Minna Esper Dayo! Movie / The Virgin Psychics

 Shometani Shota and Mano Erina are back for more Esper action.

First off, happy belated birthday to Mano Erina!

I hope she does not abandon her Mano friends while pursuing her acting career!

I didn't realise that the movie was actually released on the interwebs a month ago as The Virgin Psychics instead of Minna Esper Dayo!

First off, Kaho who was the best thing about the series has been replaced by Ikeda Elaiza.

Although her cleavage is covered, that is Shinozaki Ai.

Sono Sion had a bounce back 2015 after making his worst film ever, Tokyo Tribe in 2014.

While non of them were classics, Real Oni Gokko, Shinjuku Swan and Love & Peace showed that Sono Sion had not lost his touch.

This gave me hope that the movie version of Minna Esper Dayo! could set right what the dorama did wrong.

That Sono Sion would distill the essence of the story about a group of virgins with superpowers into a tenga tight 2 hour script.

Unfortunately, Sono Sion has lost any concept of pacing as the first half of the movie basically retells the dorama but at an extremely fast pace.

Things just happened one after another so that Sono Sion could get to whatever new ending he wanted to do.

The best parts of the dorama which was the triangle between Sometani Shota, Kaho and Mano Erina is completely nullified.

It is impossible for the audience to gain any empathy for the characters because they are not allowed to breath.

Yup, that plastic lips AKB girl is in this as well.

Yes, there's plenty of eye-candy.

But eye-candy without a passable story with decent pacing is not enjoyable.

Seriously, even so bad its good fanservice shows like Jyouou Virgin is much more entertaining because of pacing and it doesn't try to be too clever.

Sono Sion's reason for doing this movie is not to fix the Minna Esper Dayo! dorama.

His reason is to do some stupid story about Shometani Shota's fated one who he met when he was still in his mother's womb and some sort of metaphorical story about sex and society's attitudes with everyone in the town turning horny.

I could not give a fuck about trying to make sense of it because Sono Sion already lost me 5 minutes into the movie.

All the fanservice in the world cannot save this movie. Sono Sion forgot that what made Love Exposure work was the interesting relationship between the 3 characters but in this movie, he does not even spend time developing any relationship.

Kaho was smart to avoid the movie. Not even she could have saved it.

Someone needs to tell Sono Sion that less is more.

The movie is so bad pacing-wise, it makes the dorama look like Soredemo Ikite Yuku.

Do not watch this crap.

Is Sono Sion no longer capable of recapturing the past glories of Noriko's Dinner Table and Love Exposure?

Has he joined Miike Takashi as another gifted director who can't just create a good movie anymore?

I guess we'll find out when his next movie Hiso Hiso Hoshi comes out.

Nigeru Onna

Mizuno Miki is Nishiwaki Reiko, a former orphanage worker falsely imprisoned for 8 years for the murder of a child.

Endo Kenichi is the police officer who forced a confession out of her.

Tabato Tomoko plays Nishiwaki's best friend who lied to deny her alibi during the trial.

Naka Riisa is this weird girl whose path crosses with Nishiwaki.

Nigeru Onna is a very well written and directed 6 episode story about vengeance, guilt, responsibility and loneliness. I love this shot, its so wonderfully lit. I hate how the mainstream jdoramas are lit as if there are 4 light sources in a room. A frame cannot be beautifully lit without shadows.

Its a dark and depressing show that once I got started, I couldn't stop. I think 6 episodes is the sweet spot for a lot of jdoramas and I commend NHK and WOWOW for going this route instead of the usual 10 episode format.

For those expecting a furious rage of vengeance show, Nigeru Onna is not it. Its more sad and contemplative with very rare moments of joy and doesn't give you simple answers.

Nigeru Onna is so close to getting a must watch from me but there Naka Riisa's critical performance just doesn't impress me. I kept thinking how much better Kaho would be at this job cause this important role has Kaho written all over it. Seriously, Kaho can do that crazy while projecting fear and anger better than Naka Riisa did in Nigeru Onna.

Thanks to Heiwa fansubs for subbing Nigeru Onna. Most of what I'm interested to watch never get subbed. :( If I had to compare Nigeru Onna to a recent show, its just below the awesome Garasu no Ashi.

Highly recommended if you want a dark and deep jdorama about the journey of self discovery.

Suteki na Sen Taxi Special

Suteki na Sen Taxi was one of the most memorable shows from 2014. It showed that Bakarythm truly is a gifted writer.

Takenouchi Yukata is back again as Edawakare, the driver of the time travelling taxi

The 2 hour special is really 3 interconnected episodes in 1 featuring multiple characters set in an onsen.

I took a break from watching before the final story because it sort of got samey.

Nevertheless, Suteki na Sen Taxi Special is still pretty funny and I love how all the stories converge at the end. Bakarythm knows how to right feel good humour without it feeling same old same old.

Very watchable for me and I highly recommend it. You can find the raw by googling SENTAXI SP2016 720p x265-ER. If Bakarythm does not have enough material for another season, I'd rather he do a short 3 or 4 episode series instead of a special because there are only so many times you can do Edawakare explaining time travel.

Futabasou no Yujin

Winner of the 8th WOWOW screenplay grand prix 2016 according to jadefrost, Futabasou no Yujin is about a couple played by Ichihara Hayato and Usuda Asami who move into a semi detached house.

They becomes friends with their neighbour who lives next door by herself while her husband is away and Hayato starts seeing a ghost in the house.

Hayato and the ghost are unable to speak with each other but can communicate by signing and writing so Japanese reading is required to watch this but not necessarily.

Hayato quits his job and Asami is promoted and given a lot of work thus putting pressure on their relationship.

Whoever Usuda Asami's agent is, he/she does a good job of getting her good roles.

I won't spoil the story but its kind of a typical ghost story but I like the execution, especially with the acting and the ghost bits are fun to watch and the 2 hours flew by very fast.

Futabasou no Yujin straddles the line between very watchable and must watch and I do not hesitate to recommend it. You can easily find it by googling Futabasou no Yujin SP2016 720p HDTV x265-ER. Very watchable and deserves to be subbed.