Ito Ayumi so I might just take a peek for her. (see Shinya Shokudo S2 ep 4) Anyone who's watched jdoramas for a while should not need subs for this.

PERFECT BLUE

I was excited about the name until I realised it wasn't based on the classic anime. All female detective show with talking dog. The track record for detective doramas says generic boring crap.

TOKYO ZENRYOKU SHOUJO

Someone please tell me why Takei Emi is getting such a push after seeing her in W no Higeki and Iko Mo Dekinai Natsu. I've seen nothing that tells me she's really good or could be really good.

SUGARLESS

Boy band fighting dorama. I predict lots of posing, overacting, shouting and hair gel.

DOCTOR X

After Koshonin, I tend  to avoid Yonekura Ryoko doramas.She's sort of like what Miss Nagasawa Long Legs Masami is becoming now.

MONSTERS

Fortunately, not based on the awesome manga. That would be a waste. With the two main actors, Monsters is already in the negative in terms of acting ability (University of Laughs doesn't count).

TOKYO AIRPORT

The only reason to watch this is to hear Fukada Kyoko try to speak English.

With her pronunciation, I see lots of pilots trying to land on the wrong runway. Might need subs for her English.

Toyosaki Aki is Charlotte in Berserk?!

If you have no knowledge of Berserk or K-ON!, move along. If you're a fan of both like me, this is a WTF discovery. In the third movie, Griffith is going to have sex with Yui! This is worse than the Eclipse. Griffith is a rapist and murderer of hundreds and Toyosaki Aki says he is her favourite character?! The only thing worse is if I find out Casca is being voiced by Taketatsu Ayane.

Liar Game Reborn

I bloody miss Kanzaki Nao and Fukunaga. Yes, basis of Liar Game are the games and the trick that Akiyama will use to win but what made the first season so fun was the triangle of Kanzaki Nao, Akiyama and mushroom head Fukunaga. Kanzaki is the yin to Akiyama's yang. The uber naive girl who will trust anyone and genius who uses Kanzaki's takes account of Kanzaki's goodness into his plans. Fukunaga is the fun backstabbing character who switches between ally and villain at will. They were the 3 characters that I could care about.

Kanzaki Nao is no longer here. People can hate her character but its obvious from this movie how essential she is to making things interesting. Tabe Mikako plays the newbie character who is not as pure as Kanzaki and she is just boring to watch. No chemistry with Akiyama and while the game itself is good, I didn't really give a shit anyone and the new villains aren't entertaining. Plus, Fukunaga is only watching from the sidelines. 

They should have recast Tabe Mikako as Kanzaki Nao and put Fukunaga in this game as the leader of the people who got kicked out and it would have been so much better. Don't waste your time. The only good thing about Liar Game Reborn is that it made me realise the true value of the idealistic Kanzaki Nao.

Fall 2012 promising jdoramas preview

GOING MY HOME

Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. Please be good.What do I have to sacrifice to the jdorama gods for this to be kick-ass?

At the very least Abe's acting will be able to this dorama to watchable if the script actually turns out to be mediocre. Trailer looks good.

DOUBLE FACE

Actually I'd rather perform a sacrifice for Double Face which are two doramas with the same characters but shown from both sides cause I'm pretty sure Going my Home is going to be good. I want to see another terrorist dorama on par with Gaiji Keisatsu. Can't watch the trailer from the Wowow website and can't find on youtube and niconico. :(

TSUGUNAI

I'm excited about this. Definitely watching this! Dark, depressing murder mysteries are my cup of tea! Synopsis from jdramas.wordpress.com

Hidaka Eisuke (Tanihara Shosuke) was an up-and-coming brain surgeon. He even married a professor’s daughter, Hiroe (Ashina Sei) to stay ahead in the hospital’s career track. He no longer feels the significance of marriage as time passes and treats his wife and child brusquely. Meanwhile, their son dies from an illness. Blaming herself for his death, Hiroe loses the will to live and is driven to suicide. At the same time, Hidaka accepts responsibility for a medical error in the hospital. He resigns as a doctor and degenerates into a homeless man. As he wanders the streets, he meets Kusanagi Masato (Imai Yuki), a youth that he had saved from sexual abuse 12 years earlier again and begins to feel fatherly. As they support each other, Hidaka finds the hope to live, but gradually struggles with the possibility that Masato may be the criminal behind the spate of serial murders targetting the socially vulnerable on these streets … …

KODOKU NO GURUME SEASON 2

Season 2 of the food variety show masquerading as jdorama shorts. I'm definitely going to torture myself with this. 

TOKUMEI TANTEI

Looks like a sequel in the spirit of the Tokumei Kakaricho Tadano Hitoshi series which I absolutely love. Funny macho detective stories with lots of chicks. Yes, please!

MAKETE, KATSU ~ SENGO O TSUKATTA OTOKO. YOSHIDA SHIGERU

Watanabe Ken in a post WW2 historical dorama?! W00t! Unfortunately its probably not going to be subbed and my Japanese will not be good enough for this.

YUUSHA YOSHIHIKO TO AKURYO NO KAGI

Fuck yeah! Loved Mao no Shiro. Hope they've got enough new jokes for this season. Its obvious they had fun making the first one and contributed a lot to the enjoyment, even when things got a little repetitive.

KOISURU HAE ONNA

Mimura in the Japanese version of My Fair Lady? Count me in!

SUMMARY

I am shocked at the number of shows that I want to watch and hope get subbed. Its been generally a crappy year and now we are going to get a killer season. This post is all about the the doramas that I am definitely watching. Not sure if I want to do a part 2 and talk rubbish about shows I know are going to be rubbish.

