Suzuki Sensei movie

I've been waiting so long for this and its now available on the interwebs with Japanese subs! Suzuki sensei is to this 2K10 dorama era what Kinpachi sensei was to the 90s. Kinpachi sensei was an idealistic, preachy and moral look at various student and social issues while Suzuki sensei is smarter and looks at grey area issues. I'm not dissing Kinpachi sensei but Suzuki sensei is a more sophisticated dorama. Plus Kinpachi season 6 was the only time I thought Ueto Aya was a decent actress.

The movie is basically two episodes into which would have worked better separately; one is the high school council election and the second story is about two former students who are now 'rejects' of society. The student election story I enjoyed a lot more. Taruko sensei comes back and has the power to completely ignore Suzuki sensei's existence which becomes a running joke throughout the movie.

To combat spoiled votes, Takuro sensei changes the voting rules to require all ballots be signed. What follows is an interesting examination on right to not vote and its fun watching the students gear up for elections and having to give speeches. Good thing they didn't have to walk around the school with megaphones giving speeches about Japan.

The second story is about two ex-students who hang around at the park everyday with one of them being played by Mitsushima Hikari's brother from Soredemo Ikite Yuku. Those two are perceived as dangerous people and Suzuki sensei and Ogawa are the only two to treat them as normal. An incident happens in a park and suddenly the public ashtrays are removed and a sign erected saying be careful of suspicious people. Basically the two ex-graduates only place to hang out are taken from them.

One of them, having lost is hang out place ends up bashing his mom and Mitsushima Hikari's brother decides to go to school and make Ogawa his hostage. Suzuki sensei has always been about interesting arguments from both sides but hostage dude does not have an argument. I was excited about his casting cause of Soredemo but alas, there seems to be a law in Japan that every bad guy has to do the evil laugh.

The hostage situation is more to set up the payoff of Suzuki sensei's speech to the class about the merits of acting in real life and to the most wtf action scene in Suzuki sensei that had me in awe and laughing at the same time. The movie ends with the result of the hostage situation but the movie doesn't take time to appreciate the gravity and trauma of the hostage situation. Its as if it were just an everyday occurance.

Not the must watch movie I was hoping for but it doesn't suck either like the Gaiji Keisatsu movie which I'm trying to forget. I think the writer did what he could to make it work as a movie. I think its worth watching for fans of the show.

Here's some necessary vocabulary to watch to movie:

小川病 - sometime every guy in the movie has
公約 - public commitment
生徒会 - student council
選挙 - election
書記 - secretary
立候補 - announcing one's candidacy
記名投票 - registered ballot
無効投票 - invalid ballot
宣言 - declaration
立会演説 - campaign speech
規制 - regulation
不審者 - suspicious person

Double Tone ~Futari no Yumi~ ep 1

This season just keeps getting better and better. I was attracted to Double Tone's premise, two women named Yumi start to see each other lives in their dreams. We see what happens during on Yumi's day and then the other Yumi wakes up with that knowledge and so on and so forth. It makes for some interesting drama when they run into people the other Yumi interacts with in dreams.

During the first episode, I was thinking the two Yumis can't meet up right away. They need to milk this concept first before they get together and we get to the next phase of the story. The at the end of the episode, this huge reveal happens that changes everything.

What a great episode. Sell the high concept and then end with a twist that had me scrambling to pandora.tv and dailymotion for episode 2 to no avail. Gaaaaaahh, I want to see what happens!!!! Japanese subs for ep 2 have already been uploaded to jpsubber though and sadly Japanese subs for ep 1 are not available. Whoever decides to sub episode 1 is going to have to time it which is half the work.

Someone please sub this so furransu will upload ep 2. It'll hopefully show up on pandora.tv sooner or later. Hope NHK don't stuff Double Tone up cause they can do some great drama with the concept. Low level Japanese is sufficient for this except for some job talk. Jadefrost's synopsis should get you through it otherwise.

