tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33488943013046429742024-03-25T01:32:17.037+02:00Cypsis' blogCypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.comBlogger240125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-62384874177716944432017-07-10T19:57:00.000+03:002018-02-17T20:56:35.319+02:0030+ Single on Sale (2011)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country</b>: Thai<br />
<b>Format:</b> movie <br />
<b>Genre</b>: romance <br />
<b>Cast</b>: Chremarn Boonsayak, Arak Amornsupasiri, Sudarat Budtporm, Pijitra Siriwerapan, Dempan Yuwittaya<br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>Ing is in her 30s and while waiting for her long-time boyfriend to pop the question, she gets a big surprise when she ends up not being the one walking down the aisle. A fortune-teller tells her that if she does not ind her true soulmate now, then she has to wait another 20 years. She decides to give dating a new try, but soon understands that dating in 30s is more difficult than in 20s and true soulmate is not easy thing to find. Or maybe her true soulmate is closer than she expects?<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 3/5<br />
With this movie I was in the "middle of not-expecting anything" and "having high expectation". That means that there were things that surprised me in a nice way and things that let me down a big time.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The main heroine is Ing who is successful photographer with her own studio. She is independent woman and has had a a relationship for 7 years, though most of the time her boyfriend has lived overseas. That also is the reason why their relationship is not what it used to be and why in one point of time her boyfriend started to have another woman, but has been too much of a coward to actually break up with Ing before the wedding date. I would say that in a way she even handles this kind of break up rather well and loses herself only for a moment. In the movie, it is also shown about how a lot of times at least one in the relationship has to make choices and give up on something important. It is how life is - you cannot have everything and never give up on something. <br />
Mint is the man-eater. She kind of thinks that "true love" is over-rated and "something just for one night is good enough". She desperately falls heels over head in love with Jeet which makes everything more complicated for everyone. Luckily, she is a rather easy going person who barely bear any revenge or hatred.<br />
In a matter of fact, I would have liked to see more about Yee and her crazy sudden love. I have been a fan of Tukki for a long time (ever since I saw "Crazy little thing called love"). Yee is a crazy activist who is fighting against big corporations to protect local heritage and culture. Her story is exactly how there is a small step between love and hatred. She ends up dating and marring a rich American, though she does not speak English and he does not speak Thai. Unfortunately, their story does not have much development and you can only enjoy their few moments together on the screen. Despite being the most successful in dating and in her achievements, between the three of them, she is the last one on the row - meaning she always gets to eat pizza pieces without toppings.<br />
Our sweet fortune-teller Jeet has met a difficult life, but has not lost his smile and humor. By chance he becomes close friend of Ing and before he understandsit himself, he does not want to be just a friend to her. Whether Ing understands it or not, she is a woman who thinks more with her head than her heart. Jeet is earning money with selling barbecue and being a fortune-teller, in which no-one can be sure if he is true or just faking it. Whatever the case, he is amazing when it comes to read human characters and that might be the reason why on one moment he decides to let Ing go.<br />
The last character worth mentioning is Tan. World-famous Thai photographer who has been Ing's idol for many years. In addition being someone to look up to as a professional, he is also extremely handsome and friendly. He started to give me a second lead syndrome as he really is a nice man. It is easier to dislike the second man than like him and know that he will lose the woman. At the same time you can see how Ing is different person around him and not her natural self as she is with Jeet. While it takes Ing a long time to understand it, what she thought to be her "dream man" might not be what she actually wants.<br />
Unfortunately, there are not many highlights in the movie that would make you remember or feel squeeze while watching. I was annoyed, that the only connection to the movie title was about high heels being on sale and that "women even would buy 2 pairs of the same shoes so others would not buy them". I did not see any other connection and many scenes felt that they were put into the movie to fill screen-time.<br />
There is another movie "Fabulous 30" that has a rather similar storyline: 30 years old woman getting dumped by her old time boyfriend and is looking for someone new. There was just one month between the releases of these two movies and a lot of people mistake them for each other. In fact, my sisters saw "30+ single on sale" first and advised me to watch it and I ended up watching "Fabulous 30" first, without knowing that it is not the movie they had been watching. Both movies are good time-fillers if you want to watch something easy.<br />
I finish the review with the fact that this movie is written and directed by the same man who is the author of "Crazy Little thing called Love", but unfortunately this movie did not meet the the same success as the sweet youth romance.<br />
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SPOILER-review: I decided to come back to the thing that Jeet let Ing go and started dating Mint. As I said he could read people's characters rather well - meaning he was able to see that Tan actually was everything Ing had wanted from her perfect man while he had only little to offer to her. At the same time, Mint was basically okey with just his body. I know - this is not good and does not lead to anywhere, but it was pointless for him to chase after a woman who could not see him more than a friend. And sometimes giving more distance is all that is need to make the difference. As I said Mint is a easygoing person and she knew Jeet's feelings for Ing from the start. That's why it is very important for Ing to understand herself that her dream man cannot be a man who does not even remember his dog's names. </div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-49573602436054368722017-06-25T17:09:00.000+03:002017-06-25T17:09:15.892+03:00Boku, unmei no hito desu (2017)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format:</b> drama, in 10 episodes<br />
<b>Genre:</b> romance, comedy<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Kamenashi Kazuya, Yamashita Tomohisa, Kimura Fumino, Nanao, Mitsushima Shinnosuke, Sawabe Yu, Okano Maya, Seiichi Tanabe, Watanabe Eriko, Ookura Koji, Sugimotto Tetta, Ishino Mako,<br />
<b>Synopsis:</b> Masaki Makoto always seems to fall for wrong women. At the age of 29, he is once again single after his previous girlfriend is arrested by police. One night a mysterious guy appears in his apartment, he introduces himself as "God". "God" says that Masaki has a destined soulmate waiting for him and through out life they have had countless number of meetings. In fact, his destined person happens to be Kogetsu Haruko, who works next door to Masaki.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
One drama that made almost everybody waiting for Saturdays and stare on their TVs/computers. After 12 years a long waited reunion of Kamenashi Kazuya and Yamashita Tomohisa took place and that is enough to make everybody go crazy. The last time they played together in "Nobuta wo Produce" which has become one of the classic Japanese dramas. It was also my first drama which got me addicted to Japanese dramas, so it was a pleasure to see them together on the screen again.<br />
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It is difficult not to put great expectations on the drama before watching it. All the cast is well-known and amazing, the screenwriter is Kaneko Shigeki (Proposal Daisakusen; Sekai Ichii Muzukashii koi; Hatchimitsu to Clover), main director Sakuma Noriyoshi (Nobuta wo Produce, Yokai ningen bem, Akumu-chan). There is just little that can go wrong and luckily even that little went all right.<br />
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Our male-character is Masaki who at first glance can look timid and clumsy. He is rather naive when things come to women and that is the reason why he always ends up being used. At the same time his will to succeed is bigger than most of the guys and "not giving up" attitude is the thing working for him. It is surprising that he is willing to do things that make no sense, but I guess that might be because of his personality to believe that "it might work".<br />
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What made me fall for him, is the fact that once he has the courage and confidence, he does things that make every woman's heart stop for a second and then beat as fast as if it is going to explode. Or maybe it is the fact that in a way Masaki is very average man and not so extraordinary? Kamenashi Kazuya is amazing in the role. He is a natural for the character and I feel that as if there is something similar between Kamenashi's and Masaki's personalities. With years I start to like him more and more.<br />
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To match with our leading man, also the leading lady is rather average and down-to-earth woman. Haruko has been hurt a lot by love and that has made her cautious about falling in love. A lot of times she has negative attitude and despite wanting to marry, she has distanced herself from going out and meeting new people. That all causes her to reject Masaki many times before she notices that Masaki is not exactly like other guys. With time she starts to believe again that there might be a thing called "destiny" as in the end, most of us want to believe that there is someone for us.<br />
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Despite being in the entertainment business for more than 10 years, Kimura Fumino has been rather unknown until recent years. It might be due to the fact that she just looks rather average, especially as most of the years and dramas she has had the same natural black hairstyle. That's why most of people find it refreshing to see her very different. I admit, the first time when the cast was announced, I did not recognize her, despite having seen her before. I believe we can see more of her in future for sure.<br />
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The most mysterious character is "God", played by Yamashita Tomohisa. I am pretty sure that they let Yamashita Tomohisa do a lot of ad-lib - meaning most of the things he is saying was not written in the script. He is known for doing it in his previous dramas too, so it would not be any surprise if they just wrote him few main-lines and let him say what he wants. "God" is saying a lot of things that do not make sense, mixing languages and making a lot of references to some other movies, songs, sport legends etc.<br />
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Though his screen time is nothing compared to other characters, he is the most important keyperson in the story. Yamashita Tomohisa is awesome in the role, because it has been a while since he had an non-serious role. In addition, it has been a while from his last bath-scene. Yamashita Tomohisa has played in Kaneko Shigeki's dramas before - Proposal Daisakusen, Summer Nude. In fact, there is at least 1 Johnny in every Kaneko's drama.<br />
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Mitsue is Haruka's best friend. She is having a lot of boyfriends and when one relationship ends she gets into another one. She is exactly opposite of Haruka as she has decided to try out all the time until there is a relationship that works out. She is very easy to approach and her appearance is stunning all the time. Compared to Haruka, who can be a bit dull, Mitsue is like just arrived spring with bright colors and fragrances. Mitsue's and Haruka's friendship is definitely best, especially their "food-sharing-lunches". Though Mitsue is not a big fan of Masaki for a long time, she appreciates his courage and stubbornness. Nanao and Kimura Fumino starred together also in previous season drama "A LIFE" and years before in "Siren".<br />
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Without Masaki knowing it, Sadaoka has been his life-long rival. Sadaoka, who is successful in everything he does and his having his best year of his life, decides to have another try with Haruka, as he had a crush on her already in high-school. If you are afraid that you might receive a second-lead syndrome from him, then you can relax as he becomes one of the biggest Masaki's supporters. He is very kind and outgoing and sometimes he can be a little bit too positive, but that is exactly his charm. I became a big fan of Sadaoka, because he saw through most of the things, but decided to keep things to himself and help as much as possible without asking too many questions. I believe that this role opened a lot of doors for Mitsushima Shinnosuke. Though he made his debut already years ago, he has had mostly side-roles. By the way, his stunning looks are thanks to his grandfather who is French-American. <br />
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There are many characters in the office who play a little role in the story itself. At Masaki's office there are Kazuo and Sekihara who have crush on Mitsue and drag Masaki out to drink all the time. There is also the boss who is timid man and hates carrots. It is interesting to see the workplace relations and how they are really working for the same outcome and taking their job seriously, while still having fun.<br />
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From Haruka's office they do not show so many characters. There is just Hatosaki, who is their boss. She is middle-aged woman who is still actively looking for love. Though a lot of her references of love do not make sense, she likes to share her wisdom. In a way Mitsue is looking up to her as she is not willing to end her life as single woman.<br />
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There is nothing told about Masaki's family, but you learn a lot about Haruka's family. Her parents and their marriage is the role-model what Haruka is longing for. Her parents are long waiting for Haruka to marry and start her own family, but at the same time they do not know many things going on in her life. Her parents meet with Masaki much before they even know the connection between Masaki and Haruka. It is nice to see different kind of input from the family as usually the family is either not shown at all or they are "half-stupid" and almost selling their daughters away.<br />
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The highlight is Kamenashi's and Yamashita's onscreen chemistry. Some people have complained that their chemistry is so good that it even out-lights the romance between Masaki and Haruko. Between the drama, the bromance is even extended to MasakixGodxSadaoka and it is just a dream come true. Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest bromances in the history of jdramas and it is a nice match to AkiraxShuji from "Nobuta wo Produce". In addition, Kamenashi and Yamashita made a duo Kame to Yama-P in order to sing the theme song "Senakagoshi no Chance" and they gave out full single, just as they did during "Nobuta wo Produce". They had talked for years about making a drama together and this was finally the outcome after 12 years.<br />
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I guess the main thing why it is a great drama is that it is light and very easy to watch. Characters are true-to-life, there are no bad characters that get annoying and the over all story is naive in a good way. Though there might be a thought that things get too predictable (or as Yanne commented once "the pace is the same in every episode"), then it actually has many unpredictable situations that bring up the heat again. Also, I find this drama like a small reminder that love conquers everything and in the end there is someone meant for everybody, you just have to not give up and notice all the hints.<br />
I am not surprised if they are earning some awards in the end of the season or even in the end of the year.<br />
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I do not know why I did not think about the possibility of "God" being Masaki's and Haruka's son before it actually happened. It does make more sense than him being "God". But at the same time, I am not sure what version I liked more. Never the less, his sudden disappearance definitely broke my heart and I just hope that in future once he is grown-up, they get along better.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-39997733078755481522017-06-19T12:33:00.000+03:002017-06-23T14:35:06.643+03:00EXTE ~Hair extensions~ (2007)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country: </b>Japan <br />
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<b>Format</b>: movie</div>
<b>Genre:</b> horror<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Kuriyama Chiaki, Osugi Ren, Sato Megumi, Tsugumi, Sato Miku, Machimoto Eri, <br />
Synopsis: One day a woman's corpse is found from a port in a container full of human hair. Having defined that the victim has had her organs harvested for a black market, the corpse goes missing from the morgue as the morgue keeper takes the corpse home in order to make hair extensions as from the revenge for the world, its hair is still growing. Meanwhile, Yuko is practicing to become hairstylist in a local hair salon. Once the hair extensions are attached to a person, the corpse is ready to kill it. <br />
<b>Rating</b>: 1/5<br />
First of all, I would not say it is exactly horror movie, but it is disturbing and sick. Despite making pauses while watching it, I felt like puking most of the time. In addition, as you can see you can make a horror movie out of everything.<br />
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It is surprising that Yuko is learning to because hairstylist already for two years. In my country the study usually is just 1 year. She is left beside from the training and seems like she is more of a administrator or cleaning lady there. They also bring in a story about abortion that is mentioned just once and then it is forgotten like nothing was mentioned. I do not like these kind of things, because they do not have any connection to the main storyline. I guess it is pointless to ask if Kuriyama Chiaki was the right choice for it or not - she does have one of the best hair from Japanese actresses and this long black natural hair is her brand look. I guess the second option would have been Kuroki Meisa, but Kuriyama's acting is better and she looks a bit more suitable for horror movie. <br />
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Her older sister Kiyomi is a drunk woman how steals stuff and abuses her daughter. She has no family feelings and uses Yuko as she wants. For a moment she gave me a feeling that she abused Yuko also when she was younger, but then again it seemed that they never lived together and she had a totally different childhood than Yuko. In a way her daughter Mami loves her, though half of this love is more pure fear in front of her. This fear makes her obey mother's orders. In many moments I thought that it would be just easier to go to police about Kiyomi and legally take the kid away, but the story had its own way how to deal with her. <br />
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The main guy is Gunji Yamazaki who has extreme hair fetish that leads to even stealing a corpse from the morgue and going around the city in search of beautiful hair. In his mind, only beautiful hair is natural hair that has been taken care of. During these years it was common for Japanese women to dye their hair and have hairstyle that I like to call "ragged squirrel". Yamazaki is creepy and looks like a pedophile. I think that it is actually right to say that he just does not have an extreme fetish, but he has a huge mental disorder. <br />
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The whole idea about the horror movie was the growing popularity of hair extensions in Japan. In a way I understand it as for real natural hair, you actually do not know who was the rightful owner of the hair or how it ended up as hair extension. I have seen some documentaries about hair extension industry and some take away all the desire to ever put hair extensions. At the same time, I really appreciate when hair is donated to make wigs for cancer survivors. <br />
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The overall story is very slow-paced and the real action starts just in the middle of the movie. There are a lot of things that do not make sense even on the best try and as I said, it was just extremely disturbing movie. It is not easy to make a quality horror movie without going over the limit when it gets stupid. This movie was sitting on my watch-list for years and it ended up there just because of my sister..<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-4120802981621295112017-06-05T02:35:00.000+03:002017-06-21T02:45:07.522+03:00Eien no zero (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span id="goog_1659649473"></span><span id="goog_1659649474"></span><br /></b>
<b>Country: </b>Japan<br />
<b>Format: </b>movie<br />
<b>Genre: </b>history, drama,<br />
