Hana Yori Dango

Hana Yori Dango (2005)

Country: Japan
Format: drama season 1, 9 episodes
Genre: romance, comedy, school
Cast: Inoue Mao, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Jun, Matsuda Shota, Abe Tsuyoshi, Nishihara Aki, Kaga Mariko, Sato Megumi, David Ito, Sada Mayumi, Tomiura Satoshi, Kobayashi Susumu, Ishino Mako, Matsushima Nanako
Synopsis: Makino Tsukushi goes to elite high-school which is ruled by world-famous F4 - Flower 4 -  the richest and most powerful guys in the school - getting a red notice from them means definite leaving from school. As a commoner Makino tries to live her high-school life being unnoticed, but everything changes when she gets on bad terms with F4's leader Domyouji Tsukasa. Makino's first name stands for "though weed" and she proves that she deserves it by declaring war to F4. Oddly enough slowly she is starting to fall for the enemy.
Rating: 4/5
It took me years until I convinced myself to watch it - after all everybody are praising it to heaven and it is one of the must-see classics. Before watching these were my thoughts - "I'm gonna hate Curly, luv Sweety and dunno 'bout others" (Excuse me for slang - these thoughts are already simplified from the actual slang in my head - you do not want to know how my mind works) But lets see how and why my thoughts changed after watching it.

Sensei wa Erai (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre: school
Format: movie
Cast: Nakajima Yuto, Yamada Ryosuke, Arioka Daiki, Chinen Yuri, Yusuke Santamaria, Karina, Abe Tsuyoshi
Synopsis: Souta (Nakajima Yuto), Wataru (Chinen Yuri) and Rin (Arioka Daiki) are students, who of public junior high school. They find their teacher Uzaki (Yusuke Santamaria) really annoying (His nickname is even "Uza-Ken", which literally means "You´re annoying"/ "You must be kidding"). As they get in contact with their old classmate Hayato (Yamada Ryosuke), they start to change the teacher into more appealing person. 
Rating: 1/5
To start with, the junior high students are not cool at all, but they understand it much too late. (Maybe it is just the system, that everybody who are older than yourself look cool to you, but when you reach to that point, you realize that actually it is nothing like that?) At the same time, I understand that their (high school students) life is hard too. The part of "growing up, but still being a child" is harsh for everyone, ne?

Souta (Sou-chan)- I find him the most foolest and childish ones! xD He was just so epic in everything he did - cool clothes? buying underpants from Shibuya (there's nothing wrong with that, but you'll understand what I mean if you watch it xD), studies, room0. He was like most comical character in it.  I liked the brothers relationship in it.
Wataru (Wata) - it was funny that Souta and Wataru were bestfriends - it seemed like they were the tallest and the smallest in the class =) but Wataru was such a mamaboy O.o Everything was like "mama will do!".

Takekura (Takeshita/Rin) - Arioka Daiki was the star of the movie for me =D His face expressions were so funny and all his character was cute. I think that knowing the "7 wonders of Uzaken" brought him really bad luck. yeah, bad luck with girls. He is the only character who is dragged into love-triangle, which is soooooooo sweet :) Ahh I wish that there would be not that rare to find that honest and brave guys in real world.

Gunjou (Hayato) - He was just annoying character. Yamada Ryosuke is all cute and totally idol-like in it, but the character was really like WTRamen!??? O.o (I am going to finish high-school in spring and even for me it was hard to understand what he was saying) Gunjou was the type of "Let's make the world a better place!" Yaaaaay!!! -.- not.... His overhelming kindness was actually annoying, because it seemed so fake.

now to the teacher... he totally deserved his nickname, but I think that he was the same as my written school-policy: Teacher and human are not the same. He/she can be the best person in the world, but totally suck in teaching. At the same time, there is a saying that "If a students really wants to learn, then he/she do not need any teacher at all, so there is not great or bad teachers. (Oh there are bad teachers - like languaege teachers, who teach you wrong pronounciation and wrong language rules. I have many teachers in my school /mostly older women/ who are like grannies in personality, but as a teacher no one respects them.). I liked that Uzaken was not a puppet and tried to make them the real thing themselves. It was cute how the 5th wonder was true, but in the other way xD (Watch the movie, to find out :P)
I like that it actually combines the really funny scenes with sad scenes. Just like school is all about - funny things, love-scenes, jealousy, giving your best and sad parts, which might make you cry in future too.   

AAHH! NOW I REMEMBER!! For some seconds it shows a scene, where there is a magazine on the table! /XD Yeah, on the cover of it was Yamashita Tomohisa.. It was a great surprise ^^





SPOILER review!: the end was really sad. It must have been mentally hard for guys when Uzaken collapsed. I know that once in my school a teacher collapsed in front of the class and was taken to the hospital. I think that a experience like that will remain to the memory for a long time, especially when you do not know what is wrong with other person. In the end I still started to cry, because when Aoyama-sensei (nurse) said, that she loved the sound of Uzaken's slippers, I reminded some personal issues, so if you really want to say something to other person, then just do it, before it is to late. even if it is just something about their slippers.

