Helter Skelter (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: ***, plastic surgery, drama
Cast: Sawajiri Erika, Terajima Shinobu, Omori Nao, Ayano Gou, Mizuhara Kiko, Arai Hirofumi, Suzuki Anne, Terajima Susumu, Momoi Kaori, Aikawa Sho, Harada Mieko, Kubozuka Yusuke,
Synopsis: Lilico has gone under full-body plastic surgery and has become the most famous model in Japan, but all that falseness has also brought misery. Nothing lasts forever and so the surgery has begun to give backlashes and the new rival in beauty industry promises to ruin her little happiness she has left.
Rating: 5/5
I have not read the manga itself, but as much as I have heard, then it is a bit shallower than manga, but I really enjoyed the movie. It contains sex, drugs, violence, bad language and it is the closest thing to porno that I have ever seen and yet it was able to captivate me because of the amount of different feelings that you will get from this movie is huge. Each second was really interesting for me. But I admit that I would not let any person under age 16 watch it.. never..

No matter how hated or scandalous Sawajiri Erika is she is a brilliant actress. Everyone still thinks that she is beautiful and great actress. I think she is one actress who might do whatever she wants and it all will be forgiven, because her acts in the past have made it possible to act in movies like this. Would you imagine Kitagawa Keiko or Aragaki Yui in a role like that? Of course not, because many have said and I think so too, that Sawajiri Erika was acting as herself in many scenes.

Lilico has done full-body plastic surgery. As there is almost everything fake about her and that has

brought her enormous fame, but it has also made her soul empty. Everybody loves her but at the same time no one really loves her. "What do they love - I even have not met them or talked to them". Even now I am not sure if she was the victim or the culprit. She is selfish, does not care of other people's feelings and wants to be the best, nr. 1 forever, but at the same time she is nothing, just trying to please everyone, the sadness and emptiness are killing her!

That's why I felt sorry for her while hating her. Beauty and fame do not bring happiness especially when everything is fake - it is just a curtain before the theater stage. Fake creates fake and that's the way it is. Lilico gave people the fake they wanted and she got the fake response to it too, but you can see how she was actually looking for something real like true love and life without lies, but these things were already impossible for her. Her falseness was explained really simply "Beautiful on the outside, but eaten by the bugs inside".

The scariest part of the movie was when I found myself a little similar to Lilico. I have seriously nothing similar to her, but in some way I understood her and what she was going through. It is so strange that even though the movie shows how fake Lilico was, it also shows how fake our society is - especially woman's beauty - fake eye-lashes, contacts, nails, make-up, push-ups, hair-extensions and simple beauty injections/surgeries - they are all really everyday-ish things.

People have become so obsessed with outer beauty, that it stops being beautiful and it is really ironic when these kind of people are criticizing how others are fake. I am not against beauty products or surgeries, but I think that each thing has it's limits and sometimes people are the prettiest when they are natural. Lilico says "Beauty makes you strong", but I do not think so - being beautiful gives you more confidence, but it does not bring you more strength.

The only people Lilico really needs to have by her side are assistant Hada Michiko  and her make-up artist Kin-chan. With out them she would not have survived. But Hada-san was really weird character. She was hopelessly in love with Lilico, but sometimes she loved to stab her back. Then again she was not a lesbian, because she had younger boyfriend Shin. Shin is acted by Ayano Go and I really did not recognize him in the movie. Hada-san is used by Lilico as personal slave, who is treated like trash and then spilled over with "presents". I think that with Hada and Shin, Lilico's worst personality traits came out and it was soooooooooo sick! I almost vomited several times because of her actions.

In the end, I think that the most horrible character in the movie was Mama. Saying that Lilico is her creation and the real girl Lilico used to be is nothing. Using someone only for money.. and then ruining the original agreements for what Lilico was able to cope with all that hard work..
I think it is one of a kind movie and it is exactly "helter skelter" aka "total chaos". Even when the time has passed, I am fascinated by everything in this movie and I seriously want to know how it is shown in Japan, but at the moment my bowl of chips got empty, so only thing to say is "WATCH IT and tell me what you thought of it" :)

SPOILER-review: The end was so scary! The moment when she killed herself was so horrible and sad at the same time. For a moment everyone stopped and watched, but then they continued to take pictures - reminds me how people are now making photos and uploading them to internet before calling help. When person makes a suicide in front of you, YOU CALL AMBULANCE! -.- And then the movie went on and I found out that "HOLY SH*T! THAT WAS ALL A PLAN!!!" O.o but I really was screaming in the end "F*** THAT B***H WON'T DIE!!" (I was so scared that I was even unable to replace the words as I usually do..)