<b>Cast: </b>Miura Haruma, Okada Junichi, Inoue Mao, Hamada Gaku, Arai Hirofumi, Sometani Shota, Ueda Tatsuya, Miura Takahiro, Tanaka Min, Yamamoto Gaku, Hira Mikijiro, Hashizume Isao, Fukiishi Kazue, Funuki Jun, Natsuyagi Isao, Aoki Ken, Enda Yuya, Furukawa Yuki, Nakanishi Tetsuya, <br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>After grandmother's death, .. learns that his grandfather is not his biological grandfather, but grandmother's second husband. The first husband lost his life as an kamikaze pilot in the Second World War. As nobody from the family has any information about him.. with his sister start to investigate their real grandfather's mysterious life. <br />
<b> Rating:</b> 5/5<br />
It is a World War II movie, so you can be sure that it will hit you in the heart and leave you cry. The ones who have been following my blog before know that I have seen more war movies and actually tend to like them as they are very educational and mostly filmed with care.<br />
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After continuously failing to pass the law-school exams Kentaro is rethinking his life. While at first he is doubting in finding anything out about his real grandfather, he soon discovers that grandfather was a much bigger person than he seemed to be. Just as most of the youth today, he does not know much what happened during the war or how the life actually was then. By hearing all the different stories he starts to understand the tragedy of the past. It is very interesting to see him deal with all his emotions and too see how "earning few bucks" turns into "finding his roots". Muira Haruma's acting is on spot, but for sure Okada Junichi was the one in the spotlight.<br />
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For some people Miyabe-san was the biggest coward, while for others he was the biggest man in the air force. Due to the story being told by other people by their memories, Miyabe-san stays mysterious through out everything and there is just a little that you can see what is going on in his head. War leaves its mark on him and I like how they brought out the difference how he changed with the time. <br />
Okada Junichi was the first choice for the cast as his appearance was the most similar to what the production team had in mind of Miyabe. In addition, in order to portray Miyabe the best way, Okada learned martial arts to the level when he became the qualified teacher. What else can I say that Johnny's are known for their unlimited power to master all kind of stuff very fast.<br />
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There is not much to talk about the sister and Kiyoko. Though both of them are eager to know the truth, it seems that they more want to know love story between Matsuno and Miyabe. Maybe it has something to do with the "being a man" as it is normal that grandfather and grandson get along better and grandmother and granddaughter.<br />
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In a way I felt a bit that their other grandfather was left beside a little bit, even though I like the fact that they asked his permission to make the research. You can see that he was a man who really loved Matsuno and Kiyoko, even though Kiyoko was not his child. It made me wonder how did he meet with Matsuno, but I can say that this movie has an answer to every question.. okey, to almost every question. This was Natsuyagi Isao's last movie that was released after he died in May 2013 (the movie was released in December). In fact Natsuyagi Isao had 5 movies that were released after his death.<br />
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The movie has had a lot of controversy in audience as some are seeing it as "glorification" to war; "missing facts" and "misinterpretation of kamikaze pilots". As the Hyakuta Naoki, author of the novel, said: "People are seeing just what they want to see". I agree with the writer that this story really is about the tragedy of war and reminding people that we should never forget the things that happened in wars. The movie gives a good overview of the war timeline and also portrays different personalities of the soldiers as everyone have different motives and reaction to the things happening. In many countries in history classes kamikaze-pilots are portrayed as "brainwashed pilot who willingly went to kill themselves". Though it might have been the case for many, I appreciate that the movie is bringing in the different point of view where a lot of pilots simply did not have any rights in making the decision. <br />
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In 2015, the movie got a new remake as a mini-drama in 3 episodes starring Mukai Osamu, Kiritani Kenta and Tabe Mikako. The reasons why to make a drama was to be able to show also more things that are in the novel, but did not appear in movie as for movie they had to leave out many things.<br />
Movie itself won many international awards and is the second highest-grossing Japanese movie of year 2013. <br />
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SPOILER-review:<br />
I guess grandfather had two reasons why he did not tell the truth about Miyabe-san to the kids when they were asking the first time. Firstly, he did had an agreement with Matsuno that they are not talking about it (especially given the fact that they did not talk about him even between themselves). Secondly, with a high chance the kids would not have understood what kind of person Miyabe really was and what were his reasons that made him make those decisions. </div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-90917320846710944932017-05-29T23:10:00.000+03:002017-06-21T02:40:54.667+03:00Hanayome no yakudoshi (2006)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format: </b>drama in 12 episodes<br />
<b>Genre:</b> family, comedy<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Shinohara Ryoko, Yabe Hiroyuki, Iwashita Shima, Koyama Keiichiro, Sato Hitomi, Kudo Risa, Matsushima Nahomi, Ukaji Takashi, Hirayama Hiroyuki, Sasano Takashi, Sawamura Ikki, Matsumoto Runa,<br />
<b>Synopsis:</b> Taketomi Akiko has turned to 32-years old. This is a year that is known to be "yakudoshi" - the "unlucky year" for women. She has just lost her prestigious job as announcer and is forced to become "fake bride for 3-month bridal training" in country-side for the sake of variety show. By chance, her ex-boyfriend Ichiro with who she dated 10 years ago, fits with the fiancee requirements and before Akiko understands it, she is already working in peach farm in Fukushima. What Akiko does not know is that Ichiro has not talked to his mother for years and his mother is not exactly the kindest mother.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 3/5<br />
I took some time before finishing this drama. Being already 11 years old, you can find many things similar to other dramas from that time.<br />
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Taketomi is a strong independent woman, who has not had a mother-figure to look up to. I think that is the reason why she develops such a strong bond with Mother as she finally finds a role-model. Receiving Mother's approval becomes an essential meaning for her existence, especially after losing everything that she was fighting for. She is facing many chances in her life and I would say that this experience makes her understand what is important in life for her. I liked one comment that I read on D-addicts that Taketomi seems the kind of woman who likes to hear her own voice more than others and her word has to be the last one on the table in the end of an argument. It describes exactly one half of her personality - the strong woman who fights for her opinion.<br />
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On the other hand, she is a person who obeys easily others when her defense walls have been brought down. She has a habit of keeping her true feelings inside, unless she is angry, and from time to time she cannot swallow her own pride, which makes her say the opposite things and ruin everything. Shinohara Ryoko with her acting was the star of the drama. It was very pleasant to watch her because everything looked very natural. In addition, her face expressions add so much more to the drama that you just want to continue watching.<br />
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Definitely the high-light of the drama is Akiko's and Mother's relationship. You can understand rather early that Mother really cares about her children and also about Akiko, but she is rough from the edges and has a bit weird way of showing her love. Underneath her unchanging face, she is most loving person. I guess her mean attitude was also for children to build a strong character and survive in the society, though as you can see her children are not so extra-ordinary people. In reality I like the idea of "bridal-training", though at many times it makes me feel as if the mother of the bride did not teach anything. In Akiko's case it was necessary as she grew up without mother and she is lacking in many "stereotypical wife-material-skills". Through out the drama was once waiting for the moment when Mother will break as she never shows any weakness.<br />
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Ichiro is laid-back person who is easy to talk to when joking around, but in serious situations has a habit to jump into conclusions without listening the other part until the end. He has not been at home for years and is only willing to accept the program to help Akiko and annoy his mother. Despite being against his mother in every situation, deep down he wants to get along, but only when his mother admits her wrong-doings.<br />
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I started to watch the drama because of Koyama Keiichiro, who plays the part of Jiro - the youngest child of the Azuchi family. He has peach-allergy that makes it difficult for him to work in a peach farm. He has a dream of working in TV and entertainment business in Tokyo, but he is lacking in many skills and he can be sometimes a big airhead. Though a lot of times he is rude and selfish, he is very honest person. Koyama Keiichiro is not the greatest actor, but this role fits him very well. He got a serious sunburn while filming because many of his scenes required to be outside.<br />
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The last child is Momoko, who is the middle-child and the only daughter. She is married and has a step-son, but due to problems in heaven, she has returned to family home and is thinking of divorce. She is kind woman, even though resembling her mother, can say very mean things.<br />
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There is also Kaori, who is wants to be the successor of the peach farm, while in reality she is just a child of one of the workers. Her social skills are lacking, she has huge accent while talking and she is into stuff like voodoo-dolls and spells. In a way I felt sorry for her, because she was tried to be shown as a "bad character but in a funny way", but in the end the peach farm was her dream.<br />
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Last person who I should mention is Nozomi, who is Akiko's neighbor, her best friend and the person who empties Akiko's food resources. To me Matsushima Nahomi is known more as a TV host and a member of "Sekai no hate made ITTEQ" and I did not even know that she has had some acting roles also. As Nozomi is very funny character, then as a comedian she is bringing out all the right things in her character.<br />
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Due to this drama, and the fact that they are so cheap, I have ended up eating peaches every day. In the end I cannot tell, if there can be a difference in taste between the people who are growing them or not. I can just tell three things about peaches: if they are raw, ripe or already overripe.<br />
Hope you will also eat a lot of healthy fruits while watching this drama.<br />
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SPOILER-review:<br />
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In reality Ichiro and Akiko dated just for a month in university and I guess that with meeting each other again and going through the project made them think that why not to marry. Neither of them was in a age where they have too many choices. Even in the end of the drama, I did not feel that there was a real love between them. Ichiro just liked her a lot and Akiko really wanted to be part of the family as a daughter-in-law.</div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-87025041351671001262017-05-15T15:04:00.000+03:002017-06-21T02:43:57.852+03:00Poison berry in my brain (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format:</b> movie<br />
<b>Genre</b>: surreal, psychological<br />
<b>Cast</b>: Maki Yoko, Furukawa Yuki, Songha, Kamiki Ryunosuke, Nishijima Hideyoshi, Yoshida Yo, Sakurada Hiyori, Asano Kazuyuki,<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Sakura Ichiko is a freelance writer who is moving towards her breakthrough with her first book. While being single 30-old year woman, she is looking for a man with who to spend her life together. She meets Saotome who makes her heart beat for the first time in while. At the same time in side her head is going on a debate between 5 about what is the best for Sakura to have happy and stable life. <br />
<b>Rating:</b> 1/5<br />
This must be the weirdest movie I have seen lately and to confess, I still have not understood the point of the movie or what it wanted to say. That we have to love ourselves before loving others? That sometimes doing the things we love and being with people we love does not actually guarantee our happiness? That no matter what in the end life is just a circle and most of the time we just end up doing the same mistakes over and over again? Not sure, but these were the thoughts I caught after finishing it.<br />
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I do not even know how to describe Sakura Ichiko. The big mess going on in Sakura's head made it all look really unstable and in the end she seemed a bit naive or ignorant about the world surrounding her. The only normal moments when she actually looked like a human being was in her memories. She made most of the decisions based on her emotions without thinking about other people - it was both with Oshi and Saotome. It was made to look as if she was the victim in many things, but most of the time she actually had things going good, but it was just her over-analyzing, jumping to wrong conclusions and not talking about her problems that caused most of the problems. Also, I must say that I absolutely hate her way of wearing hats. Who does that? I did not enjoy Maki Yoko's acting as the whole movie she looked like a puppet doll - almost not reacting at all and her eyes looked so empty as if she was never thinking at all. Or if she was made to act this way, then I just feel l sorry for her.<br />
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Saotome is a struggling artist who is looking for his breakthrough too, but faces more difficult reality than Sakura. To me it seemed as if he was looking for a stable rock, a person on who he can rely and who will give him the emotional balance, but at the same time he still had not understood it himself, and that lead him to act in wrong ways that he understood much later. I see it as if this was the "growing-time" of him when he mentally grows and understands what he wants and needs from life. In many places it is said as if Saotome was younger than Sakura, and to be honest, he acts also like a small brat in many situations, yet in movie there is also said that "he is 30, right?". So it was another thing that left me totally confused, because I did not understand if he was younger or not. Literally, the only things I liked about him where that 1) he is an artist 2) his surname is the same as my favorite manga character 3) he was played by Furukawa Yuki. To be honest, I actually felt that Sakura liked him only because he was "kinda hot", but since the start she never showed to be deeply interested in him and the fact that she "hide" the fact that they are dating for so long, already predicts that it is not going to be a stable relationship.<br />
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The third part of our love-triangle is Ochi, who is Sakura's editor and somehow knows Saotome before. He is successful and has serious personality, which makes it difficult for him to approach women in romantic way. Even though I would say that give him 1-2 years and women will be circling around him as bees around honey tree. I would say that he was the most reasonable character and definitely the most mature one in the whole movie. Songha is more known in theater than for his roles in movies.<br />
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And now we reach the most messy part of the movie aka "what the f*** is going on inside Sakura's head"- there are 5 different "people": Reason - Yoshida, Positive - Ishibashi , Negative - Ikeda, Impulse - Hatoko, Memory - Kishi. Each of them have their own ideas and thoughts what is the best for Sakura, even though in reality you can see that they can almost never agree nor anyone of them has actually a good idea. You would like to think that 5 heads are smarter than 1, but not in this case.<br />
In addition, no matter how you look at it, it seemed as if Ikeda was definitely more dominating Sakura's emotions than any of the others as most of the time Sakura was rather depressing and jumping to negative conclusions. I felt that the main idea of those characters was that viewers could find similarities with their own actions and emotions, but in the end for me everything was very messy and did not make any sense.<br />
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It was even weirder as Ishibashi seemed to be so active in the discussion, yet he could not change the things for positive and when things get through he suddenly falls to coma, with no exact reason. About Kishi, I felt as if he was always bringing back just the negative connections. I did not like how they portrayed "impulsive" at all. For me impulsive is doing unexpected actions and stepping out of the comfort zone, not childish naive crush. As for the last, I felt as if Reason was not doing his job at all and not keeping things in order. Basically, he just followed everybody else' opinions and was not rational at all. I got so pissed off from their fights and screaming that for a second I literally closed the movie so that I would not have to watch it more.. until Yanne said to me "You already watched half of it, just try to suffer a bit more".<br />
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And I will not even start about what was going on with this woman in latex. Not just that horrible "hooker"-outfit, she also made Sakura make bad choices and her make-up made her look as if she was a zombie or she had been frozen for previous 120 years. In addition, I would have liked if their names would have had some connection with what they represented, but it seemed as if the names were just put randomly. I am a person who loves details and exactly these kind on details are what play a big role for me.<br />
Many people compare it with Disney's "Inside Out" that came out the same year, but for sure "Inside out" has much better adaption of the "emotions inside the brain" than this movie has. No matter what I do not get the same feeling or understanding from "Poison berry in my brain" that I got from "Inside out". I guess in every way "Poison berry in my brain" left the story a bit too confusing and I felt that the "emotions" where having too many other emotions and ideas next to their own.<br />
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One thing that I did like about the movie was the "castle on the cloud" as it represents the surreal things in life or a fantasy, but I wished that they had brought out the meaning in a better way or if I misunderstood it, then given it a real meaning. The overall idea of the movie is very promising, but the execution of the movie itself is just plainly bad.<br />
The movie definitely has an unusual set-up and it might be a bit difficult to follow the timeline. The movie does not explain many things and skips the most important points, so you just have to make your own conclusions of what happened.<br />
To conclude it all, I definitely had great expectations for it and hoped to have a bit of psychological journey, but it all ended up as a jumble of nothing. I hope that some of you enjoy this movie more than me and feel free to let me know your ideas.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-65081053717744853012017-05-08T21:13:00.000+03:002017-06-21T02:44:11.188+03:00Suddenly Seventeen (2016) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country</b>: China<br />
<b>Format</b>: movie<br />
<b>Genre</b>: romance, comedy, supernatural<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Ni Ni, Wallace Huo, Darren Wang, Ma Su, Bing Liu, Mike Kai Sui, Pilong Pan, Wentong Ning, Vicky Yu, Xi Lai,<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Liang is 28-year old woman waiting for her prince charming Mao to propose her. For 10 years she has been standing behind him, supporting him in his every decision, while giving up on her dream of becoming an artist. But instead of a marriage proposal she receives a proposal to break up. In a moment of despair, she orders a box of magic chocolates that bring back carefree 17-year old Liang who happens to have totally different views on life than 28-year old Liang.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 5/5<br />
A movie on what half of the people "accidentally click on". To be honest, the first time I also clicked on it without knowing exactly what it is, as the title on Youtube is "Seventeen again" and makes you think of a remake of Zac Efron's "17 again". Well, I can guarantee you that this Chinese movie is something much better than the Hollywood sweetheart's movie.<br />