Koizora (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre: romance, school, family,drama
Format: drama 6 episodes
Cast: Mizusawa Elena, Seto Koji, Abe Tsuyoshi, Aoi, Miura Shohei, Haru, Nagayama Kento,
Synopsis: Drama version of "Koizora". Mika´s life is pretty normal, until she is suddenly kissed by Sakurai Hiro, a boy from her school with a abnormal appearance. At the same time, there is Mika´s classmate Tatsuya, who is in love with Mika, but with Hiro´s persevere, surprising and sudden character leaves a big impact into girl´s heart. 
Rating: 5/5
I like the drama version much more than movie version - there are just too many things going on to but it into 1,5 hour, even though in the end drama got a bit too lingering. 
I liked Seto Koji´s acting more. Furthermore, I loved Hiro´s character - he is totally the guy whom

girls might fell for. His surprising and sudden acts were the things which make girl´s heart race. (But there are also some things I do not approve to remake in real life). Hiro acted like a bad guy, but actually was really caring and loving. The head patting is one of the cutest things of all and girls actually like that (at least I do) ^^ At first, Hiro seems really persistent and kinda delusional, but it was more caused by the fact that he was used to "easy" girls and that's something that Mika definitely is not. I felt that thanks to Mika Hiro grew up. You can hear Seto Koji singing and playing the guitar too!! (if you do not know, then Seto Koji is in a j-rock band called Tetra-Fang and in a actors group D-BOYS)

The storyline was beautiful and really sad. How is it possible, that when somebody finds her/his true love, then something sad and terrible will happen? Oke, it is not so all the time, but Hiro´s and

Mika´s love story is based on true-life-events. It was originally a keitai-novel written by Mika. To me the story was really unpredictable and every new thing surprised me. From the start you can understand that something is going to happen, but you do not know what! (It is like "Nana" anime, where I started to cry in the end of every episode, because I knew something will happen, but did not knew what) Mika is played by Mizusawa Elena. Her acting is not the best in it, but it was her first time acting too, so let's forgive her. Mika is used to be protected and her horizon is actually really narrow at first. She is shy, plain and she does not have an outstanding beauty, but there is something really cute and natural in her. That's what makes men fall for her and their exes' hate her. Dealing with jealous ex and her friends can be really frightening and I know the fear she was going through. Being afraid to walk alone on the streets and changing route just because you see one of them - even though when you say that it did not shake you at all and you will not give up on a guy just for that, there will be the fear for long time. Especially, when you have been seriously threaten.

The friend-relationship between Mika-Aya and Hiro-Nozumu is really great. True friendship is when you do not betray your friend. Mika made everything she could to get Aya and Nozumu together and Aya was always by her side. Like the time when news about Mika´s and Hiro´s relationship spreed out, then Aya told Mika to keep chin up and smile as she usually does ^^ And Nozumu kept his promise to Hiro, even though he did not approve it, because he saw how much Hiro is actually hurt.

There are two sentence more, which I like and both of them are from Mika:
"Do I need a reason to like something?" - actually, you really don´t! It just happens and you cannot tell the reasons. It might be someone or something - it does not matter. Do you can give reasons to

everything you like? I know that I cannot, because I like really weird stuff too. Another sentence was "Walking shoulder by shoulder at the same pace" - in fact in this scene Hiro and Mika did not walk in the same pace, but you get the idea. I never knew what is so great about it, but I think that until you have not walked with somebody like it, you will never knew. Even if you are not in a relationship or if it is only the person you like (might be one-sided crush), when you notice that you are walking down the stairs with that person step by step in the same pace, even though you see that he could walk faster (because you are in shock and are walking really slowly), it is something that you will always remember. As you might understand, it has happened to me - he was my first love. He always took me by surprise, but at that time.. well, I was not the person I am today. I think that it is with all first loves in the world ( not accurate about people who marry their first love), that first love is something that is bittersweet, it hurts like hell, but feels like heaven at the same time and you know that no matter what you will always remember him/her.
I think that "Koizora" is definitely a MUST-WATCH drama, real classic that you will remember after watching. When I re-watched it, I started to cry after first 3 minutes of first episode, so cry-baby's (like me) need a tissue-box near you!

SPOILER-review: I do understand why Hiro broke up with Mika and did not say the truth about the cancer. I think that in these kind of decisions there actually is not right way, because I too would not want to make my partner suffer, but at the same time.. he should have the right to know. As I said, it is really difficult to find any easy way.
There was one thing that I did not understood - why they did not use protection? If you have sex, then use protection - it is a really easy knowledge and I would not say that they are terrible expensive or difficult to find from stores (first part might depend on countries, but it is cheaper than bring up a child). On the other hand, I am extremely happy that they decided to keep the baby, even though things went other way, because I agree with Mika on this question - I would never forgive myself if I get pregnant and would not give birth to this child. I know so many acquaintances, who have made abortion and I do not judge them for their decisions, but I am just saying that it is something that I would not do.