Woman ep 1

Faaaaaaaarrrrk. Woman is so effing good. Only in Japan can a dorama have a crappy name like Woman with  a uber photoshopped poster and still be awesome. Mitsushima Hikari absolutely kills it in the acting department and just absolutely becomes her character Aoyagi Koharu. Sakamoto Yuji was surprisingly quick in getting rid of Oguri Shun, lol. Don't worry ladies, he'll be in the flashbacks to come.

I was wondering how Sakamoto was going to pace this dorama and its by making Woman more than just a single mother hardship story. Looks like the tension is going to come from Koharu's strained relationship with her mother and her current family. Thank the jdorama gods that Koharu is a character rather than a bland single mother archetype. For a more soap opera story, there's the dude working at the welfare department who is married to Tanimura Mitsuki and Takahashi Issei (the dude from Gonzo who looks like he wants to cry all the time) as her colleague.

I'm getting strong affair vibes from that set up but I trust in Sakamoto Yuji. The rest of the cast is awesome. The mom from Mother is Koharu's mom and the master from Shinya Shukudo is her husband! Not to mention Usuda Asami (Suzuki sensei) as Koharu's colleague and we've got some of my favourite actors.

So many highlights in one episode. The heart stopping pram scene. The old welfare guy asking her if played pachinko. Can't blame him though, he's probably seen too many welfare cheats. Koharu asking money from the young welfare guy. The money scene with Koharu and her mom. OMFG, the tension and the gamut of emotions in that scene and the beautiful directing. Mitsushima Hikari just runs through Koharu's pride, anger and desperation all at the same time.

There's this shot when Koharu and her mom are talking where the camera is behind Koharu's mother and it loses focus on Koharu's face so we can concentrate on the side of the mom's face from behind. We can't see Koharu's mom's face but every twitch of her muscles convey more emotion than Fukada Kyoko ever can.

Woman is so Soredemo Ikite Yuku-like in the way it just holds my undivided attention. Realistic dialogue and characters and just mesmerising acting that made me feel like a fly on the wall. Why can't more doramas be like this? If you're not watching this, you shouldn't be watching jdoramas.

I love this shot.

Jdoramas that should be subbed - Summer 2013

1. WOMAN

Mitsushima Hikari is the best Japanese actress today, Sakamoto Yuji (Chase/Mother) is writing this and the director Mizuta Nobuo also did Mother and Maiko Haaaan! If that is not a recipe for a classic dorama, I don't know what is.

2. DOCTORS 2 : Saikyou no Meii

The dorama SP was good. Is there anything left for the second season?

3. Akuryou Byouto

Kaho as a nurse! Woohoo. Scary dorama by the guy who directed Ring 0. I'll only be watching for Kaho.

4. Keibuho Yabe Kenzo 2

More from my favourite detective with the wig. Can we please have a cameo from Abe Hiroshi?

5. Limit

Sakuraba Nanami in a schoolgirl survival dorama? What can go wrong? Actually, hold that thought. Its still worth a look.

6. Saitou-san 2

No Mimura. :( Their chemistry was what made the first season work. Same writer might recapture that magic, maybe.

7. Meoto Zenzai

Moteki and Ono Machiko playing a Geisha? Yes, please. Let's see whether Moteki can really act.

8. Double Tone - Futari no Yumi

A dorama about 2 Yumis who see each other's lives in their dreams. Sounds interesting.

9. Furueru Ushi

From Jadefrost's synopsis, sounds like a murder + corporate conspiracy dorama. Right up WOWOW's alley.

PREDICTIONS

Will this be the greatest season ever? Woman and Meoto Zenzai will probably end up being good. Can't think of what else to do with Doctors 2. Everything else will be pedestrian, Saito-san will be boring without Mimura and Furueru Ushi will end up like so many WOWOW doramas that peter our at the end. What do I need to sacrifice to the jdorama gods to get 3 must watch shows this season?

Gekiryuu ~ Watashi wo oboemasuka? ~ ep 1+2

EDIT: Episode 2

I've always found Tanaka Rena to be a decent actress. There's this scene in episode 2 where things go bad for her at work and she comes home, runs into her husband and throws a tantrum, except its probably the fakest tantrum ever. In my mind I was screaming at the director to cut and reshoot the scene. There was no way any decent director would have allowed that crappy performance from Tanaka Rena. Was it a one-shot take? Was she not able to do better?