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The star of the movie is Liang, played by Ni Ni. She is a woman that represents a lot of real life women. Living upon a long time promise made by her boyfriend, of course she is waiting for a ring and thinking of family. She has lost her former self in order to become perfect wife to her future husband, because he has become her greatest treasure. You can say that she is being stupid and everything, but the truth is that love can be blinding and even in 21st century women have to make choices between career and family.<br />
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You can see the great difference with how she was before meeting Mao and unfortunately, this kind of change is much easier to happen and it happens without herself noticing it.. or even when she notices, she unintentionally is willing to sacrifice herself for the happiness and career of the man, even when he does not want it. Big Liang very feminine and elegant. She is actually the perfect woman to be a wife. On the other side, Small Liang represents everything she was - rebellious, outrageous girl who had her dreams and goals in life. I guess this difference shows how much we as people change with time. I am not the person who I was the day before and I am not the person who I will be tomorrow. We should never forget who we want to become, in order to not lose the sight.<br />
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I guess the weirdest thing is that you actually cannot dislike Mao for wanting to break up with Liang. In the end, he was not the one asking Liang to stop painting nor he asked her not to go to Paris. Liang made her choices with him in her mind, but he was not the one making the choices instead of her. She had lost most of the things that made him fall in love with her. He is representing what is so normal in our society - couples miss the right time to marry and end up in situation where they start to question their relationship as it has become too comfortable and routine, while at the same time the same comfort and routine in real marriage would not actually bother them. <br />
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I really enjoyed Liang's and Bai's friendship. Despite, being the ugly duckling until university, Bai has turned into beautiful swan in adult life and married a successful foreign businessman. Also, Bai's successful marriage is also the biggest thing that makes Liang think more about her situation. Bai is a true friend who protects her friend in every situation. She might seem the "unreasonable" one in their friendship, but even with her you can all see how much she has changed in her mind with the years.<br />
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The last character who needs to be talked about is Yan - seemingly carefree motorcycle guy, who steals the heart of Small Liang. He is exactly the rebellious type of guy who makes girl's heart beat as fast as the wheel of the motorcycle on speeding. He takes a serious interest in Liang, but things get very confusing for him with Liang acting as two very different women. Once again, despite breaking Liang's heart, you cannot dislike him. His actions are understandable and only natural. Only thing that I would have wished, is that Big Liang would have learnt more about him too, because I am sure that if Big Liang would have listened to him and his views on world, she would have had a better opinion about him.<br />
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I guess the thing that I really liked about the movie, is that despite having a lot of supernatural things, it keeps the characters very humane and real.This is a movie that reminds us to find the lost child in our hearts and bring it back. It was exactly a movie that I had to see at the moment. To give you an overview what has been going on in my life, is that for last 4 months I have been trying to find a job and I have felt that with all the time that I have spent on stressing and trying to be a perfect grown-up, I have lost myself a bit - I feel as if I am not the same optimistic girl that I used to be. There is a line in one amazing song that says "I am not sure, if I have gone way too fast, but I know that along the way I have lost some smiles.." Well, this is me at the moment, but I hope that with upcoming days I am able to find my inner child and have more optimism and smiles.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-76889027909349922342017-04-17T22:45:00.000+03:002017-06-21T02:44:27.059+03:00Naze Shoujo wa Kioku wo ushinawanakereba naranakatta no ka? (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format</b>: Special movie<br />
<b>Genre</b>: psychological, drama<br />
<b>Cast</b>: Yamashita Tomohisa, Kimura Funimo, Asari Yosuke, Watanabe Konomi, Namioka Kazuki, Tsukaji Moga, Nakamura Yasushi, Hoshino Mari, Funakoshi Eiichiro, Kimoto Takehiro, Nakano Haruto,<br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>Within process of arson incidents, police finds a young girl locked into white room in the house of the suspect. The girl does not say a word and the suspect is deaf. Psychologist Narumi Saku is included to the investigation in order to find out the truth of the silent girl. <br />
<b>Rating:</b> 3/5<br />
This is more or less the last weak role from Yamashita Tomohisa before getting back into serious acting. Also, this is one of the least known roles from him in recent years as this kind of tv specials are not exactly his thing. It is far from anything mindblowing and the plot can get rather predictable early in the start, but of course it has some of its own charms that make it rather decent movie.<br />
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Yamashita's acting is average here, as the role itself did not need much of a talent to act. I was expecting more psychological things from his character. You can see how he is making different tests and everything, but for me it was well, just the basic psychology and nothing extremely difficult to understand. Though it was rather cute to see how he was able to earn girl's trust rather fast, despite the fact that she did not connect with anyone else. <br />
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They also tried to but in some kind of storyline of Narumi having former relationship with Abiko Miori - family doctor and sister of detective Abiko Kento. But I would say that all this friendship and relationship theme got really lost in the movie and ended up not adding points to the movie. It is again one moment, when you think that they could have developed this part more, but it would need to be a bit longer than just 1,5 hour special. At the same time I felt that a big role on the incident laid on Abiko Miori as she was the family doctor and should have noticed that it is not normal for a perfectly healthy child to end up in the hospital all the time. I know that it might be a lot to ask, but as a family doctor she should pay the most attention to child health and in case of abnormalities, look more into it.<br />
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I feel that Abiko Kento role was totally set aside and shown as if detectives and police are incapable and stupid when it comes to investigation. I truly felt that police was put into bad light with this movie as they were literally giving the false charges without any evidences. In addition, I felt that Narumi Saku was more included to explain girl's emotional and mental state, rather than actually help out with the investigation - as in real investigation he should have had a talk with the suspect way before than he did.<br />
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The one actress that I need to bring out and praise her skills is definitely Watanabe Konomi who plays Nao. With being just 7 years old that time, she managed to steal my heart and shine the brightest out of all the cast. It was not an easy role, but I think she managed very well to bring out all the sides of Nao.<br />
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This is actually the second special of this series. The first one is "Naze Kazoku wa Kesareta no ka", but the only character who is said to be the same, is Narumi Saku. (In May 2017, the first special is still without English subtitles, but hopefully some subbers will pick it up soon) </div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-3740449081935920532017-04-10T20:39:00.000+03:002017-06-21T02:45:43.895+03:005-ji kara 9-ji made (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country</b>: Japan<br />
<b>Format</b>: drama in 10 episodes<br />
<b>Genre</b>: romance, comedy<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Ishihara Satomi, Yamashita Tomohisa, Tanaka Kei, Furukawa Yuki, Kaga Mariko, Takanashi Rin, Saeko, Yoshimoto Miyu, Nagatsuma Reo, Takada Hyoga, Tsunematsu Yuri, Terada Kokoro, Nakamura Anne, Hayami Mokomichi, Toda Keiko, Ueshima Ryuhei, Shison Jun<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: After accidentally throwing the ashes on the priest on funeral service, Sakuraba Junko is embarrassed to death, but relieved not to see him ever again. She has a dream of working in New York and everyday she is getting closer to this dream in ELA - English Language Academy - where she is one of the best language teachers. For her misfortune, she is set up for arranged marriage with Hoshikawa Takane, who happens to be the same priest from the service. To add to it, Takane ends up falling hopelessly in love with Junko and has set to make her his wife no matter what.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
Another drama that I waited a bit too much to see, not sure what were the reasons. "5-ji kara 9-ji made" is a very comical drama, that is easy to watch and does not make you feel depressed from too much drama. <br />
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Our leading lady is Junko, who loves her independence and has great authority at home and work. Though, in a way you can see similarities with Hotaru from "Hotaru no hikari" as Junko is also very neat and lady-like outside, but at home she is more laid-back and has tendency to drink beer in the middle of the night when something is bothering her. Despite Junko not noticing it, she is always herself with Hoshikawa and showing out her true emotions. Or it might be due to the fact that he stalks her all the time and she just has no other possibility. It is nice to see how she is developing feelings towards Hoshikawa, though the realization and change in her attitude might come a bit unexpectedly. Ishihara Satomi definitely proved herself to be great actress and I was amazed by her English.<br />
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Hoshikawa is one of the most misunderstood characters in the drama. For sure, he is not my taste of a man, because I do not like so persistent guys who go around and say "Only I can make you happy, "I love you (though I know you just few days)" and stalk around. Of course, we can explain his situation with the fact that most of the time the meaning of his sayings was vice-versa as "Only YOU can make me happy" and in the end, this was his first time being in love. Though we all might think that we would not mind having this kind of handsome man running around us, and in the end he is a monk, but the rational side of me reminds you that you that you should never take stalking lightly. But sure the drama and their situation is a fun laugh.<br />
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My favorite moments were when he was actually showing his emotions and you could really see that deep down he is just a boy looking for real love. Many are again complaining about Yamashita Tomohisa's "dead eyes", but I do not have to remind you that his character is "a monk who is trained to show lack of emotions in his face" and "man who has devoted himself to the temple". That's why it was so important how Junko is able to bring emotions to his face. His true acting skills come out when he is allowed to show emotions and I want to see then who says that this man cannot act. Yamashita Tomohisa made marvelous performance. At first I was worried about Yamashita Tomohisa's English prounciation, despite hearing him talk before in English and watching "Route 66 ~ Tatta hitori no America~" documentary. But he really managed to surprise me with how much his English has improved with the years. Between years of 2014-2015, he also had his own TV-show about English and the entire 2nd season was connected to the cast of "5-ji kara 9-ji made".<br />
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Is it possible to have a drama without a mother or grandmother who does not want bad for the main lead? It is, but not in this case. Grandma of Hoshikawa is the one ruling over the temple. She is the woman behind every single action going on in the temple and that's why she feels that she is the right person to choose the wife for Hoshikawa. Of course Junko does not apply for any of the requirements that she has for the wife of the main priest. In the end of the drama you will get to know more about the Grandma and her reasons, but still it does not make sense to me why she got involved also when she had the perfect chance to get rid of Junko if she would not have interfered. Anyone who remembers "Hana yori tango" will also remember Kaga Mariko playing as a similar character. Nothing to say, but this woman rocks her characters.<br />
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Grandma's choice is sweet Kaori, that is the perfect match for the temple, but does not arise any kind of emotion in Hoshikawa. For most of the time I felt so sorry for Kaori, because all the situation was unfair to her. She had serious feelings for Hoshikawa and in reality only accepted this offer with the thought that she is going to be Hoshikawa's wife. In addition, there was nobody on her side - Grandma cared only that she will be the wife of the main priest, no matter which one of her grandchildren it will be.<br />
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It is surprising how many men are circling around Junko and how ignorant she can be in this subject. Kiyomiya is her old language teacher, who two years ago gave her the idea of becoming a language teacher herself. He has not only been her mentor, but also her great friend and first serious crush. Kiyomiya is also misunderstood character and in a way I feel sorry for him. Despite being successful and fulfilling most of his dreams, he also has a bad luck following him when it comes to relationships. I do enjoy that the scriptwriters give you a chance to see two very different Kiyomiyas. One who is at work as a boss and other who he is at home with his gay-couple-friends. Though the whole scene went a bit over-the-board with "This is how it is in USA" and everything, I would have liked to see what would have happened if things had gone differently..<br />
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I guess almost the only character that I felt was a little bit unnecessary was Mishima. No matter what - I felt that Mishima was forced character in the drama. Being a successful businessman, he kind of thought that he can have everything in the world, but he could not get the vibe that he was so far in the friendzone for Junko, that he had totally 0% chances with her. No matter what I was unable to bring myself to like him. Of course the same does not apply for Furukawa Yuki, even though by appearance he still stands less chances than Yamashita Tomohisa or Tanaka Kei, who I just adore.<br />
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Though at first Momoe looks like just another colleague of Junko, she ends up being one of her closest friends. From plain view, she looks just a usual woman, but in reality she is one of the biggest otaku's in the history of dramas. To make the situation more difficult, she is especially into BL - Boys Love. But the truth is, once some people, like Junko and Arthur, get to know her secret, she is becoming much closer with them. Due to being an otaku, she has never had relationship nor she really has had any real feelings for another living person. That's why the more Arthur tries to get closer to her, the more she thinks that he is playing with her, because he knows her drak secret.<br />
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Out of all the characters, I guess Arthur has to be my favorite. He is a huge ladies-man and basically every single woman falls for him or at least has slept with him. That's why it gets so interesting to see how all his attempts to seduce Momoe are blown against the wall and seem to have no influence on her. In the start of the drama it seems that he also has some kind of interest for Junko, but disappears as soon as he sees all the other men waiting in line for her. In addition, that adds a lot of plus points to him, is the fact how easily he sees through people's emotions and understands them. He becomes the biggest supporter of getting Junko and Hoshikawa together, while at the same time resolving Kiyomiya's emotions. In addition, I became big fan of his accent.<br />
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You can easily understand that Junko was the smartest person out of her family. Her mom and dad only wanted her to get married to a good man and be happily married. I would say that you can feel the generation difference as Junko is one of the best examples of young people of the 21st century. I really liked how they brought out the sister's relationship as it is something that is at times easily overlooked, unless it is a family-drama. They showed all the emotions that are normal for sisters and also the way of teasing each other. <br />
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Needless to say, it is based on same-named shoujo manga by Aihara Miki. This is why there are many lines taken exactly from shoujo and for me they ruin the mood a lot. I am not the fan of people always saying "I love you" and things like that as it loses meaning to me if it said too often. There are many things that seem to be "exaggerated" or "it would be better without it", but it is only because of the manga context. In addition, who still has not understood it then "5-ji kara 9-ji made" means "From 5 to 9" - meaning the hours when Junko had to work for the temple.<br />
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Some people also complain about lack of physical connection, which leads us back to the fact that we are actually dealing with a monk and a woman who is still living with her family in a small apartment. No matter what, you cannot have too much lovey-dovey one-on-one time when there are so many people around and every person should understand that it is not socially acceptable, especially for a priest, to do some stuff in public or in the temple, without being actually married. I think the fact that their every kiss is interrupted adds things to their relationship and makes you understand that the emotional connection is more important than any physical connection.<br />
In spite of having few moments of boredom due to "overly-dramatic" scenes and having many times predictable story line, I still consider this a really great drama as there is a lot to laugh about. I think more than just a romantic drama, people should watch it for the comedy and see the better side of the drama. In the end, it was the best drama of the season.<br />
If you are still not convinced whether you should watch it or not, just check its teaser.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-79509724630276675872017-02-28T19:42:00.000+02:002017-06-21T02:45:55.041+03:00If cats disappeared from this world (2016)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format</b>: movie<br />
<b>Genre</b>: drama,<br />
<b>Cast: </b>Sato Takeru, Miyazaki Aoi, Hamada Gaku, Okuna Eita, Ishii Anna, Okuda Eiji, Harada Meiko,<br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>There is a young man who has never thought much about his future and though it is only natural that next morning he wakes up, takes care of his cat and goes to work. One day he learns that he has a late-stage brain tumor and he might have less then a week to live. Arriving home, he finds a strange man, who looks just like him, sitting behind the dinner table. The man introduces himself as devil who can prolong his death by one day in exchange of erasing one thing from this world. <br />
<b>Rating:</b> 5/5<br />
I have no idea how to start this review. I do not have many movies that have made completely speechless, but this definitely has done it. In every possible way, this movie is absolutely incredible.<br />
I think what made the biggest impact to me is the way you get to know the characters and in the end you understand that in reality you do not know a single thing about them. It at least made me think about my relationships with other people and rethink how much I really know my friends.<br />
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Almost all of the characters are referred to without a name, the only character in the movie whose name is mentioned is Tatsuya and it is because of a certain reason. That's why I will call the characters "He" - the postman, "She" or "girlfriend" the ex-girlfriend, Tatsuya, mother and father - I hope it won't end up too confusing. All the characters are first introduced differently from who they actually are - it kind of makes you understand how wrong the first impression can be and how the only way you will really know the person is to actually spend time and learn things about them. It reminds me that each person's actions are based on the things they have lived through. So that's why I will also bring out the differences with the characters. <br />
