Soratobu Taiya ep 1

I'm trying to break Kita Yoshio's record of number of doramas in a year!

One tragic morning a truck called Dreamer, manufactured by Hope Motors was going around a bend when suddenly one of its tires flew out and killed a young mother on the spot. The police suspect Akamatsu transportation of being negligent of maintaining the vehicle. There's lots of crying in the beginning with everyone pointing fingers while Akamatsu (Nakamura Toru) has to go around and apologise to everyone while trying to keep his business surviving. However, this wouldn't be a dorama without something fishy happening.

Hakamada Yoshihiko, the guy on the left has been in 7 doramas this year! Any would kill to have been in Fumo Chitai and Soratobu Taiya.

Sawada (Tanabe Seiichi) works in sales in Hope Motors but wants to go back to the design department. He suspects something is amiss with the quality assurance department regarding the flying tyre incident and investigates further. Hope Motors did their own investigation and declared the truck to be allright. Akamatsu's efforts to get the investigation report is met with stony silence. Things get even more interesting when reporter Enomoto (Mizuno Miki) finds out that there was been another flying tyre incident with the Dreamer.

What are the chances of Tobosha's subbing being completed in 2010?

Corporate cover up shows are always exciting to watch and Soratobu Taiya does not disappoint. The viewer knows the truth. The fun part is watching all the blood, sweat and tears that is needed for this small transportation company to fight the car manufacturer and clear their name. The directing is really solid and you can cut the tension with a knife.

Haven't seen Mimura in a good show since Saitou-san.

Soratobu Taiya is more than just an underdog story. There's an interesting human conflict as well. Akamatsu desperately needs to reveal the truth so that his company can survive and his 50 employees are not rendered unemployed. Sawada desires to change the corporate culture within Hope Motors and does not want to truth to be uncovered by an outsider. He wants the matter dealt with internally and a product recall made before someone else does it.

I'm starting to think that Shiroi Haru was the only dorama where he was a nice guy.

The scene between Sawada and Akamatsu is pure gold. Akamatsu pleads for Sawada to give him the reports but Sawada cannot. It would be betraying his company and what good is his dream of changing Hope Motors when their is no company left to reform. There are also addition side stories like the bank employee's conflict of interest challenges befalling the Akamatsu family because of the flying tyre incident.

Kimura Yoshino, Mimura and Honjo Manami. What other reasons do you need to watch this show?

If you want great acting and story, Soratobu Tyre is a must watch. There's no way I'm doing my hamsapsukebe awards for 2009 before the subbing of this show is finished. Its still early but this could be one of the best jdoramas of 2009. Only like a 100 people have gotten this show so I urge you to get it. I will help seed whenever I can but Soratobu Taiya is a must watch. A big thank you to jade_frost and Kazuya_ for subbing this.

Ningen no shoumei ep 7

Ningen no shoumei is a slow but well paced cooker. Every episode, a nice nugget of information or two is presented and the web begins to tighten around the characters. There's no stupid police procedures that don't make sense save for the whiny voice guy, Sato Jiro who plays the bad cop. His overacting is horrible and have never found him funny. How the hell did he get cast in a serious show like this? His character comes off as way too cartoony or in this case trying to hard to be funny.


The wheelchair dude and the adulterer have become one fun odd couple to watch. Forced to team up to investigate the death of Fumie. Its fun to watch wheelchair dude come to grips with his situation and realise what he can and needs to do in order to find Fumie. The formula of flawed characters needing each other to achieve a goal never fails. I'm intrigued to see what steps they will take in the coming episodes. It almost makes me wish Fumie were alive so we can see what happens between the three of them but knowing jdorama cliches, they'll all come to terms with their situation, tsuyoku naritai and go their separate ways.

Ogata Ken giving the finger to Yutaka?

The series really kicks into high gear when Munesue (Takenoichi Yutaka) goes to the U.S. to investigate Johnny Hayward's background. Ken Schufftan (Bo Svenson), the policeman who earlier in the series shot dead Johnny's friend Eddy is ordered to babysit Munusue and Ken is non too pleased. Ken seems to be a bit of a racists though I would say that his shooting of Eddy is entirely justified. Too bad Eddy's girlfriend is still in this show. Her acting is just atrocious. And we get this really big reveal at the end that just makes me want to watch the movie to see the ending. Yes, I managed to get my hands on the original 1977 movie with English subs. I think it'll do the dorama injustice if I watch the movie before HaroRangers finishes subbing. Props to the writer for managing to expand it to a 10 episode series without polluting it with meaningless filler stuff.