20 years ago, some students went to Kyoto for a trip and a girl named Fuyuha disappeared. One day, her former classmates receive a mail from her asking whether they remember her. The five classmates reunite and we start to get a glimpse of the lives of these former classmates.

Gekiryuu is two doramas, the mystery dorama and reunion dorama. The meat of it seems to be the five characters and their various secrets. The one thing that will ultimately decide the watchability of Gekiryuu is the mystery. The emails at the moment feel very prankish instead of scar.

I love the casting. Tomosaka Rie, Tanaka Rena, Kuninaka Ryoko and Yamamoto Koji who is losing the battle at the top. Kuninaka Ryoko needs to break out from being typecast though. Unfortunately, the directing is very pedestrian and generic. NHK should have paid the people who did Hatsukoi to do this cause it looks so uninspiring. Hatsukoi was such a visually sumptuous dorama to watch.

Too early to judge this show. Not optimistic but I will keep watching for the cast which also includes Satsukawa Aimi. :) Nice reveal at the end though. 

Kaibutsu

Kaibutsu is a very interesting thriller. Sato Koichi is a police detective dealing with two cases. First is a murder case where Mukai Osamu who works at a high-tech garbage disposal research facility is suspected of murder. The waste disposal tech is able to reduce rubbish and bodies into pure liquid, making it the perfect tool for getting rid of dead people.

The second case is a 15 year old case where Kaname Jun who  a political prince, is suspected to have murdered a 15 year old girl. Tabe Mikako was also a victim of Kaneme Jun turns up wanting to confront him. Needless to say the two cases somehow get connected and interesting things happen.

This is a show about monsters/kaibutsu and I'm happy that it doesn't take the black and white route. Its sad that all jdorama villains have to laugh like a maniac but I'll take that since the story is good. There a lot of twists and turns that I wish they could have done it in 5 episodes instead of a 2 hours special but I'll take grey area morality any way I can.

The one thing I was worried over was the ending and I was so glad when the karmic ending turned out to be a hallucination. The ending is really exciting, ends on a cliffhanger and I really want to see what happens next. I really want to give this a must watch but by the jdorama gods, the lighting in this is horrible. Lots of random light scources from who knows where litter this dorama SP and light glares. The lighting guy on this dorama uses glares like JJ Abrams uses lens flare. Overall, really fake mood lighting.

Highly recommended. They don't have enough time to sell some twists and turns and you'll probably be wishing someone from WOWOW directed this but any serious thriller dorama that manages to go to interesting places is not to be missed. If Sono Sion or Kurosawa Kiyoshi had directed this, it would have been a classic. I want to know whether the novel stops here or whether it has a sequel because the possibilities for part 2 are endless.

Minna! Esper Dayo! ep 10

 I'm loving this episode not just because it has Mano Erina frolicking in bed singing Morning Coffee. As an old school Momusu fan, its just perfect.

 Yoshio's parents are funnier when you've got Terumitsu (Tenga guy) going nuts over Yoshio's mom in the background.

 Love the dry humour from Mano Erina's dad asking about nonhoi.

 The best part of the episode is Sometani Shota and Kaho going on a date and making full use of their powers to their and our great amusement.

I think Minna! Esper Dayo!'s greatest sin is that it could have gone to many interesting places but instead went for the most boring slice of life angle.

Shota and Kaho are the bright spot of the series.

Love Kaho's acting and facial expressions. She's so a natural.

ROFL.

End of the day, I just want to watch these Espers use their powers and have fun using it.

Haven't been impressed with Mano Erina yet, besides the speech scene a couple of episodes ago.

Then you finally get to the Mano Erina and Kaho bitch fest!

Sono Sion should have done this 4 episodes ago!

This should have been an tsundere osananajimi vs yandere dorama from the get go.

Mano Erina singing Aogeba Toutoshi just caps of a perfect episode. Two more episodes to go. Can Sono Sion keep this up?