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At first He seems a bit doubtful - living very ordinary life without any excitement while being not so communicative with people. With the story developing you understand how non-ordinary his life really has been. It is astonishing to see different parts of his life. The moments shown are the ones that have influenced his life the most. It also made me wonder about my own life - if I were to die tomorrow, what are the moments that played the biggest part of my life decisions? Another curious part of his story is to see how seemingly unimportant material things play a role in his whole life. The whole concept can be just explained with "the butterfly effect" meaning disappearance of a small thing will create drastic changes in everything.<br />
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At some times they also bring out what goes on in his head - I do not mean the tumor at the moment, but his thoughts. I guess this might be my favorite role by Sato Takeru. His performance is spectacular, especially how he brings out the details in "he" and at the same time portrays the devil with totally different attitude and emotions. These kind of roles are what really bring out the greatness of the actor and make the value of his skills. <br />
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The first moment seeing ex-girlfriend gave me the idea that he was the one dumping her or they broke up because he was not man enough, but she is still a bit mad and does not want to really see him. As they recall the memories, you understand that they really are the case of "just falling apart". It is really sad to see, because you can see them happy together until one moment influences everything and they just do not know how to deal with it.<br />
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The grief is something that impacts people differently and I know very well from my own experience that people react differently and cannot even remember that for someone else it might have been the moment where suddenly the whole world seems unfair and cruel. This is exactly what happens in their relationship and it is normal that it leads to break up as being together might just remind the sadness and makes it impossible to forget the pain.<br />
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As I already mentioned, Tatsuya is the only character with a name and the reason behind it is that He always calls him "Tsutaya" which is a DVD-store in Japan. Fairly enough, it is just the change of two syllables in his name. Again, at first Tatsuya is introduced as a average guy working in a DVD-store and He is just forgetting his name all the time as if it is not important enough to remember. While the movie goes on you understand the real meaning of calling Tatsuya with wrong name and every little moment they are having. I want to acknowledge Hamada Gaku's acting too. His acting is amazing here and he gave me the emotions that I was looking for.<br />
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There is also the story of mother and father. Though they do not show so much affection for each other directly, you will receive the feeling how much they really loved each other. Since the childhood His relationship with mother is closer than with father and I would say that He is similar to his mother in every possible way. His father is a man who does not say much and keeps things to himself. I can only imagine what father actually went through once he was left alone in the house after He moved out. It can seem like He hates his father and cannot forgive him, but it is more that he has never understood his father and does not find the things to talk about.<br />
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By the last I think I should mention Retusu and Kyabatsu or as they are originally in English - Lettuce and Cabbage. They look so alike that at first I did not even think that they are different cats - maybe the "actors" of cats are the same. They show the importance of the children growing up with animals and also how animals are the best companions for a person. It made me miss my cats so much.<br />
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The way how the movie is built up is amazing. You start to understand the things by seeing more and more as the story unfolds itself. In addition, the camera-work and special effects add so much more to it. They had some scenes filmed over-seas in Argentina and it just made me want to travel to South-America right away. Also the special effects used in the movie stay into borders of reality, that makes the whole movie not so surreal.<br />
This is definitely one of my favorite movies now and I guess I will think about it for a long time. I guess the magic with it is also that it is not depressingly sad. It just shows the life as it is - unexpected and full of doubts. It reminded me to live the fullest every day and regret nothing. If I were to die tomorrow, I want to die knowing that I have had the greatest life possible.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-10206745838386061242017-02-15T17:51:00.001+02:002017-06-21T02:46:04.316+03:00The Three Musketeers (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> South-Korea<br />
<b>Format</b>: drama in 12 episodes<br />
<b>Genre</b>: history, adventure,<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Lee Jin Wook, Jung Yong Hwa, Yang Dong Geun, Jung Hae In, Yoo In Young, Seo Hyun Jin, Kim Myung Soo, Park Young Gyu, Jeon No Min, Lee Kyun, Kim Sung Min, Park Sung Min,<br />
<b>Synopsis:</b> It is Joseon era that is full of confusion and betrayal. Young Park Dal Hyang goes to Hanyang in hope of becoming soldier to protect Joseon and marry the girl he loves. While arriving to Hanyang, he meets 3 mysterious guys who introduce themselves as Three Musketeers. On his entrance day, Park Dal Hyang finds out that these men are no-one else than the Crown Prince and his two guards and within the last 5 years, the woman of his dreams has become the Crown Princess.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 2/5<br />
I must say that this was one of the most difficult dramas to watch and it actually took me 2,5 years to complete these 12 episodes - and for some reason I always think it has 13 episodes. I also say already that this will be one long review, so I wish you good luck.<br />
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Let's start with Park Dal Hyang. In the beginning of his journey, he is rather naive. He grew up in the country side where he did not have friends nor anything special to do. I think that was also the biggest reason he fell in love with Yoon Seo just in one month period. In a way it is awesome to see him and his world changing making a man out of him. On the other hand, he pissed me off so many times with his stubborn behavior. Once he grows up and makes up his mind about how he sees the world around him. he becomes clever man with great plans. In addition, I would give him a medal for the "best spying", because no matter how obvious his spying-hiding was, he did got caught just by once. Come on - when an area is full of "enemies" and he is able to go back and forth without being caught, it is something. For those who do not feel the irony, then I would compare his spying-hiding skills with an elephant trying to hide behind a coconut. Out of all Jung Yong Hwa roles, this might have been the best one with the best acting as he just had more things written on his role than in other dramas.<br />
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I definitely had weird feelings for the Crown Prince So Hyun. Most of the time I found him really arrogant bastard who thought he was doing good while making his closest suffer the most. In the end it is difficult to say if his actions were correct or not, but as also in the drama they say, you can only know in the future if the things made were right. Why I disliked him was mostly due to his behavior toward Crown Princess. Despite that the blame was clearly his, he made her the one in fault due "her over-thinking" and "not being enough" and made her suffer alone. Not only, he did not love her, but he did not let her be happy either in any possible way. On the other hand, this all makes it good to see how his feelings are changing a bit by bit and he is realizing how great of a woman she is. I only liked him in the very last episodes when I also saw Lee Jin Wook's great acting skills that made my heart melt a little bit. Other than the end I did not find him appealing by his personality.<br />
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Out of musketeers, I think I was most amazed by Heo Seung Po character and Yang Dong Geun's performance. This role definitely made me forget the horror from "I am Sam" - in some way he looks here much younger and attractive than there - well, they say that years just make men more handsome and in his case 7 years makes a big difference. Heo Seung Po loves to drink, gamble and have a lot of women, but despite being a "ladies-man", he is actually married with kids and when you see his family, you will definitely have a good laugh. His character is based on Porthos and similar to him, he adds the comedy into serious situations.<br />
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The last musketeer is Ahn Min Seo and I can swear that I forgot his name all the time through the series. He is a more religious than others and the calmest out of them all. Despite that he still goes out with them and drinks alcohol. He is also the most handsome man in the hole area, but despite that he does not mingle with a lot of women. But due to the fact that he is the most silent guy, then it is also difficult to write more about him as most of the time he just was there but did not make anything remarkable to talk more about him. Though Jun Hae In made his acting debut with "Bride of the century" and "The three musketeers" was his second role, you would not say that his acting is a "rookie". Until now he is still mostly part of supportive cast, so I am looking forward to see him in great breakthrough roles.<br />
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Most of the time I just felt sorry for the Crown Princess. I think that Seo Hyun Jin acted really well as she was able to deliver the frustration of the Crown Princess. To give the princess nature she could not show out too many emotions and this also always leads to the point where actress has to act with the same emotion and expression for a long time. That's why I was very happy to see the breaking point of princess - both to see more of the character and also to see Seo Hyun acting. Though, I might have felt mere sympathy for her, I guess she might have been most appealing character in the whole drama. I could really feel her distress and unhappiness in the palace. In addition, in the end it is good to see how the relationship with prince is developing.<br />
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One of the most conflicting characters is Mi Ryeong and I was fighting with my feelings for a really long time whether to like her or not, whether to feel sympathy or feel anger. Only in the last episode I got my feelings straighten out. Despite being maybe the most important character of all, I do not want to talk too much about her, because the more I tell you, the more I will spoil the drama. So in order not to spoil too much, then I just say that Mi Ryeong has untold history with Crown Prince as she supposed to become the crown princess before the light was shown on ugly truth. In a way she is just a woman who dared to dream too much and who learnt to turn her unfortunate life in her favor - without being afraid to dirty her hands. I like that from the start she is very mysterious character and you will only learn about her with every new episode. I guess that was the most interesting part to see in the whole drama. But I definitely want to give a big applause to Yoo In Young's performance, because she definitely nailed it.<br />
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Out of all the other characters in the drama, I should mention Choi Myung Gil who is a tutor-mentor for the three musketeers. In a way he is also the brain behind most of the things and as he has high reputation in the court and trust of the King, it is no problem for him to do everything. It did made me a bit suspicious about him as I was not sure if I should trust him with 100% or not. But he proves to be all good man who also punishes his students when he finds that they have crossed the line, even if it was for the best outcome.<br />
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The King In Jo was one of the most complex characters and he is the only reason why I would have wanted to watch other seasons too. If you do not know the history, then the Crown Price So Hyun died in mysterious way - there are rumors that he was either poisoned or the King killed him with an ink slab as his body was found in King's room. Through out the drama you can also see who King is starting to doubt if he can trust his own son. Other than that King is very nervous and even paranoid about everything and makes irrational decisions.<br />
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From more characters that I would like to lit in fire is Kim Ja Jeom - corrupted man who is also the main antagonist. He likes everything that puts more many in his pockets and more power in his hands. He is powerful manipulator and thinks no body can do him any harm.<br />
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For the last character I would like to say few words about Yong Gol Dae. He is the general of the so called barbarians. He is intelligent man and amazing swordsman. Park Dal Hyang starts off with him on a very bad note, but after understanding the situation and the thoughts, they start to tolerate each other more. At first it is very difficult to understand on which side he is standing and what are his purposes, but once things get cleared, you will see that despite being heartless army general, he is a man with a big heart and sincere thoughts.<br />
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Despite being officially said that the drama is based on novel written by Alexandre Dumas, then in reality there is only little similarities. You can loosely draw lines between which character is playing which part, but I think almost only thing that is similar, is the overall idea. I am a big fan of the book and that was also one of the reasons why I wanted to see it (in addition to Jung Yong Hwa), but I soon understood that there is almost no reference to the book. <br />
If you ask me why it took me 2,5 years to watch - longer than any of the dramas in those years that I have been watching Asian dramas - then I have more than one reason for it and these are the following:<br />
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1) Some of the episodes go on with just one emotion - tension. One situation ends and right away another begins with the same amount of tension in the air - or there are many different things happening at the same time in different places, but the tension is the same. It is one rule of script - viewers are unable to stand one emotion for too long - especially tension. I lost a lot of nerves on it and left like breaking the screen just to escape this feeling. It did not make the drama more interesting for me - it was the opposite - I totally lost the interest. Just give me some more minutes to enjoy the victory and success. <br />
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2) There is a lot of jumping of time - meaning sometimes they go back in time to give the explanation of the situation and sometimes they go ahead of time. Most of the story is as a memoir written by Park Dal Hyang. To be honest, for some episodes I totally forgot about it, until they forcefully put it back in again in an unnatural way, as they just tried to give a better reason for the "time-jumping". In addition, the time reference is showed really badly as at first episodes show things that happened in few days with a lot of details, while the later episodes give just an overview with months difference within one episode. It seems more that the scriptwriters discovered that they have not enough screen-time to waste more or they just got lazy to develop the story to make it match.<br />
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3) They are giving rather good historical reference about the people and the situations, but at the same time if you are not familiar with the Korean history, then it just adds a lot of confusion whether you should pay more attention on this character or not. There is definitely much more historical reference than any reference to the book.<br />
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4) Secrets, secrets, secrets - if any one wants then I call up an challenge to count how many times "secret" is mentioned. I do not find it interesting when a whole conversation looks something like this: "I have to talk with that person about one matter, that I cannot tell you, concerning one other person, about who I cannot tell you, and you should be careful because of reasons I cannot tell you". Gosh dammit - this kind of thing makes me so angry - first of all, if you already hinted something then already tell everything; for second, is it not understandable that it is so difficult to protect oneself when that person does not even know from what or who should protect. Only in the 7th episode I started to understand what is really going on - I mean like. I watched half of the drama without understanding most of it and just hearing about "it's a secret".<br />
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5) Back-stabbing and betraying is the new fashion. In addition. connected to the previous "secrets", then in reality a lot of those secrets ended up not being much of a secret - they were just secrets to people who had right to know the truth and not secrets to people who will misuse the information. But what do you expect, when you can hear through every door or wall and around are tens of other people who are all eyes and ears. It is clear as water that someone from the servants is willing to open up his or her mouth to spill some inside information.<br />
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6) I had no favorable character - every single character did something or had some characteristics that made me not like them. It is difficult to watch something if you even do not have anyone you want to see.<br />
In the end, I totally understand why they did not make more seasons. At first the production was written for 3 seasons, all 12 episodes, but due to lack of popularity, the production of other seasons was cancelled and only first season aired. They even aired the first season in many different channels and it also was shown in Thailand, but over all popularity was still low with average 2,4%. Maybe the reason was also that it aired on Sundays - at least from my experience Sundays is "no-watch-day" as on Monday morning I have to work or I am writing review on Sunday evening. <br />
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I think that the saddest thing is that in reality the theme is not bad at all and the actors are all doing amazing job, but it is just the script that makes it almost impossible to watch. I might have been even interested in other seasons if it was just a bit easier on my emotions - and I do not consider myself too emotional watcher - but it is just too much to see that "good" never truly win and who does not like happy endings? I am not saying if the end of the drama actually is happy or not, so watch it if you really want to know what happens.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-20798267562437628632017-01-23T13:00:00.000+02:002017-06-21T02:46:36.176+03:00Seven First Kisses (2016) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Also known as</b>: First Seven Kisses, First kiss for the seventh time<br />
<b>Country</b>: South-Korea<br />
<b>Format</b>: mini-drama in 8 episodes<br />
<b>Genre</b>: romance<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Lee Cho Hee, Choi Ji Woo, Lee Joon Ki, Park Hae Jin, Ji Chang Wook, Kai, Taecyeon, Lee Jong Suk, Lee Min Ho, Kim Hyun Jung, Lee Chung Mi<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: It is Min Soo Jin's 25th birthday and as usually she is spending it alone without boyfriend. In fact, she has never had a boyfriend and never shared a kiss. This year her birthday wish becomes reality when she is granted to pick a perfect partner for her first kiss from the goddess of fate.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 2/5<br />
The first reason why I wanted to watch it was, because as I mentioned in one of my comments before - I want to watch all Lee Min Ho's dramas and movies. It just aired and it is a mini-drama, so it is fast to watch it. Another reason was that just this weekend I had a BIRTHDAY (and Yanne also as we still after all these years are twins..), so I thought that there might be something proper to watch as Min Soo Jin is having her birthday in the drama too and I am just one year younger than she. <br />
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I think that Min Soo Jin already had become desperate of having a boyfriend and having her first kiss, though I am still surprised that are there really so many women in South-Korea who by age of 25th have not dated even once? It happens way too much in dramas. If we are talking about Min Soo Jin's professionalism at work, then she definitely lacks in it when it comes to hot guys. With other costumers she is very good, but as soon as she sees a hot guy, she falls into daydreaming and starts drooling over the guy - that's why I say that she has become desperate of having a boyfriend.<br />