Thank god Horikita Maki's role in this show is limited.

The one thing jdorama fans want to know is whether Takenouchi Yutaka can speak English. His pronunciation isn't bad and I didn't have any trouble understanding him. However, he does not emote well in English. Its like he is reciting lines and there's emotion or meaning behind them. His English is better than the embarrassing crap we get in the usual doramas like Tokyo Dogs so I'm pretty happy with the scenes in America. Its fun to see a Japanese show deal with racism in America, albeit a bit clumsily.

I can't seem to quit Ohitorisama because of Matsushita Nao. Her character in that show is too funny.

I think solution to the mystery of Johnny Hayward's parents and his death is pretty obvious but the characters have been done very well that its more of a matter of how it is resolved and what the fallout will be. Its a shame that there aren't too many people watching Ningen no Shoumei. Really well done police investigation shows like this that deal with so many issues rare in Jdoramas. Sometimes it stumbles like Kunio with black paint on his face trying to pass as an African-American but the intentions are good and its obvious they've really put effort into this. Highly recommended and IMHO, a must watch show.

Jin eps 3-11

I really enjoyed some of the time travel conundrums in Jin. By introducing advanced medicine, Jin sensei has already altered the future. His mission throughout this series is to quicken the technical know how of medicine so that Miki could be cured in the future. However, saving all those people in Edo raises difficult questions. What effect would saving those who are suppose to die have? Or does it really matter as in the case of the MILF with the little kid?

Makes me want to rewatch Sakuran.

Jin's only way to measure the success of his actions is Miki's photo. Slowly she gets better in the picture. However Jin is soon faced with another moral question. Nokaze is Miki's ancestor and Jin can save her life but in the process alter her destiny and prevent Miki from ever existing. He made the decision to save any life that he can save but at the cost of Miki's existence? Maybe Jin is suppose to make babies with Nokaze and is the source of Miki's lineage.

Have we met before?

Jin doesn't really explore the sci fi concept of time travel but rather the moral arguments. If time travel only creates divergent time streams, then all of Jin's worries are for naught. The question here is if not helping the needy is evil, how does that balance out against the crime of altering the future or causing people to not exist. I love the answer that Kita Yoshio gave Sakamoto Ryoma. That there is no right answer and the easiest way is for someone to make the decision for Jin.

Its not your fault Mr Brain was absolutely crap!

The big hook for Jin was the mystery of the baby in the brain and the identity of the bandaged. Sad to say, the truth has not been revealed. They teased us with the fake answer that it was Sakamoto Ryoma but its still left hanging. Perhaps the truth has not been revealed in the manga. Perhaps the dorama writer could not think of a suitable answer. Or perhaps they are saving it for a second season? It was a bit of a let down that the baby thing wasn't explained but not as much of a letdown as Jin not doing the ecchi with Nokaze or Saki.


Jin is like the donkan hero of a erogame without the ero. Two absolutely stunning women happy to throw themselves at him. The super experienced Nokaze or the young and innocent Saki. I'm pretty sure Jin could have even gotten them into a threesome. Hhhmmm.

Jyouou Virgin eps 5-12

The adventures of Ando Mai (Hara Mikie) continues. After she wins the 1st round besting her good friend Tomo-chan and we are treated to the second round where once again she gets bullied by her new adversaries. Tomo-chan is the most fun character to watch. You can never be sure what side she is on. Plus the fact that Kurokawa Mei is the only real actress in this show.

Sora Aoi is smoking hot...

My vote goes to Hara Saori for best oppai in Jyouou Virgin.

Kadena Reon gets a lot more to do in the second half of the series and I must say that she shows promise. I think the best part of the whole series is the Hara Mikie-Sora Aoi scene at the beginning of ep 7. Everyone's seen Sora Aoi naked but sometimes softcore style stuff is better because it leaves more to your imagination.



Urayamashii....

The most absurd part of the dorama is towards the end where Ando Mai volunteers herself to be raped in place of Tomo-chan. I don't know about you but that scene was so touching. *sarcasm* And she had to follow it up with crap about how its not about achieving one's goal but rather the journey towards one's goal. Someone's been reading Phil Jackson's books. Come to think of it, its not that absurd within the context of the storyline with Ando Mai being your super nice girl to the point of stupidity.