RIP Otaki Hideji

Just noticed from Tokyohive that Otaki Hideji passed away. He has been in many doramas and movies from Boku no Imouto to Kabei: Our Mother and K20 but his most memorable performance to me is from Golden Bowl which is probably the first time I saw him and the one time I've seen him play a pretty significant supporting role.

Kanojo to Kare to Oshaberi Kuruma

Very fun two part dorama special about a girl who has not zest for life and is constantly bitching about her life who encounters a talking car from the future to teach her about facing life and other values that right wing politicians talk about when critisizing the youth. Oshaberi Kuruma has three things going for it; its very funny, its got Sakuraba Nanami who IMHO can act and its got tons of 80s English pop music. When I say English I mean the language not British.

I wonder how much they actually had to pay for the licensing fees cause there are a ton songs and Oshaberi Kuruma uses it very much like Moteki with twice the frequency. They even use the Knight Rider theme song though the scene which the use it has no cars in it but generally the songs fit the moment of a scene which just makes it funnier. Anyone who enjoyed Moteki's humour will find this funny as well.

This is one dorama that has a good ratio of comedy to moral preaching and I was sad that its on a two-parter. As good as you can get with a B-level budget comedy about a talking car. Tempted to give it a must watch but its kind of too short with only two episodes running at half an hour each. Very watchable. If I were the vice-president of common sense for Japan, I would pass a law giving all Takei Emi doramas to Sakuraba Nanami.

Shi to Kanojo to Boku

Shi to Kanojo to Boku is an 'I see dead people' dorama special used as a starring vehicle for Mine Azusa. I first heard of her when Tokyohive reported that she was making her debut in a movie with the AAA guy from Love Exposure. As a dorama special, its ok. A decent  story horror story with some of the usual gimmicks like creepy child and eye at the back of the head that gave me chills.

The dorama didn't expose Mine Azusa too much which is good. She is obviously very easy on the eyes but I didn't see any hint of her being a good actress or having that screen presence. I'd still want to check out that Signal movie though. Watchable and could make a fun series. There is a lack of horror doramas and as long as they don't reach the Juon heart attack inducing level of horror, I'm happy to watch more.

Mine Azusa reminds me of Ueto Aya here.

Scandal - Queens are Trumps

Dare I say that it is the best Scandal album so far due the fact that it is the most rock album of the four. I like all the songs. The only song I dislike is Taiyo no Scandalous which sounds like a soulless Orange Range reject song. My vote for 'this should have been a single' song is Bright. Heavy guitar rock ballads are always better than pop ballads. Awesome album.

Higashino Keigo Mysteries ep 7

First off I've got to say a big thank you to tayorinai tenshi for recommending episode 7. For those who have given up on this series, I highly recommend you just watch episode 7. It is that damn good. Almost Shokuzai ep 1 level good. Toda Erika is like heaps better than Nagasawa Masami. She can do cute, funny and serious. To be fair to Masami, ep 6 was stuck between trying to be serious and moving and ended up doing neither but after watching Masami for years, its clear she can't do more than being cute. I think if you put Toda Erika in Bunshin, it would be pretty good. Interesting to note that Bunshin is based on a Higashino Keigo novel as well. Stop reading and watch it if you haven't cause there's gonna be some spoilers.

Why is episode 7 so good compared to the rest? Its done a better job of cramming in the ebb and flow of a 90 minute movie into 40 minutes compared to the rest. You've got your murder, initial suspects, multiple red herrings leading to confirmation of killer with with a twisted motive and one chilling revelation at the end. 

During the 45 minutes, there is constantly new information to keep me guessing. Contrast that with the Nakai Kiichi mystery where people just show up and I don't care cause there's no clues to entice me. Mysteries are fun when the audience thinks along or is lead to think something. The previous mysteries are simpler and needed to be more character stories instead of depending on the twist and 40 minutes is not enough.

Episode 7 would have made an awesome movie cause its a movie with every single ounce of fat cut out. Give Santamaria Yusuke's character more of a background and spend more time on the red herrings and it can easily earch 1 1/2 hours. The step brother red herring turned out to be interesting because he was an indirect cause. 

The ending is so kick ass. Japanese horror at its best. I will never forget that scene with Santamaria Yusuke trying to peep through the gap trying to figure out who that person was. The same person who was talking about the lullaby to her at the beginning. If the other mysteries turn out to be good, please let me know. I think I'm going to remember 2012 not for any series as a whole but for single episodes, specifically Higashino Keigo ep 7, Shokuzai 1 and 5 and Tsumi to Batsu 1-3.

Scandal - Pin Heel Surfer

The latest Scandal single is Pin Heel Surfer. Fun catchy song with lots of dancing. It kinda fits the song but Scandal is an actual band, not a miming dancing girl group that can't actually sing. cough AKB cough. I don't watch the Scandal PVs cause they are antithesis of the fact they are a rock band. A colleague caught a PV on Australian TV and asked me whether they were an actual band.

Its as if being an actual band is not enough. In order to appeal to the stupid masses, their PVs can't be just a five minute video of them playing a song. It has to be dressed up with moves or have a budget of a 5 minute dorama episode. Just found out that Scandal are going to Malaysia in December as can be seen in the video below which is from their recent free live at Yoyogi Park. I'd rather go watch them in Japan though.

Can't complain about the OL uniforms and tight skirts though.....

Confirmation that Tomomi has the best ass in Scandal and Haruna the worst.

Update: Scandal in crisis clip with English subs.

Narrated by Toda Erika who is friends with Haruna! You can find the rest of the doco on youtube. My other favourite singer is Ohyama Yurika and Toda Erika has appeared in her PV too. Seems like Toda Erika has a strong influence on music that I like. :)