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At the same time, we can also see from the drama, that she has set her standards really high, which also might be the reason that by 25th birthday she is still single. About Lee Cho Hee, I really enjoyed her face expressions. It definitely marked her out and it was interesting to see her acting in diferente situations. I guess out off all the cast she was the only one able to show her acting ability with this role.<br />
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The first story with Lee Joon Ki did not make me so interested of continuing as for me this kind of childhood love already seems to be turning into obsession. Taking photos on since she was little etc. and thinking that this was all past that she actually did not have, is weird. How do you be with a person, who should be your childhood best friend and in reality not know anything about this person? Is not it similar of having an amnesia?<br />
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Park Hae Jin is playing the most average type of male-lead in dramas - rich guy in powerful position who puts his work in first place, so he seems really arrogant and it is almost impossible to talk to him, but he ends up falling for one of his employees that is somehow suffering at work. There are way too many dramas like this.<br />
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I think Ji Chang Wook episode was the most unreal as if it was true then Min Soo Jin's life in past would have been way too different from what she had in reality. In addition, this story does not match much with their age. I would have believed it maybe more if she had her 30th birthday. On the other hand - who from us has not wondered what it would be to be a secret agent and do some undercover stuff?<br />
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EXO's KAI was the only idol who kept his true identity even after the change. The story has student-tutor theme and you can feel that the whole atmosphere is young and a bit naive. I was really annoyed how most of the time they kept running from one place to other and having this fake amusement on their faces. In addition, the dancing part was really a crime as it was so bad. But I must say that I liked KAI's acting and I am supporting his decision to take up more acting, whatever the fans and anti-fans are telling him.<br />
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The episode with Taecyeon might have been the funniest, because Min Soo Jin also understood how ridiculous it all is, yet it is perfect fast-based synopsis of many Korean dramas. It is interesting to see these stories without knowing the background and it is even funnier to see that Min Soo Jin is also totally oblivious about the things happening before that moment. I guess this story is one that really needs the "Ending" to have the cherry on the top of the episode. This episode was great for the comedy-purposes.<br />
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For some reason I am not a big fan of Lee Jong Suk - something in his face makes him look more alien than human and most of the screen time I am trying to figure out what it is and not pay attention to the storyline. I yet have not watched any of his dramas, but I hope that after watching one, I stop doing it. In a way, this episode was the most realistic, even though I do not think that they would take an average information girl to fill model/actress position in commercial. Yet, it definitely was one episode that I really enjoyed. I just remembered that he also kept his true identity.<br />
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I admit that I was disappointed and also confused by Lee Min Ho. It definitely was the "easy-money-role" as he almost did not have lines to say or much acting to do. And what the heck is "free-spirited travel writer" when he is actually made into "Nobody-really-cares-about-the-things-he-writes-but-he-looks-damn-hot-so-he-will-have-fans-and-be-famous-whatever". If you think I am exaggerating, then he also has a line: "This is the main thing I wanted to say with my book, but people mostly over-watched it..". The meaning what I wanted to say is that Lee Min Ho once again is not acting much and he is just filling the screen-time to show his face and put some money to pocket - not that I mind it - I actually really like to see him on screen. but just it has nothing to do with acting. In addition, Lee Min Ho was added to the cast later, so he did not even participate on the press conference and his episode was labeled as "extra". I wonder if they thought that adding the ultimate king of drama make more people watch it?... well at least it made me watch it so I guess adding him served its purpose. <br />
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Overall the drama shows different scenarios that some Korean women daydream about, no matter how weird these are. Also, all the stories are based on the most famous story-lines of Korean dramas. I bet that about every episode you can name few other dramas that have this storyline in it. Thing that I definitely did not like about it was that all male characters were still made into "rich handsome men who are way out of league for her", even though she herself admits it too. Just as I usually say about this kind of long advertisements, it is just a "quick-money" for the actors.<br />
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We are dealing with very famous actors and artists with huge fan-base. This means that not only this is viewed by many people, it also makes an influence on them to actually go to the store "just to be in the place were it was filmed". We all know that LOTTE has a lot of money to but into these kind of advertisements, unfortunately I think that most of the fans of any of the idols do not have enough money to put into LOTTE..<br />
The end of the drama was confusing as the extra-endings messed up my order of watching and in the end I could not understand what really happened or how things went on.<br />
To finish the review, I just say that I had great birthday and spending birthday with a boyfriend is actually a great thing to wish for, because my boyfriend definitely saved my day from it being a disaster.<br />
All the episodes are available on LOTTE DUTY FREE Youtube page and in ENGLISH.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-27647602009638692742017-01-10T00:08:00.000+02:002017-06-21T02:46:51.139+03:00May Who? (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Also known as: </b>May Nai Fai Raeng Froe<br />
<b>Country:</b> Thai<br />
<b>Format:</b> movie<br />
<b>Genre</b>: school, supernatural, comedy<br />
<b>Cast: </b>Sutatta Uudomsilp (Punpun), Thiti Mahayotaruk (Bank), Thanapob Leeratanakojorn (Tor), Narikun Ketprapakorn (Frung), Thanaerng Kanyawee Songmuang,<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Pong loves to draw stories of his crush Ming... and as a high school boy some of the drawings can be a bit more revealing than necessary. His school life gets changed when one day instead of his homework he by accident hands in the diary and the drawings reach Ming. While trying to get a revenge on May Nai - the girl who gave his drawings to Ming - he learns that May Nai might be the most special girl in his high school, if not in the whole universe, as she discharges electricity when her heart rate crosses 120 beats per minute.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
What can be a better first movie of the year than a great Thai teenage comedy?<br />
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As it is also explained in the trailer, in Thailand "May" is the most common name for girls and "May Nai" literally means "May Who". As sad as it sounds, this name describes the main character perfectly as she does everything to be in the background: make no great friends and just finish the school. Well, the reason behind it is actually her special "ability" to discharge electricity when her heartbeat raises. It is great to see her struggle with everyday life and how much it actually affects her life as to her it is more of a curse than a special ability.<br />
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Punpun was the only cast member who was elected for the part from the start and director Chayanop Boonprakob even thought of casting totally new actors for other roles so that not everyone would be from "Hormones", but in the end, he stuck to "Hormones"-generation. It is surprising for me that Punpun was the one elected, because during that time she was under suspension and she was not even allowed to attend promotions.<br />
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I would say that Pong seems more to be the main character of the movie as most of the movie is narrated by him and his thoughts. He is the nicest guy, but at the same time almost nobody notices him, making him disappear into the background. He lacks self-confidence when it comes to having a crush and thinks that it is more suitable for him to just "like from a far" even if that means that he'll definitely lose the girl. That's why it is great to see him learning with the time and understanding that to get a girl he actually has to take a step and convey his true feelings.<br />
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In addition, he is the best friend possible to ever have and it is surprising that despite being all the time alone before getting to know May, he is not socially awkward and finds it really easy to become great friends. Pong's character is based on movie director's teenage years, when he used to draw into his diary when he had a crush. Thithi fits into Pong's character so well as he has this cute nice-guy look. This was a movie-debut for Thithi and he even ended up taking extra drawing classes to portray his character well.<br />
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P'Fame is the most popular guy in the school - you know, the one who is handsome, good in everything he does and absolutely everybody love him. In reality, P'Fame had a crush on May Nai already before they talked for the first time. Already the fact that he asked her to join the team so quickly means that he paid much more attention to her than it was shown on screen. It is super cute to see how he gets also flustered and nervous when things come to May Nai. Unfortunately it is not shown since when and how he noticed May Nai. It is very good to see Tor in role were he is nice popular guy as it is very different from his role in "Hormones" as Phai.<br />
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I really started to like May's parents. They like to joke around, even when some of their jokes cross the line of sanity for sure. They are caring and understandable when it comes to May and it is very heartwarming to see how easily and somehow naturally they accept Pong, even though he is May's THE first friend and the first guy to be so close with May.<br />
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Unfortunately there is not much to say about Ming. As said, she is the crush of Pong, but from the beginning it seems to be just one-sided love. She seems caring and is the leader of the stand, even though there's not enough students to do it well. In a way I wish that they had given more meat to this character, but at the same time I understand that her role was meant to be known from Pong's side of view and for the outcome of the movie, it was needed for her character to be the way she was. The only reason I would have wanted to see more of her, was to see more of Frung's acting and her abilities as this role does not give much else to her than just a name in the cast and money in the pocket.<br />
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Another character that I just want to mention is May The Cheerleader, who is the leader of the cheerleaders. I think that she could have had a bigger part in the movie, just so I could see Thanaerng Kanyawee Songmuang acting more. She played the part of Jane in "Hormones 2nd series" and there she was very promising actress, but unfortunately they did not give her enough screen-time nor lines to actually act.<br />
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I absolutely love the animation part in the movie. Especially good connection is that the school they are attending is Thai-Japanese school. In total it is just 10 minutes of animation, but it actually delayed the screening of the movie for 5 months. <br />
Once again I must praise the actors great chemistry. Of course the reason comes from the fact that they all know each other from "Hormones" and basically grew up together. <br />
After the movie, GTH published also a same-named comic-book that is basically a prequel to Pong's life. I will also mention that this was the last movie that GTH released before going their separate ways.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-67473686116925324702016-11-28T19:16:00.000+02:002017-06-21T02:47:26.780+03:00Summer Love (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> South-Korea<br />
<b>Format:</b> web-drama in 2 episodes (6 min per ep)<br />
<b>Genre</b>: romance, youth<br />
<b>Cast</b>: Lee Min Ho, Im Yoon Ah,<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Min Ho and Yoona have been friends for years, even though most of their communication is arguing about pointless things. When Yoona is offered a chance to move abroad with another guy, Min Ho decides it is time to come clear with his true feelings.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 1/5<br />
Let's start of with the fact that it is actually crime to call it a "drama" even for "web-drama" it is not enough. In reality we are dealing with product endorsement for InnisFree "Summer Cushion". Who are not aware then InnisFree is South-Korean natural make-up company. The price of this cushion is around 25 euros (26 dollars) on their web-store. (<strike>Seriously I would like to go to South-Korea just because of their make-up companies). </strike><br />
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I am a bit annoyed that it is called "Summer Love" as "summer love" has the meaning of "love that started and ended in the summer and it was just once in a life time love". So already those small facts that do not match with this title: <br />
1) they are friends for many years making it long-time-thing and not as short as just summer <br />
2) the story is set during the university term and it is not summer-time as it is not exam-time or close to the end of term, so it does not match with being in summer<br />
3) the only reason for "Summer Love" becomes from the "Summer Cushion" product.<br />
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There is nothing much to say about the characters, because what kind of character introduction and development you are waiting with that time? I would like to see the same storyline as a good 12 episode drama - friends who keep nagging at each other yet everybody thinks they are or should be together. It would make a great comedy.<br />
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As advertisements have to be, the "drama" is all built-up on visuals and not have any deeper story or dialogue behind it. One last note: through out the study-night they did not drank a single sip from their drinks - are they even real people?! I know I am slow-drinker, but at least after 4 hours my cup is empty.<br />
In the end, it is eye-candy for Lee Min Ho and Yoona's fans and good promotion for the product, but I would rather see it as commercial on a street or during commercial break on TV.<br />
I already feel like I am going to call these kind of "web-dramas" actor's "quick-money" or "easy-money", "show your face some minutes, say few lines and wons are falling from sky" :D<br />
Due to the shortness of the video, I will just put here the first episode for you to see.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-88966154789032548342016-11-27T20:17:00.000+02:002017-06-21T23:29:45.466+03:00One LINE Romance (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Also known as</b>: Love at first LINE<br />
<b>Country</b>: China<br />
<b>Format:</b> mini-drama in 3 episodes (16 min per ep)<br />
<b>Genre</b>: romance, music<br />
<b>Cast</b>: Lee Min Ho, Bea Hayden, Kim Bo Mi, Kim Kang Hyun<br />
<b>Synopsis:</b> Min Ho is famous composer who is struggling to write new songs. Ling Ling is Chinese tourist who happens to meet with Min Ho without knowing who he is. Min Ho finds his muse in Ling Ling. Despite language barriers they add each other on LINE messenger app.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 3/5<br />
So yeah, when you know what LINE is, then you understand that it is actually a promotional mini-drama for the app. LINE is widely used in Asia and you can just ask Yanne how famous it is. The drama shows almost every possibility of LINE usage and is great promotion for it.<br />
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This drama is gorgeous by its visuals as we have two beautiful leads, amazing scenery and as interior designer I am fascinated by their houses. But the drama is also lacking in many things, starting from the depth of the story and the fact that it is very difficult to understand what they are talking, because both of the actors actually have strong accent. Most of the drama goes without much speaking and just smiling and giving looks while hearts burst out of their eyes. Even though Ling Ling actually seems more confused and embarrassed about the situations because they are unable to fluently express themselves. If you happen to see their conversations then you understand that most of the time they just send emoji's and stickers to each other. I know that in my personal chats I use a lot too, but their amount of usage is giving a threat of cancer. They both know at least that much of English to speak the basic. <br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Min Ho is actually rather usual character-type for Lee Min Ho, who is used to play rich boys who are used to women and for that reason act cold until they meet some sweet naive girl who makes their heart beat. Basically Lee Min Ho is running on the old skin with just being his best looking him, especially because there are not too many lines to say. Good thing is that acting or not acting, he still is convincing in his role. </span></div>
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Ling Ling on the other hand is shy and more conservative. She is a huge fan of Cony and I would take you up to a challenge to count all the Cony's in the drama. If you do not know then Cony and Brown are LINE sticker characters and they happen to be in a relationship. They are as big success in Asia as is Hello Kitty. Bea Hayden is Taiwanese actress who started from modelling and you can actually see that her acting is much much less expressive compared to Lee Min Ho. Most of the time I felt that Ling Ling was overthinking everything or not thinking at all.<br />
There are also Min Ho's manager and stylist who have "undercover love" going on, but at the same time stylist acts childish and makes unnecessary jokes that hurt Ling Ling and Min Ho. <br />
I must say that in the end I was actually expecting Ling Ling to grab her phone and just answer something on LINE. <br />
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As it is this short drama with no depth then there is also not much to write about, so I would rather like to talk about what is waiting for them after it as this drama is just the beginning of their love story. They are going to face a lot of problems as looking from Ling Ling's baggage she did not come to stay in Korea for too long. But of course the biggest challenge is the language barrier and the fact how little they actually know each other. It might be easy to say "I am now in love with that person", but in reality it takes a lot of effort to make it work for both.<br />
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Take it from the person who is living in a foreign country and being in relationship with someone from that country and in my case we both are being able to speak great English and I at least have some level in Portuguese. But that does not change the fact that there are still difficult times - times when I wish I would be already fluent in Portuguese and could express myself without any problem. In their case, they do not speak good English and they do not understand each other's language. In addition, we have no idea what is Ling Ling doing - we just know that she is a tourist and in China spends a lot of time in her room. So in Korea, she would just become Min Ho's girlfriend and live happily ever after? I know that maybe I am taking it too far and just should finish with the drama as it ends, but isn't it good to think a bit more sometimes and see that most of the time "Happily ever after" is just the start of the real thing?<br />
Rumors say that there is a lot of deleted materials of the drama as we can see different scenes from stills, but we can just speculate over it. I wanted to see it just for the visuals as I stumbled on it while crawling around the Internet.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-62308791297809913682016-10-18T19:09:00.000+03:002017-06-21T23:30:26.059+03:00Master's Sun (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country</b>: South-Korea<br />
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Format</b>: drama in 17 episodes<br />
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Genre</b>: Supernatural, romance<br />
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Cast:</b> So Ji Sub, Kong Hyo Jin, Seo In Gak, Kim Yoo Ri, L, Choi Jung Woo, Kim Mi Kyung, Lee Jong Won, Han Bo Reum, Hwang Sun Hee, Park Hee Von, Lee Jae Won, Jung Ka Eun,<br />