Kurosagi

KUROSAGI (2006)
Country: Japan
Genre: action, law, romance
Format: drama 11 episodes
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Horikita Maki, Aikawa Sho, Kato Koji, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Ishikawa Yui, Kishibe Shiro,  guests: Sugita Kaoru, Koyama Keiichiro, Kiritani Kenta, Komatsu Ayaka
Synopsis: Kurosaki´s family gets destroyed by swindlers. In order to pay back for the murder, Kurosaki grows up to be a swindler himself - but he swindles the money back from other swindlers and gives that back to victims. One day he meets with young law student Yoshikawa Tsurara and from that on many things will be changed.
Rating: 4/5
GREAT! I have never been much of an action-fan, but it is really interesting drama, especially look out for Yamashita Tomohisa´s hilarious undercover appearances... but in some way they seem to work well.
Yamashita Tomohisa plays the part of Kurosaki - young man in his twenties who years ago lost all his family after his father lost all family's money to swindlers. Kurosaki has made the point of his life to revenge the person who swindled his family. But as he himself becomes swindler, he is almost as nowadays Robin Hood who takes from "rich" and gives back to "poor". In a way it is really idyllic. He does not use the money he gets as a pay for himself and lives in one-room apartment with his cat. He is really lonely person and never likes to get too close to other people, because he knows that he risks too much with it. Even though he tries to show that he is emotionless and nothing can make an influence on him, he has his moments when the strong walls of his world collapse and he is defenseless. I think Yamashita Tomohisa made really great acting as Kurosaki, because he was able to play out all moments and emotions even when he did not have any lines to say.
Kurosaki's world as swindler gets really messed up after he becomes connected to Yoshikawa Tsurara. Tsurara is young law-student who believes that everything in world can be corrected and made good with following laws. She is a bit naive to believe that all people by nature are good, especially the ones connected to law and police system. She tries to make her opinion clear to Kurosaki too without really knowing his motives. Sadly, her heart is like young girl's and with more time seeing Kurosaki she starts to have feelings for him. Of course I can say that she is not the only one and as innocent as she is, she is even willing to cross friend-code. I do have to say that even when we can see that Kurosaki also becomes not-so-cold toward her, his kind of men with so much tragedy in his life will never leave everything that he believes for a woman like Tsurara. Maybe once Tsurara grows more mature and gets more experience with dark side of the life, she can be a great partner for life.If they had met in different time and situation, then I think that they might have found each other and had a great life, but Kurosaki's life is way messed up.
At this point, I should mention also Yukari who in every way is a bad friend to Tsurara. Because of her envy she creates much sadness and bad to others. She is rather spoiled and goes with an attitude that if she does not get that guy then no-one gets him. When you ask me how many times Ishikawa Yui can play this kind of woman, then my answer is exactly enough times!
I think one of the most important characters is Katsuragi - man who is behind everything. He is really old and his health is already weak, but his power is just as big as it has always been. Katsuragi is  the one who teaches Kurosaki to become great kurosagi. It is difficult to understand his motives behind his actions, but in some moments I felt that they are almost sharing father-son relationship and he is feeling somewhat guilt toward Kurosaki who lost everything at young age. Of course this all can be illusion, because we are talking about a man who is not afraid to make people disappear from this world, but maybe, just maybe, with his age he has started to have different kind of views for life. He is also really eager to make perfect pickled foods, but he never gets it right, so it is just a big smelly and very disgusting mess that he creates. Because of "Kurosagi" and "Ending Planner" Yamazaki Tsutomu has become the "Grandpa of dramas" :)
I definitely was annoyed by the police chief Kashima as he only saw Kurosaki as a bad guy, even when he actually did great things and handed over the bad guys to police. Of course I can understand that it kind of made police look like incompetent to do its job, but come on! The fact taht they did not catch them before Kurosaki means that they were not so good at their job. But Kashima takes it on as a personal revenge to Kurosaki, because he is more or less annoyed by him.
I take a moment to explain some things like the difference between all swindlers - there are akasagi, shirosagi and kurosagi. Akasagi are so-called "love-swindlers". I bet you have seen or heard about them in real life too, when people get married and then end up divorcing so that they get a lot of money and property from their richer husband/wife. Shirosagi are usual con-artists who cheat people and after getting their money, disappear into thin air. Kurosagi is the swindler who most usually takes on shirosagi and cheats money from them and returns the right amount back to people. So without any puns Kurosaki is kurosagi...
Definitely aatch out for "Bang~!" and "Maidoari!", because they will follow you for a long long time if not forever.! They are in every episode, but you never get tired of them! xD It is just a part of the movie that after some episodes you see coming and shout them out. Theme song is great too "Daite daite daite senjorita! Tsuyoku tsuyoku tsuyoku hanasanaide!...." ("Daite Senjorita" by Yamashita Tomohisa) O.o It is really catchy, so be careful.

 KUROSAGI THE MOVIE (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre: action, law, romance
Format: movie
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Horikita Maki, Aikawa Sho, Ichikawa Yui, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Aikawa Sho, Sugita Kaoru
Synopsis: Kurosaki´s story continues as he gets closer to the swindler who caused Kurosaki´s family tragedy.
Rating: 4/5
It really looks like another episode from the drama.
I love when character's emotions take the lead and  he forgets to act rationally. This is exactly what happens to Kurosagi after all this time holding his emotions down.
I just realized that Yamashita Tomohisa got thinner between years 2006 and 2008. If you want to check it then watch the promo pics or just watch the whole drama and movie again XD
I did not like that Horikita Maki had so few scenes, because she is a great actress, but it is considerable due to the fact that she had another movie/drama filming at the same time.