Dunno why guys would find the koakuma style hot.


Forgot to mention the heisei vs showa hostesses in ep 10 which was pretty fun. Its basically hostesses born before 89 vs girls born on or after that year. Of course the younger ones cannot work together and end up sabotaging each other under Ando Mai of course gets them to work together. Still, it was fun to see the older hostesses and their little tricks especially the widow's which was especially funny. The ending is way to happy for everyone but that's not really important, is it?

The megane girl is called Shoko. I wonder if she's suppose to parody Shoko-tan?

I wonder what Hara Mikie's looking down at?

At the end of the series, Hara Mikie promotes the dvd of the series which was sexy scenes not shown on tv. Aaarrrrgghhh. My curiosity is peaked. The question is whether the HK English subbed dvd is ripped from tv or the Japanese dvd? I wouldn't mind rewatching with subs so I can enjoy all the eye candy without having to strain my ears trying to catch all the dialogue. In terms of fanservice in midnight doramas, Jyouou Virgin wins the quality and quantity stakes hands down. If fanservice makes you happy, I can't think of any reason not to watch this.

Jmovie review: Nobody to watch over me/Dare mo mamotte kurenai

Nobody to watch over me starts of with an interesting introduction:

ln the event a minor commits a serious criminal offense, police authorities may seek to shield
the minor's family from excessive media scrutiny and public hostility. This protection is given to prevent members of the accused's family from taking their own lives in response to the trauma. Such suicides have occurred in the past. Authorities have not admitted to this practice.


Then we get a slow motion montage of Saori (Shida Mirai) playing happily in school while the police storm her house to arrest her brother for murder. News spreads like wildfire and very soon, a huge contingent of media is camp outside Saori's home. The police explain to Saori's family that for the rest of their lives, they will be hounded and be known as a killer's family. Officials from the ward office and family court arrive with divorce papers for Saori's parents to sign. They are administratively divorce and remarried under the wife's family name.


The family members are to be separated and Katsura (Sato Koichi) and Mishima (Matsuda Ryuhei) are in charge of protecting Saori. What follows is a decent car chase scene (by Japanese standards) as the press chase the car Saori is in through the streets. Up to this point, I'm really loving the police vs media procedural stuff. Its a different angle from your usual crime stories and I'm just happy to see a realistic Japanese police show. Things happen and and Katsura is forced to flee the city with Saori. It becomes more of a road movie, dwelling into an incident in Katsura's past that continues to haunt him.


The first half is pretty good. The second half, we get to the purpose of a movie which is a debate about the family of victims vs family of the accused. Aishiteru explored this subject as well, though from a slightly different slant. The concept of family being responsible for the actions of one family member is something that I can never understand. Collective responsibility, yes but not for criminal actions. It would be interesting to find out how the majority of Japanese view these matters but judging from doramas and movies, the public is happy to crucify the whole family for the sin of one. Dare mo mamotte kurenai also looks at the internet and its effect on a public that is always curious about murder cases and overly eager to condemn family members.

Very weird to see Muroi Shinji not in his usual dead serious, non smiling role.

There are a lot of themes explored in this movie including forgiveness and moving on but it does it with a subtlety of a sledgehammer. I think Dare mo mamotte kurenai tries to do way too much that it feels so uneven and unwieldy. There's too many angles driving this movie without one major thread to hold it all together. You got Saori's story competing against Katsura and the net angle and not to mention Giragira's waste of time role. Saori's story is supposed to be the main one and yet it feels so undeveloped. It has a great beginning but not enough substance to make the ending work.

Good thing she doesn't look as anorexic as she was in Uta no Onisan.

Its a shame that such a high budget movie with a great cast is let down in the end by the script that tries way too hard to be great. I think it sort of worth watching for the first half.

Fumo Chitai eps 4-7

I can't believe Samejima is the baker from Shiroi Haru. One could say that is the sign of a good actor.

The ratings for Fumo Chitai haven't been good. After starting off with 14.4%, its currently hovering around 11% which is pretty much an average rating, comparable to Liar Game. While Jin is probably the top rated show this season, it is an outrage that Tokyo Dogs rates better than Fumo Chitai at about 15%.