<b>Synopsis:</b> After being in an accident, Tae Kong Gil develops ability to see and hear ghosts. For years ghosts are coming to her in order to find help to move on to the "other side". Only bad thing is that Tae Kong Gil is scared to death by ghosts. On one stormy night her road crosses with Joo Joon Won - rich businessman who values only money. She ends up discovering that all ghosts disappear once she touches Joo Joon Won. After finding her "safe-spot", she is willing to do anything in order to stay by his side.<br />
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Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
I heard the uproar and success of this drama for 3 years and yes it took me 3 years until I decided to watch it.. alone in my weird apartment in Lisbon. Never been more afraid to turn off the living room lights in the middle of the night. It is not exactly scary movie, but as I am a big scaredy-cat then it was enough for me.<br />
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Tae Kong Gil aka Sun is now one of my favorite female characters. Before the accident she used to be extremely talented and one of the most successful people in the university, but due to ghosts she has become antiocial introvert who prefers not to go out in crowded places. What I like about her is that she does not fall in love with Joo Joon Won on the first second and for a long time he is just her "safe-place" with no other emotions included. It is refreshing to see a woman who has different kind of attachment to a main male character.<br />
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Kong Hyo Jin is amazing in this role. A lot of people say that she was made really ugly for the role, but I think it is refreshing to see a female lead who is really simple, but does not look like a total mess. She is not clumsy nor shy, so she does not get embarrassed to touch Joo Joon Won in public. Maybe it is also that she is very desperate after living all the years with seeing ghosts and finding the only way how to get rid of them, makes her confident in order to succeed. In addition, this woman has so much courage that it is simply amazing. I am also big fan of Kong Hyo Jin's facial impressions because these are just priceless.<br />
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At first Joo Joon Won aka Master seems to be a bit like every other rich guy in Korean dramas. He can be material-orientated rich bastard, but he is definitely my favorite "rich man" from any drama. He measures everything in net worth and how much money he can earn so it is surprising to him to find that his calculations about Tae Kong-Gil turn out wrong while they still feel more right than anything else. I guess for him at the start Tae Kong-Gil is more business and an entertainment. She is the first person who takes him out of his usual zone and make him do things he would rather avoid in his everyday life, but at the same time it makes him feel more alive. I like his comical side that makes him very appealing. He can be so mean with his jokes and many times you cannot even understand if he is simply being mean or joking. Funniest is to see his "passive war" with his Uncle as everything is just showed with passive-aggressive actions.<br />
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It is interesting to see how two people, so unfamiliar with love and feelings, are trying to find a way from professional business relationship to actual romantic relationship. Even when they are not officially a couple, the awkward way and not giving real explanations makes them from the start one of my favorite couples of all times.<br />
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For me Kang Woo became unnecessary character and he actually ended up annoying me from one moment. He knew exactly how Tae Kong is feeling, but he still continued to be a pain in the ass. He has double-identity and is playing dangerous game. Despite being chief of security guards he is totally scared by any kind of ghosts as what else can be more scary than things we cannot see? He lives in the same apartment building as Tae Kong Gil and ends up getting to know her closer. He is rather serious person and most of the time does not understand any kind of humor. Only times when I really like him are when Tae Yi Ryung is trying to hopelessly seduce him, that usually ends up with him using self-defense to protect himself and Tae Yi Ryung getting another bruise on her skin.<br />
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Tae Yi-Ryung is top celebrity model who is the face of the mall. She is supposed to get married to famous footballer, but her wedding gets ruined by Tae Kong Gil who delivers a message to Ti Ryung's soon-to-be husband from his ex-girlfriend. Tae Yi Ryung and Tae Kong Gil are also former classmates and their tables have turned as in high school Tae Yi Ryung was known as "Small Sun" - small girl with bracelets and always in the shadow of Tae Kong Gil. Her failed marriage only adds oil to her anger against Tae Kong Gil. Despite that she is actually sweet girl who just wants to be loved. She can act like a spoiled brat, but her actions never go so far to actually hurt anyone. In addition, she knows how to be clumsy and fragile enough, so that she more ends up hurting herself than anyone else.<br />
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From the start Hee Joo's ghost is the most important character from the ghosts. Her story is really confusing at first and for sure there is a lot of confusion going on. Sometimes it feels as if she truly cared about Joo Joon Woo and next moment she honestly says that she is only after his money - just as if she is two different people. She is also the most complicated ghost that Tae Kong Gil has met as Hee Joo does not really speak to her as other ghosts do. Let's say that there are for sure more mysteries behind the story and it is really interesting to see it unfold.<br />
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I guess one of my favorite characters in the drama has to be the Chief. He is shipping Tae Kong Gil and Joo Joon Won from the start and basically ends up helping them to get together faster. Just as almost every character in the drama, he has his own secrets from the past for what he hopes to receive forgiveness in future. Another characters that I rather liked were Joo Joon Woo's aunt and uncle. "Uncle" is actually his aunt's husband, who is many years younger.<br />
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He likes to joke around and despite being rather ignorant and silly, he is able to notice things around him much faster than his wife. Aunt on the other hand is strong independent woman who at many times tries to understand what were the reasons she married to this kind of man. All I can say that neither of them is a bad character and they actually end up giving a good comical touch to the drama while they are trying to figure out what is really going on between Joo Joon Won and Tae Kong Gil.<br />
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I think one of the high-lights of the drama are the conversations between two main characters. Their dialogue is full of hidden messages and beating around the bush, so sometimes it might be really difficult to understand what exactly they are meaning with their words. I even had to pause the scenes to re-read the subtitles. On this point, big thanks to subbers who made awesome job with this drama.<br />
This is definitely one drama that nails you to the screen when you like good comedy, great characters and a bit of supernatural activity. Here is a small teaser for you...<br />
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Spoiler-review: I did not enjoy the end as much as I wanted to. They are going in circles with "being good enough" for each other and it just makes feel that I am wasting my time with watching it. I would have been much happier if they just had summed it up and ended it nicely without going around and around. The last episode is pretty much just long ending that could have been done much shorter.<br />
Also, I was surprised about Hanna/Hee Joo being so evil. As being a twin myself, I cannot imagine how one can ever hurt their twin.</div>
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-70379319386381833502016-09-20T19:03:00.000+03:002017-06-21T23:30:44.430+03:00Somewhere only we know (2015) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><br />Country: </b>China<br />
<b>Format:</b> movie<br />
<b>Genre:</b> romance, drama<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Xu Jinglei, Kris Wu, Wang Likun, Gordon Alexander, Cong Shan, Sophia Cai Shuya, Juck Zhang, Re Yisha, <br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: After losing her grandmother and being dumped by fiance Jin Tian travels to Prague, Chech Republic, in order to find something connected to her grandmother, who used to live in there when she was younger. In addition to grandmothers past, Jin Tian learns about herself, love and life after meeting with Zeyang.<br />
<b>Rating:</b> 5/5<br />
This is amazing movie that left a great impression from the start. It is in a way post-war movie, showing the reflections of how war can separate families.<br />
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Jin Tian is going to through many things in life and is trying to find some peace and answers in her life. While her all life has changed, she has decided to turn a new page, do the things she has never and move on. She is surprisingly strong woman despite being a bit lost with herself. It is amazing to see how big change she goes through and it represents exactly what happens to many many people who travel around and live abroad even if it is just for a short time. So people, do not be afraid to take this step and go. At the same time, she shows that we cannot hide or run away from our problems just by going abroad. The problems will not fade away with time. They will still stay there, waiting us in the dark to knock us off the feet when we least expect them to.<br />
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This movie was a movie debut for Kris Wu and after this he has received a lot of different roles in China. Zeyang is former rebel, whose youthful playfulness still makes appearance in his life. After becoming single-father, his first priority became his daughter, while pushing all his dreams and possibilities on the background. In addition, of being the man of the house, he has to take care of his mother who became mentally unstable after her husband did not return from work-trip to Italy. I do not want to piss of anyone, but I have never been a big EXO fan and but Yanne had a huge crush on them for a while and for that reason she pointed out that Kris is playing here. One thing for sure - his on-screen daughter NiNi is tehe cutest daughter to have.<br />
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More than being excited for Kris, I was interested in the movie because of Xu Jinglei. I must say that if you compare anybodies acting to Xu Jinglei, you see what is the difference of the nation's best actress and just actor. That is one of the reasons why it makes me sad that this movie is outside of China more known thanks to Kris than due to Xu Jinglei. If you are not aware, then she is one of the first of "Four Dan Actresses". Lan Xin's life is good example of outcomes of the war. Being Asian foreigner in Europe during that time, she had a lot to face. For me the most interesting part of the movie was to see how the story of Xin Land and Josef unfolds as we get to know only just as much as Jin Tian. I think their love is beautiful and shows how sometimes we meet our true love on a wrong time. It is amazing to see how the story is recreated and it just makes me wondering how many stories are untold by our grandparents.<br />
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If anyone has been to Prague, then they know how beautiful and romantic it is. I have been there twice in my life and it is one of my favorite cities in Europe, so it was nice to see familiar places in the movie. I guess the location and scenery of the shooting of this movie has been carefully selected to be one of the greatest. There were so many moments when I wanted to stop the video and just enjoy the whole still scene as there is a lot to look at.<br />
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Some people say that this movie has almost "no development" and "cliche", but I strongly disagree with these comments. This movie has many many good things to say about moving on with your life and letting go of the past. In addition, it reflects living abroad as an foreigner and trying to fit into new environment. There is so much to see from the movie, but for sure if you are just concentrated on Kris and what he is doing in the movie, then you cannot see the bigger picture. Foe me only annoying thing was that sometimes it was difficult to understand their English, but big respect for at least trying.<br />
For the last thing in this review I can say that awesome kiss-scenes are guaranteed.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-82396521800124121702016-07-24T20:18:00.000+03:002017-06-21T23:31:01.824+03:00Kasa wo motanai Aritachi wa (2016)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Also known as</b>: Ants without umbrella<br />
<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format: </b>short drama in 4 episodes<br />
<b>Genre:</b> drama, slice of life<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Kiriyama Ren, Kato Shigeaki, Minamisawa Nao, Sakata Masanobu, Adachi Rika, Ryu Raita, Watanabe Mai, Kobayashi Ryota, Ichikawa Riku, Takeda Rena, Niitsu Chise, <br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Hashimoto Jun is sci-fi writer who has been unsuccesful in writing any new book for many years. One day his editor asks him to write love-themed short story for online youth magazine. Writer who has never written anything connected to love, feels the pressure of possible failure. Despite not seeing each other for years, one night his old schoolmate Murata Keisuke stops at his place. While talking to each other, Jun begins to remember his youth years filled with bittersweet memories. <br />
<b>Rating:</b> 5/5<br />
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For me Kato Shigeaki has been genius for all the years that I know him (<strike>he is one person who I would like to know personally).</strike> The whole "Ants without umbrella" has been put together from his same-named short-story collection. Further more, all the book and story names in the drama are from this short-story collection. I take the moment to divide the story-lines of the drama to the short-stories.<br />
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The main story-line of the drama is actually a mix of two different short stories from the collection. The first part of drama is about a sci-fi writer who has to write a love-story. It comes from "Ren'ai shosetsu (kari)" ("<i>A love novel (temprorary</i>)" and is also one of the attempts of Jun's writings for the love-story. In my opinion it is actually similar to "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839492/">Ruby Sparks</a>" if anyone knows. The second part about Jun and Keisuke childhood comes from "Nibe mo naku, yorube mo naku" ("<i>No friends in the world"</i>), where boys are just 14 years old, living in the seaside and encounter their first loves and the feeling of growing apart.<br />
Story of "Intercept" is actual one-on-one story by Kato Shigeaki and goes exactly the way it is shown in the drama of the first try-out for Jun's love-story. <br />
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<span id="goog_1228953623"></span><span id="goog_1228953624"></span>Kato Shigeaki's "Iganu no ame" ("<i>Rain of Iganu</i>") is given just as a name of the Jun's debut book. I must say that "Iganu no ame" is rather sci-fi story anyway. As much as I noticed then "Senshoku" ("<i>Paint</i>") and "Undress" are not added into the drama. They are more slice of life and a bit love-stories. Maybe there are some hidden hints to the stories, but noticing that needs careful reading of the stories.</div>
If you ask me if I have read the stories myself, then unfortunately I have read just the summaries - Yanne has the book in Japanese, but my Japanese is not good enough to actually read kanji. <strike>(neither have I had enough time to go and find the English translations in NEWS fandom groups - yes it was a hint for everyone who wants to read it). </strike>But now back to the drama and some words about the characters.<br />
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Jun, played by Kiriyama Ren, is the character that you will understand from the start. Writer who has currently writers-block and cannot overcome it. He has continuing dilemma to who and for what reason he is writing at all. I would say that it becomes almost as existential question for the writer as in a way it would be easier, but yet impossible, to stop writing for once and for all if he cannot write a single thing. I think with Kiriyama Ren I always had this feeling that I have seen him before acting, but actually have not. I think he brings out the character really well.<br />
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Keisuke is played by Kato Shigeaki himself. I bet it must have been interesting for him to actually act in a drama where he is the original author. In addition, in a way Keisuke is his most scandalous characters from his current stories. Sorry if it is spoiler to some people, but Keisuke is gay and that's why you can find this drama also under LGBT and yaoi forums. Keisuke has this one of a kind charm that he is good-natured and pure. I think it is not so common to handle gay-topic in Japanese drama this way and it is really refreshing. As you might have noticed, usually anything connected LGBT has been shown more as comical or connected to pop-culture (<i>J-pop idols fan-service to fans, yaoi-mangas etc), </i>but I have not seen much this kind of down-to-earth perception.<br />
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There are people who say that the drama itself is a bit disappointing and could have been told in a better, more interesting way, but for me it is one of the master-pieces. For me, Kato Shigeaki has always left this part where you have to think on your own, you have to see the connections and everything without everything being given to you. That's the magic for me - if even weeks later, I will have discussion in my head about the story, then it has been worth it. <br />
I guess you can find all kind of topics and different ideas from this drama - finding your thing in this life, friendships that help you in difficult times, hardships in life, the small line between reality and illusions etc. I just find it great and facinating drama. <br />
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<b>Spoiler-Review</b>: Of course the spoilers are about the ending. Some people were surprised that Keisuke actually had died years ago. This is something really different from the the ending of "Nibe mo naku, yorube mo naku" where they just grow apart for good and Jun actually becomes fisherman like Nitsuji. </div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-68423160376262365342016-06-26T15:01:00.000+03:002017-06-21T23:31:19.491+03:00The Imaginary Cat (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> South-Korea<br />
<b>Format:</b> drama in 8 episodes<br />
<b>Genre:</b> drama,<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Beetle, Yoo Seung Ho, Chi Hye Jung, Solar, Han Ye Ri, Park Chul Min, Lee El, Solar, Kim Min Suk, Shim Min, Choi Twae Han, Kim Hyun Joon,<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: It has been already 7 years since Hyun Jung Hyun found Bok Gil in a dumbster on a rainy night. Hyun Jung Hyun is aspiring webtoon artist, who is working part-time in book-store to make the ends meet, and Bok Gil is his supporting cat. One day Hyun Jung Hyun meets Oh Na Woo, who becomes the first woman to make a difference in Hyun Jung Hyun's and Bok Gil's every day life.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 3/5<br />
It was the comeback movie for Yoo Seung Ho after releasing from military service.<br />
The awesome thing about this drama is that it makes you think about many things. With quick episodes it still rises to question many social problems starting from our pets to overcoming the loss of a friend. The script is based on webtoon "Cat's Imagination" by Kim Kyung.<br />
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I waited long enough to see Yoo Seung Ho back on screen and definitely he was the star of the drama. He and Beetle. But Beetle was just natural in it. His character, Hyun Jung Hyun has been through a lot, but he let's only some of it influence his life. He can be stubborn and strong by his personality, but yet know when to keep his mouth shut and back off. It is not a strong drama for a come-back, but it definitely is a drama that melts viewers' hearts. What makes the situation even cuter is that Seung Ho actually went to the press-conference together with Beetle.<br />
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As I said - Beetle is a natural star of the drama. I am a huge cat-lover and Bok Gil was a great example of showing cat's sassy personality. What I did not like regarding to Bokgil, was that some moments I felt that the director or the scriptwriter did not read the cat mood at all. I bet it was difficult to get Beetle in the scenes acting as they wanted (<strike>not that it is impossible to get cat to act, but I hope you understand what I mean)</strike>, so I understand that some scenes might be off, but still when cat's tail is moving as she gets angry, then it is weird to put the text of cat being peaceful and happy. Some moments just left me angry and sorry for Beetle.<br />
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I must say that despite trying to make the leading lady appealing, I started to dislike Oh Na Woo the more I saw her. She is just naive and does not understand life so much. She can be annoying with her attitude and the things that she says are just stupid. This girl should really start thinking before opening her mouth. I undestand that they wanted to make her naive and pure, but she ended up just childish. As a person who has had many cats in my life (<strike>growing up at the countryside meant that we had to have a cat in the house, but unfortunately we had curse of 3 years - no cat lived longer than 3 years), </strike> I find it really stupid that she even thought that Hana is alive - come on girl, it has been 7 years and you just had it for 3 months! Move on! Another suspicious thing was "her relatives "lost" the cat" - after being forced to grow the cat. Seems a bit too well "lost". Cho Hye Jung's acting really is nothing much. It was her first lead role and many people speculated that she received the role only thanks to her father Cho Jae Hyun. Nobody knows for sure if it is true or not. With some extra acting classes, she can definitely improve her acting skills.<br />
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It seems that I am just saying bad stuff about the drama, but there are actually so many cute lovely and funny moments that it is worth to see it. This drama sometimes was so funny that it almost killed me - literally. One moment I started laughing so much that some of the jelly I was eating, ended up in my lungs and I almost suffocated. If I were a cat, I definitely lost one of my lives with it. I must warn you that if this kind of thing happens to you, then you end up coughing jelly out of your lungs for extra 30 minutes!<br />
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In the end, I wish the drama had been a bit more about the past and what really happened to Solar's character, Hyun Jung Hyun's high school friend. I would be so happy if somebody would just give me the pre-story of the drama. I would like to watch it much more than this drama. So, scriptwriters, you know what I want to see next time! The pre-story leaves so many questions hanging about every character in the drama and in a way I understand that it all was in the past and the current story is about other stuff, but come on - the things from the past seem more interesting than the current story in the drama.<br />
That has been it. I guess I am out of words and I hope you liked my review, even with giving you a lot of bad stuff about it. If it made you re-think about watching it, then I say again, Yoo Seung Ho and a cat in a drama together!? What else reason you need for watching it?<br />
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<b>Spoiler-review</b>: Well, what a surprise that Bokgil turned out to be Hana! Woah, nobody could have seen it coming. Though, this moment when Na Woo asks Jong Hyun to give back her cat, made me actually think who is the rightful owner of the cat? But then I understood that already asking this question is stupid as Jong Hyun has been the person who raised Bokgil since she was a kitten and Bokgil cannot even remember the time with Na Woo. I know that in reality animals have amazing memory when it comes to their old owners - especially when they have great memories together - and the fact that Bokgil did not like her at all in the start, means that she has no rights over the cat. End of story. Move on, Na Woo, and stop being such a spoiled brat! </div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-83816513701784222292016-04-05T17:29:00.000+03:002017-06-21T23:33:03.309+03:00The Monkey King 2 (2016) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> China<br />
<b>Format:</b> movie<br />
<b>Genre:</b> comedy, mystical<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Aaron Kwok, Gong Li, Feng Shaofeng, Kelly Chen, Xiaoshenyang, Him Law, Fei Xiang,<br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>It has been 500 years since Sun Wukong, also known as Monkey King, has been sealed under Five Fingers Mountain. While passing from the mountain on the way to India to collect Buddha's scriptures, young monk Tang Sanzang accidentally breaks the seal and frees Monkey King. The Mercy Goddess gives Monkey King a duty to protect the monk on his journey as there is a bad eye luring on the land of Yun Hai Xi Kingdom. <br />
<b>Rating:</b> 1/5<br />
As you know it is not usual for me to watch Chinese movie and especially sequel without seeing the first movie. That is why this review is written without seeing and knowing what happened in the first movie, but there is only little connection to the sequel. If you ask me the reason why I even watched it, then let's just say that it was only available movie on that night when I think about the situation back then. The movie is based on a classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng'en, so who is more familiar to Chinese legends and literature might find a lot of interesting things from the movie. <br />
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The main character and hero of the movie is Sun Wukong, but I will just call him Moneky King as it will be easier to understand. He is very powerful and without control he can be destructive to the world. That's why Goddess of Mercy pairs him up with the monk. Despite being aggressive and rude to everybody, he is also very loyal and protective. Unfortunately, his protectiveness also is seen as being aggressive and violent, because he has the power to notice hidden dark magic while everyone else are just enchanted with it. That's why from time to time he seems like wild animal who has no morals and just keeps on killing innocent people and for that reason gets punished. The lead-actor Aaron Kwok also acted in the first movie, but there he was the main antagonist and Sun Wukong was played by Donnie Yen who is also action director for both movies.<br />
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While the Monk Sanzang starts out as seemingly young naive man who only knows what he has learned in the monastery, then it is surprising to understand that he is much more worthy of his task than it seemed. He turns out much wiser and mature than it looks like. He believes that he can bring peace to everywhere with words and despises violence the most. That is also the reason why he punishes Monkey King who is eager to solve all the problems with violence. For some time he seemed blinded by his beliefs and pushed to the task, but as the story goes on, he shows true responsibility of fulfilling the task. <br />
Moneky King and Monk are also accompanied by women-crazy pig demon Zhu Baije and Djinn-like Sha Wujing, who first put Monkey King through a test to try out his powers. Of course their abilities are nothing compared to Monkey King, but they still have thier own special powers that come in handy when it is needed. These characters also play the biggest part of character-comedy as they happen to go through all kind of things in the movie. <br />
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White Bone Demon is demon terrorizing the area and kidnapping children in order to keep her demonic powers. When she learns about Sanzang she understands that in order to stop her reincarnation she has to devour him. Despite being the antagonist of the movie, she has some what story that makes you feel sympathy for her. She also has her 3 servants - demons of Snake, bat and boar. (<strike>just a side comment that Bat was played by Malaysian actress</strike>). Gong Li is considered one of the most beautiful Chinese actresses and this kind of fantasy movie definitely enchants her beauty to another level. It is difficult to believe that she is actually 50 years old, when in movie she looks barely 25 - you can talk about real magic here! She and her character are also the reason why the movie earned at least its 1 star from me.<br />
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As it is common for Chinese fantasy movies, there is a lot of wired-stunts and computer graphics. Even though I give two thumbs up for actors who actually are making their on-screen fight scenes themselves. The movie has some sense of humor, but unfortunately cannot say that I find the movie itself so much funny as I humor with sarcasm.<br />
Seems that for Chinese viewers it was appealing, because it definitely broke the box office on the first day of screening.<br />
There is a third movie coming out in 2018, but I think I will not see it as it is not my cup of tea.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-22702729793439612442016-03-26T18:26:00.000+02:002017-06-21T23:33:30.889+03:00Algernon ni hanataba wo (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Also known as: </b>Flowers for Algernon<br />
<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format</b>: drama in 10 episodes<br />
<b>Genre:</b> drama<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Yamashita Tomohisa, Kuriyama Chiaki, Kubota Masataka, Kudo Asuka, Kikuchi Fuma, Tanimura Mitsuki, Oomasa Aya, Ishimaru Kanji, Kaai Gamon, Maeda Goki, Ishida Issei, Kusakari Tamiyo,<br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>Shiratori Sakuto was born with mental disability, so that at age of 28 his intellectual mind is still the same as 6-year-old. He grew up at flower's delivery store after his father's death and his biggest wish is to become smart so that his mother would accept him. His wish is granted when group of scientists need voluntary person with mental disability for their research experiment. As Sakuto's intelligent is increasing, his world as he knew it is collapsing.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
"Flowers for Algernon" is based on same-titled award-winning short story by Daniel Keyes. It has made into drama once before in 2002 with Yusuke Santamaria and Kanno Miho as leads and Korean version is "Hello, God" (2006) starring Yoo Gun and Kim Ok Bin. I actually took time from my sleeping hours and read it. If you have a chance, then you definitely should read it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>To compare the movie with short story, then yes, the basic story-line is taken from the story - mentally disabled man gets a surgery what makes him become genius for a while - but there are a lot of changes in the script. I hope you do not mind if I bring them out in the review.<br />
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This drama is without doubt Yamashita Tomohisa's most outstanding and best performances in his career. If anyone says that he cannot act, then they just have to see "Algeron ni hanataba wo".<br />
Sakuto's view on world and life are a bit more advantaged than for most people with mental disabilities. His biggest wish is to become smart, so that his mother, who abandoned him more than 20 years ago, would finally accept him as her son and love him as she loves his younger sister. Of course for him, he does not see himself as "different", he just thinks that he is slower and not so intelligent as others. That is also why for him the equality with others is really important. As he is promised to become smart after the operation, then it is clear that there is no chance that he would say no.<br />
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If you compare the before and after, it seems like they are totally different people, but I am more amazed how greatly they bring out the changes of his mindset and how it all influences his life and decisions. Though I think my favorite part was to see the decrease of the operation influence. It is amazing how Yamashita Tomohisa acts out all the phases of the operation effect and it is the proof of him as an amazing actor to play this kind of big variety of characters in one movie. In addition, to act as person with disability is one of the most risky roles for an actor as it is easy to make small mistakes or over-act the part.<br />
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Yamashita Tomohisa put all his effort into this role to bring out all the sides of Sakuto and he did a great job with it. In the novel, the main-character is 37-year-old Charlie who works as a janitor in one industry building. The drama has been made into more romance-drama, because what would be drama with Yamashita Tomohisa without a love-storyline? Sorry, but as we already know how Japanese movie-industry works, it was kind of a must to add big love and friendship theme into it.<br />
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Due to this drama, I started to discover that I am not the biggest fan of Kuriyama Shiraki and I definitely do not like her character, Mochizuki Haruka, in the drama. She was the only reason why I thought of take down one star. Haruka is part of the science team who are working on a medicine to cure mental disabilities. She is unprofessional in her work and should have been removed from the team many many times for ruining and manipulating the results of the experiment and having no work ethics. As you know, I do not like whiny women who do anything for love and rather ruin other people lives and achievements just to have their love by their side. Of course she does not do it in the "mean" way, but still most of her actions are rather selfish, stupid and annoying as hell, despite how pure and sweet her affection seems. Haruka's character is added to the script, but the prototype of her character is Miss Kinnian who actually was the English teacher to Charlie and to her he has some kind of respect and affection.<br />
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I feel that about Sakuto and Haruka's relationship at one moment scriptwriters forgot to develop it any further. You can see everything very clearly when it comes to Sakuto - how and when there are changes, but I feel that Haruka is just "one moment this, other moment that" and it does not make me feel that her feelings were earnest or true. From the start of everything, Haruka has been having her eyes on Hachisuka-sensei who is the lab leader. I do not believe that a person is able to fall in love with someone so fast as she does and to be honest - which woman would not like to have a man who is looking like a superstar, is the most intelligent person in the room and says that she is the only one for him. Sounds really shallow to believe that it can be called true love. <br />
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So Hachisuka-sensei is fame-looking scientist who is willing to do illegal things to get the results. Years after his son's death and divorce from his wife, he is putting all his time and effort into revolutionary research, while breaking some morals and ethics. He is aware of Haruka's affection to him and he makes use of it as long as it benefits the research. I think he gets a bit deluded in the research and loses his path as the research starts to show results. In a way you can say that he created his personal Frankenstein monster and just started to check the things what to improve for next edition.<br />
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There are also Sakuto's friends who bring up the theme of "what is friendship and what friends do for each other". It is a lot based on the book as Charlie considers everyone at the work also his friends, but the smarter he gets the more he finds that they are just using him and making fun of him. Of course for Sakuto the case is not entirely like that as Ryuichi and Kosuke really are his friends. Both of the guys are with problematic backgrounds and work at flower delivery service as Sakuto's "uncle" wants to give fresh start for guys like them.<br />
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One really important part of the drama is also Mai and Rio - young rich girls who come across Sakuto and end up becoming friends with him, Ryuichi and Kosuke. You cannot call Mai and Rio great friends from the start as Mai is sassy girl who does not like Rio so much because of the family relations, while at the same time Rio sees Mai as her only great friend. Rio is also suffering from a rare disease, that can put her to sleep for the rest of her life. Even though Rio develops feelings toward Sakuto, Kosuke is paying a lot of attention to her and despite being from different social backgrounds he is willing to protect her.<br />
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This drama is talking about so many social problems in this world and it is a pleasure to watch <strike>(if you exclude the Haruka part)</strike>. I think one of my favorite story lines is with Sakuto's family. Being the one who abandoned her child, Sakuto's mother is filled with regret and hate for herself for all her life and there is no way to cure it. Despise, I absolutely do not like her actions, I think there is something sad and beautiful between Sakuto and his mom and even just by thinking about it, it makes me cry. After all, she is his mom and for him she was the only reason to become smart.<br />
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<b>Spoiler-review</b>: In the end of the movie Sakuto turns back to the way he used to be and forgot about everything that happened while he was genius. In the story, Charlie starts to have decline in his abilities too and understands that only thing that is waiting for him is early death just as it was for Algernon and he sits on a bus to travel far and die alone. So the drama has at least happier ending with Sakuto and guys travelling together to the seaside and starting their successful burger business there. What I loved the most about the ending was how Sakuto did not even recognize Haruka anymore and she had become just an stranger to him. Maybe I really did not like Haruka at all, but I think it was a good ending for their story. Even though I think that scriptwriters wanted to make it heartbreaking love story, then I just think that she deserved it for her actions.</div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-53026129679150918112016-02-16T19:00:00.000+02:002017-06-21T23:33:50.904+03:00The Werewolf Boy (2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country</b>: South-Korea<br />
<b>Format: </b>movie<br />
<b>Genre:</b> romance,<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Park Bo Young, Song Joong Ki, Yoo Yeon Seok, Jang Young Nam, Kim Hyang Gi, Yoo Seung Mok, Lee Young Ran, Seo Dong Soo, Ahn Do Kyu, Jand Seo Yi, Woo Jung Kook, <br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>After an unexpected call Soon Yi visits old country house in Korea. She recalls memories of when her family moved to the countryside to cure her chronic lung ailment and found an orphan boy living in the barn.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
The first time I got to know about this movie was from "Mostar" drama in 2013. It is the movie that is shown in the one episode where everybody are going on dates to the cinema to watch "The Werewolf boy" in the cinema.<br />
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No further waiting, let's get to the movie. Soon Yi is a girl who has great pride and at first she finds it difficult to get used to living in the countryside where is nothing to do. In addition, she feels that she is a burden to her family with her weak health. While at first sight she finds Chul Soo disgusting, she soon makes taming him with dog-training manual her favorite time-filler. He becomes her best friend in the area and slowly she opens up to him. She is the person who still sees Chul Soo as caring person whose actions are only caused by his need to protect her. Park Bo Young's acting is absolutely amazing and her crying definitely hits my "favorite crying scenes" list.<br />
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Despite living wild for all his life, Chul Soo adjusts to the new environment very fast. This movie is another great example how you can have an character in the movie without having lines. Well, through out the movie he only says one line and this line will break your heart to pieces. Song Joong Ki won a fans heart with his performance, but unfortunately enlisted to military after the movie came out. He returned to film industry in 2016 (<strike>review edited</strike>).<br />
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Ji Tae is the son of businessman who used to be Soon Yi's late father's businesspartner. He provided the house for Soon Yi's family and in return hopes to marry Soon Yi, but all the time faces only disgust by her. He is full of himself and the more he sees Soon Yi and Chul Soo together the more jealous he gets.<br />
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The last character I want to put attention to is Soon Yi's mom. I think she is one of the most heartwarming characters I have met in recent times. Despite Chul Soo being socially disadvantaged and even possible threat to her own children, she is taking the boy into the family, because he has no one else. She has the kindest heart and she believes that Chul Soo would not hurt her children no matter what other people say.<br />
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I think what is really fascinating about the story is that you cannot say it is 100% made-up. There are many stories of feral children - meaning "children who have been brought up by animals in the wild". These children have also noted to take animal habits and abilities like abnormal muscle strength to their own and not being able to adjust to human world. It is so sad to read how after being "captured" most of these kids end up having soulless look in their eyes in some kind of "mental institution while being watched and studied". And if you think that this kind of things only happened a lot of years ago, then now - the most recent dates back to 2008.<br />