I demand you show more skin to raise the ratings!

As Chuks, the subber for this show mentioned in the subs thread:

This drama isn't getting good ratings. Apparently, it's too difficult for even Japanese, especially for female viewers.
To gain better ratings, the Fuji TV aired a show in which a female comedian Mitsuura
and two female tv personalities discussed about how cool male casts are on the drama, to
appeal to female viewers.
I wish they didn't do that. It's so desperate lol
It's a shame that such a good drama isn't recognized well.

Can you believe that Boss had higher ratings?

WTF? Are Japanese girls that shallow as Real Clothes leads us to believe? Why not sell the dorama as a well acted show with a great story? Sigh. I can or rather have to accept the reality that doramas are all about idols, but how can it be devoid of recognition of good craftsmanship? Is critical acclaim not good enough to sell doramas? Is a well crafted story with suspense so hard to watch compared to a juvenile cop show that plays more like a sitcom?


In ep 4, Iki succeds in the Luckheed bidding but pays a very heavy personal price and finally his stoic expression finally breaks. Japanese politics is so much about not revealing one's true emotions and intentions that it was good to see Iki finally allow himself to show his anger towards Kaizuka. As much as we'd like to see him burn in hell, Kaizuka has profited from the Luckheed victory as well. Iki questions whether victory in business is really worth the sacrifice of his best friend and subordinate. Daimon sacho convinces Iki to stay on and not waste the loss of Kawamata and Koide.

If this were your generic black and white dorama, Kaizuka would have a traumatic childhood and Iki would talk him into repenting before Kaizuka sacrifices himself or something.

Iki is then put in charge of the Business Affairs Department which overseas the overall of strategy of Kinki shoji. This bring him into conflict with the vice president, Satoi Tatsuya and the heads of various departments. This is right before the six-day war between Arab world. Ikki requests information from an Israeli trader and the various departments have to bear the cost of such information.

Entlassen! Noguchi sensei will always be one of my favourite villains.

I really love stories set in eras before mobile phone and internet. When one had to wait for the morning to read about yesterday's news and accurate and up to date information was worth its weight in gold. It makes things much more exciting. I enjoy the conflict between Iki/Satoi. Satoi has a point; the employees would have not be motivated to seemingly follow useless orders from the Business Affairs Department. It means that they are not free to make decisions for themselves and Ikki's decisions were not beneficial to the individual departments.

She reminds me of Aibu Saki in Karei naru...

The only thing that casts Satoi as the villain in all this is that jealousy is part of the reason for his opposition to Iki. Even then, that is very understandable due to Iki's rapid rise and seeming gamble of the future of the company on information provided by a suspicious individual. From the six day war, we go to the Japanese car industry and I'm enjoying the history lesson. We all know Japan as a developed nation but its fun to see how they got there.

I remember having a tv like that back in the day...

My favourite part of the show so far is not all the history and politics stuff but the scene at the end of episode 7 when Iki's wife finally confronts him and bares her emotions. Saying that Iki has been ignoring his family and it is as if he has gone to Siberia. He has trapped himself inside this prison of work and it is as if he no longer lives in the house. As I said in my review of the earlier episodes, I really think sprinkling flashbacks to his Siberian labour camp throughout the series would be very good, especially when he faces difficulties in his work or has to keep his emotions in check.


Give Fumo Chitai a chance. There's an average of 400+ subs downloaded per episode compared with crap like Tokyo Dogs or boring shows like Ohitorisama. There are a lot of dorama addicts out there who are missing out.

The Longest Night in Shanghai review

Anytime there's some international dual country dorama/movie, it always ends in disaster. See Faye Wong's Uso Koi or Rondo or Fukada Kyoko's Friends. Actually all Fukada Kyoko shows end in disaster but that's besides the point. Most of the time, the aim of the show is to promote or utilise a foreign star. Problem is, foreign star can't speak local language so you end up with a half hearted attempt by the two main characters to communicate with each other and some lame story to make sure that both parties visit each others countries.


The Longest Night in Shanghai is a China/Japan joint production starring Masahiro Motoki (Okuribito) as Mizushima, a charisma stylist who is in Shanghai to do an awards show. Mizushima has reached a turning point in his professional and private life and after what he has achieved, has no idea what he wants. He is bored with his career and his relationship with his girlfriend, who is also his personal assistant has stagnanted. Vicky Zhao (Shaolin Soccer) is Lin Xi, a brash taxi drive who has to take care of her useless brother and has a crush on her mechanic. One could say that the reason she drives so recklessly is so that she can get her taxi damaged.