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Back to the movie - It is considered one of the most successful Korean melodrama movies of all times and definitely earns this title as it is great movie from every perspective. The movie has a lot of heartbreaking moments in it. I think it makes any person cry their eyes out. I think more than it being a "love-story", it is story of trust and loyalty. Another small fact about the movie before I finish the review: The script of the movie was written by the director Jo Sung Hee while studying in Korean Academy of Film Arts and he re-wrote the script many times before finally sticking to the one that was made. Due to the great success and popularity, the movie was given also an alternative ending, which unfortunately I have not been able to see, so if anyone has information where and how to see it, then let me know also.<br />
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SPOILER-review: I was amazed with the end of the movie. It gave me conflicted emotions as in one way I was thinking that she will stay with him or something, but on the other hand that it was the only rational decision she could make. I guess the cherry on the top would have been if in the end it actually would have come out that he was no longer there and that one night she spent there was just her imagination and dream. even though it would have showed his animal behavior instead of until-the-death loyalty.</div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-82937140337420450682015-12-30T16:17:00.000+02:002017-06-21T23:34:16.817+03:00Personal Taste (2010)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> South-Korea<br />
<b>Format:</b> drama in 16 episodes<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Romance, comedy<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Lee Min Ho, Son Ye Jin, Kim Ji Seok, Wang Ji Hye, Ryu Seong Ryung, Jo Eun Ji, Jung Sung Hwa, Lim Seul Ong, Choi Eun Seo, Park Hye Mi, Ahn Suk Hwan, Kang Shin Il<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Park Kae In is an interior designer whose father is a well-known architecture professor. After dating Chang Ryul for years, she gets dumped by him the night before her bestfriend's wedding. While attending the wedding, Kae In finds out that the groom is no one else than her fresh ex-boyfriend Chang Ryul. At the same time, Jeon Jin Ho is architect who is struggling to win architecture competition against Chang Ryul's father. After many unfortunate happenings bring Kae In and Jin Ho to know each other, Jin Ho ends up renting a room from Kae In and moving into Kae In's modernized hanok (<strike>traditional Korean house</strike>) called Sanggojae. Everyone have their own reasons - Kae In is in a need of extra money and thinks Jin Ho is "gay". Jin Ho is there to learn about Sanggojae to use it as a base material for his competition work. <br />
<b>Rating: </b>4/5<br />
Firstly, I admit that I was very disappointed in the drama as it is (at least was) hyped up drama and I was expecting a lot from it. Even though it took me years until I decided to really watch, I was hoping to see an awesome drama. What can go wrong when you have Lee Min Ho, interior design+architecture, doubts in sexual orientation and two totally different characters living together?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Well, let's say that maybe I should start reading the other reviews before watching and get some spoilers ahead. In spite of the strong start it managed to lose its charm at one point and it did not gain it back.<br />
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I was most suprised by Park Kae In's character. For some reason, I believed that she has a more positive attitude (of course not about having a cheating bastard as an ex-boyfriend but still). Despite her ability to look gorgeous, she prefers to run around looking like an over-boiled chicken-pea hot pot and still have confidence of a supermodel. In a way I understand that she finds it a waste of time to prepare her looks while she could spend the same time with her loved one, especially when she believes that he loves her anyway, but at the same time, every woman should make an effort at least on occasions when they expect to be proposed.<br />
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Maybe one reason why I was putting expectations on her, is that I am an interior architect too, so I was hoping to relate to her more. I was surprised that despite being in relationship for years, she was still designing "furniture for 1-person" - doesn't it look like that there was something lacking in the relationship for her too, but she just could not figure it out? It was the first time seeing Son Ye Jin acting, but I think for this character it was a pretty good job.<br />
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Jeon Jin Ho is young architect who is competing against big companies. He has put all his effort and time to his work and simply does not put relationships in the first place. That is already the first reason that makes people wonder about his sexual orientation. In addition to it, he likes to keep his business to himself and not talk about his worries or anything that happens in his personal life to other people.<br />
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I think it is okey to say that he is a "gays-supporter" as he does not find anything wrong with being called gay. I am happy that they give us an insight of Jin Ho's world and we can actually learn what is going in his mind while he says nothing and unfortunately he does not say much at all.<br />
I am not sure if I need to talk about Lee Min Ho's acting as it is on point as usually. At the same time, it gets a bit boring as most of his characters end up being similar to each other, so I am looking forward to see him in different roles now.<br />
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While Han Chang Ryul is a cheating bastard / coward who is living under daddy's wing, there is something that in the end of the drama made me understand him. He has been listening his abusive father's orders for all his life and in a way dating clumsy Park Kae In was the only decision that he had control of. But as the drama goes on, we find out that Park Kae In was never formally introduced to the father and I interpreter it as a "wish to keep Kae In separate in different world". At the same time, I do not think Chang Ryul loved her. To him she was something out of this world - someone who took away his worries and stress with her clumsy and naive attitude and made him feel more man than he really is, but it was not "love", it was more "taking care of someone weaker".<br />
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I am not sure if he ever loved Kim In Hee either, but definitely more than he did Park Kae In. We see him running back and forth for long time in the drama and was happy to see that he might be a character that makes the biggest development in the drama, grows some balls and actually becomes a man. It was the last drama for Kim Ji Suk before enlisting to the military and having 2 year hiatus from acting.<br />
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So now we get to Kim In Hee... well, there is no way to make her look nicer, because with no excuses, she is a selfish bitch who does not know how to appreciate the things she has. She is unable to love anyone and wants to get everything and everyone even when she does not need anything. This way she goes on stealing Chang Ryul from Kae In and then going after Jin Ho. Her actions do not have limits and it is actually sad to see how low someone can drop. The more she tries the more desperate she seems, as if she is dealing with a huge childhood trauma of not being loved and not having anything. <br />
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Throughout the drama my favorite characters were Sang Jun and Young Sun, bestfriends of Jin Ho and Kae In. Sang Jun is also Jin Ho's work colleague Even though, they are behind most of the misunderstandings and their actions mess up a lot of things, they are still kind from the bottom of their hearts. They just do not know when to keep their mouths shut and when actually to open. Sang Jun keeps up the act of being gay and eventually becomes great friends with Young Sun. For some moments it seems that they become even closer friends than they are to Jin Ho and Kae In. I was hoping to get some juicy development from their friendship but I guess it was too much to expect.<br />
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As usual for Korean drama, there are tons of different characters and I am not going over everyone. There are the parents who think more about themselves than their children; there is young girl Hye Mi crazy after Jin Ho who has sister-zoned her for all his life and there is a young guy who has his eyes on Hye Mi. We even get a glimpse of Jin Ho's high school sweetheart.<br />
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But there is one character about who I would like to write more - Choi Do Bin. He is a the director of the DAAM project, the architecture project that keeps Chang Ryul and Jin Ho competing. He is gay and after hearing that Jin Ho is supposedly gay also, he starts to develop feelings for him. Director is the sweetest character in the drama and in way he becomes adviser and mentor for Kae In. His actions are pure and even when he is given a chance to act on his emotions, he stays rational. At the same time it is unfortunate to see him being mislead. <br />
There are many great things in this drama and it is really funny to watch, even though I was waiting for more comedy and less drama. There are many moments to make your heart beat very fast, but at the same time be ready to go back and forth with some the problems before they actually get solved.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-78367771117554270292015-12-22T22:34:00.000+02:002017-06-21T23:35:34.711+03:00Kinkyori Renai (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><br /></b><b>Also known as: </b>Close range love<br />
<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format:</b> movie<br />
<b>Genre:</b> romance, school life<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Yamashita Tomohisa, Komatsu Nana, Mizukawa Asami, Kotaki Nozomu, Yamamoto Mizuki, Arai Hirofumi, Sano Kazuma, Furuhata Seika,<br />
<b>Synopsis: </b>Kurirugi Yuni is top-marked student in her high school. Only difficult subject is English until new English teacher, Sakurai Haruka, starts to give her private tutoring in order for girl to reach the highest mark also in it. Things go a bit differently once Yuni discovers that she is falling in love with her teacher and that this might not turn out to be only one-sided. <br />
<b>Rating: </b>3/5<br />
Based on same-named manga by Mikimoto Rin. The manga has huge fanbase and this movie was long-waited by many. Before the movie came out there was prequel drama-series what was about Haruka's high-school, before he became teacher and everything. The drama has different cast and movie cast does not make appearance in drama. (unfortunately have not seen yet)<br />
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As you know I am not a fan of teacher-student love-lines, even if the teacher is played by Yamashita Tomohisa. I know that there are people who absolutely love it, so I leave this topic to them to discuss. The age difference between the actors is 11 years, but thanks to Yamashita Tomohisa's young face, it does look much smaller and makes the movie more watchable.<br />
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But I better start off with Kurirugi Yuni first. To be honest, I actually did not mind her at all. It is only natural for young high-school girl to develop feelings for her handsome male teacher, especially after he has appointed private tutoring for her. Let's be honest, in this situation, no girl can stay indifferent with her feelings. She is a sweet girl who has her own problems to solve (<strike>or to ignore</strike>) and she might be the biggest dead-fish eyed character that I know. She is really dull looking without showing any kind of emotions.<br />
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But this also leads us to the reason why it is so important that Haruka comes to her life. He is the only person around her who is able to read her emotions and see through her mask. This was one thing that I really liked about the movie that they greatly brought it out what they actually meant to each other, understanding and healing each other's mental state. For Komatsu Nana it was her break-through movie and she has done many movies based on mangas later as well. Her performance in the movie is considerably good when compared to many other model-become-actress-idols.<br />
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To continue with "dead-fish-eyes" then it magically makes good match to have Yamashita Tomohisa as male lead (<strike>even though I do not agree with this eye comment</strike>). It is more complicated to explain Haruka's character. He has controversial character who plays it hot-and-cold. As he has the looks then he is aware of the female students watching him and as most of them do it so obviously, then this is also a reason why Yuni's quiet and pure approach reaches him. At first he has this arrogant attitude, but it changes once he is also falling for Yuni. Despite trying to be responsible grown-up, he often comes off as thoughtless naive teenager who finds that marrying solves all the problems. Maybe I just find it shallow to jump into marriage and "one-true-love" when you know the other person only for a little time and especially when we recall that Haruka is Yuni's first love.<br />
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Then there is also Mirei, new home-room teacher for Yuni and ex-girlfriend of Haruka. What to say - world is small. She might be the most disliked character in the movie. She comes off as woman who years after not even calling once sees her ex-boyfriend and decides that she wants him back.. especially when she sees that he has moved on really well and has younger and sweeter girl on the horizon. She is not dealing with the situation in a mature way and rather finds a way to make things go her way with different tactic.<br />
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From other points what some people have said about the movie, is that it is very weird that there is not a single time that Yuni's parents are mentioned. Their teenager daughter is living with a single male relative - which is not so common for a girl, unless the male relative is grandfather. There are so many moments for parent's to interfere - the relationship, university choices etc. Come on - studying in California is not cheap even if you get a special scholarship. <br />
So yeah, in the end there is not enough character development and overall story-line is a bit boring to watch. The biggest plus-points were the lead actors who did the best work with the script that was given to them. Good movie for fans of Yamashita Tomohisa and teacher-student-love admirers, for other's - it might be just a time-filler, but do not expect it to surprise you.<br />
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Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3348894301304642974.post-72881198662009852092015-12-08T01:25:00.000+02:002017-06-21T23:36:50.146+03:00Gakkou no Kaidan (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Country:</b> Japan<br />
<b>Format: </b>drama in 10 episodes<br />
<b>Genre</b>: school<br />
<b>Cast:</b> Hirose Suzu, Kamiki Ryunosuke, Ishibashi Anna, Suga Kenta, Mamiya Shotaro, Kaneko Nobuaki, Nonami Maho, Namase Katsuhisa, Asano Atsuko, Izumiya Shigeru,<br />
<b>Synopsis</b>: Haruna Tsubame is young high school girl who got into prestigious high school thanks to their program for poor students to have a chance to get better education. One day she gets pushed to become the president of the student council. On the same day she meets a mysterious guy with excellent speech-writing skills. Compared to previous presidents, with his help Haruna sets out to change the corrupted high school forever.<br />
<b>Rating</b>: 3/5<br />
Well, what to say - Yanne forced me into watching it and I suffered all the way until the end. It was difficult for me to watch it, but at the same time it all was worth it.<br />
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Haruna is a bit weakling and as you already know, I am totally annoyed by it. As having been in student council of my university and a board member of local section of one international student organisation then I do connect to Haruna and the things she is facing - solving the problems that have existed in the organisation before them, taking the responsibility, working on others motivation even when you do not have any motivation for the moment.<br />
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At the same time, I still did not like her way of action and that sometimes she just was too naive to do anything. It felt as if she depended on Him and most of her own plans just failed. It was good to see in the end that she had made some improvement and grown a lot. On the other had, she is not weakling at all as she puts up with the bullying and stands against it without giving up on it, so this I again really liked about her. For Hirose Suzu acting, well what to say - I would consider it the average high-school drama acting - nothing special but at the same time not the worst one, but what do you expect from 16 year old actress? At the same time, I can say that Yanne absolutely adored Suzu and her acting.<br />
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But more than Haruna, I really liked another really important character - Shizukui Kei. There are many things about him that make him really mysterious and once you think you know what is his past secret, you will have to think again. Let's just say that each one of us has some skeletons in their closet but some skeletons are just bigger than others. I like that he is an example how person can learn so much if they have the motive to do it. Though it was my first time seeing Kamiki Ryonosuke act, I just fell in love with him. His acting in it was perfect as the character himself is really complex. <br />
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Extra star worthy was definitely the relationship between Haruna and Kei. That was the one and only thing that kept me watching the drama and not keeping it on-hold for longer time. They start of with this weird friendship that is difficult to explain and the more time goes on the more you start to ship them. In the end, I already wanted to hope that this would be the main strory-line in the drama.<br />
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In every way this drama is similar to other high school dramas with elite schools. There must be this gang of rich and powerful students who just have horrible attitudes and mostly due to their more horrible parents who force their own wishes on them. This is the best way to explain the 6 bad students. I do not think there is much to explain more about them nor the actors who played the part.<br />
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I was asked to say few words about Natsuki's character and Shotaro Mamiya. Natsuki's role definitely brought him a lot of fame. Not only he became favorite of many fangirls, but he also caught the eye of many producers and 2016 has been very successful to him (<strike>edited in 2016</strike>). About Natsuki. I would say he is stuck in his life and he has no idea how to get out of it. In a way, it seems that he is spending all of the time thinking about how to escape from his life, and for the very same reason he really does not care much to intervene to business that is going on around him, unless someone manages to harm his self-esteem and/or he is "expected" to act some way. <br />
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Out of the all elite-group, the queen-bee Aso Minami, is the worst. Yet, we can see that this kind of people actually are the most unfortunate. Despite being the most popular girl of the high school and ruling over everybody, she is about to learn that "high school kingdom" just stays in high school. In addition, you can see in her case that the prettiest can be the most insecure in their heart. Though I have not seen Anna Ishibashi before in this kind of "bad girl" role, but for some reason she looks so natural in it that it feels as if I have seen it before.<br />
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But what I would like to point out are the teachers. This drama is a perfect example how teachers should be the ones helping students through the puberty and all this high school life, but a lot of times they are lacking in needed skills and motivation, or they taste of money is just so good that they become corrupted by it. It is sad to see that this situation is actually representing the situation in our real-lives.<br />
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I am so happy I am out of studies now, but I do feel sorry for all the students who are stuck and have to face teachers who spend more time bringing students down and crushing their dreams than actually motivating students to find their passion in life and teaching how to make living out of it. I understand that teaching in school is not easy and to look after all the children, but sometimes just small things matter to children and it is important to notice them.<br />
I am out of words now, if I missed something then let me know in the comments below! Looking forward for your opinions on it ;) </div>
Cypsishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10921600237897561952noreply@blogger.com0