For someone who's at most a supporting actor, Tsukamoto Takashi's been in some pretty good shows.

On that fateful night, Lin Xi knocks Mizushima down and as an apology, offers to give him a tour of shanghai. Unfortunately, Mizushima has no money, mobile or any idea where he was suppose to stay. At its core, The Longest Night in Shanghai is a fish out of water story. Mizushima is lost in a foreign land with Lin Xi as his reluctant tour guide. They are barely able to communicate; Mizushima knows some English but Lin Xi doesn't. She wants to get rid of him and does, but she comes back to his aid despite being preoccupied with her personal problems.


They encounter various adventures throughout the night and of course come to terms with their emotions and personal problems. I won't spoil what happens but its remarkable that a movie with two people speaking different languages and constantly misunderstanding each other can be so entertaining. Credit the actors and the script. There's some laugh out load moments, especially Takenaka Naoto's (Shall we Dance?) Bruce Lee scene. His imitation is uncanny. For a movie director by a Chinese, the Japanese parts are really good and don't feel fake like when Western movies have Japanese speaking parts and dialogue and characters don't feel authentic.


If there's one real weak link in this movie, its the side story of the megane dude in the bar. Its obvious they want to make it a story about love and relationships, blah blah blah and give everyone a story but megane dude and the American singer story is laugh out bad. First, his English is shit. Second, the dialogue is pathetically fake. Similar to my comment about Japanese in American shows, this is the result of an actor who can't speak English spouting words written by someone who has no idea how lame the dialogue is in English. Good thing its only a minor part of the movie but its so bad it sticks out like a sore thumb.


I highly recommend The Longest Night in Shanghai. Movies with a chinese director doing a half Japanese/Chinese romantic comedy which is different from the norm and using the language barrier has a tool for exploring a story don't come around very often.

Ohitorisama 1-5

Saito-san would never cry!

Not another older working woman with younger guy dorama! Not to mention that the younger guy Shinichi is played by Ijyuuin who looks like a twelve year old! There is no freaking way he can have any sort of chemistry with Mizuki Arisa. Ijyuuin is basically playing the female role here and his character displays a lot of stereotypical feminine characteristics. The only way their relationship would work is if they were an S&M couple but I'd rather not give it too much thought.


This begs the question, why have I lasted up till ep 5 so far? Obvious answer is of course Mizuki Arisa. There hasn't been any bad episodes so far though non of the episodes have been pretty good either. Its easier to stomach Ijyuuin since he was in Iryu. Being in one of my all time favourite doramas does wonders for an actor's watchability.

No jdorama about high school is complete without a rooftop scene.

Then there's my favourite part of the show, the battle between Sawai sensei (Matsushita Nao) and Saegusa over Ijyuiin. Sawai sensei, the seemingly pure and innocent teacher is always there to foil Saegusa's plans to snare Ijyuiin. Her strong knowledge of teacher entrapment techniques hint that she may not be as nice as she pretends to be. I just find it hilarious how Sawai sensei always appears out of nowhere.

I love how positively evil she looks. I wonder if it was intentional?

Ohitorisama is pretty much standard career woman dorama. Its also got one element I really find useless, the need for the main character to voice every goddamn thought she has. Mizuki Arisa is a decent actress and I'm pretty sure she can convey from the emotions with her acting without the need for a monologue everytime something happens. When Akiyama sensei has to spell out every goddamn thought, its sort of like she's imposing herself on the audience. When there is no thought monologue, the audience is able to read the character through his/her actions and facial expressions thus creating a relationship whereby the viewer is more of an observer who gets the know the character as the series progresses. KDO is the perfect example of this.

She hasn't been doing her kawaii voice in doramas anymore...

Ohitorisama is a watchable show more because it hasn't really done anything badly. Unless you're a Mizuki Arisa or Matsushita Nao fan, give it a skip. Compared to Jin, Liar Game and Fumi Chitai Ohitorisama is as pedestrian a jdorama as they come. If Ohitorisama came out during a bad season like the last one, I would be more positive about it but with 3 good shows this season, I can only say 'watch it if you've got nothing better to do'.