Resident ~ 5nin no kenshui~ (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: medical, drama
Cast: Naka Risa, Masuda Takahisa, Hayashi Kento, Oomasa Aya, Ishibashi Anna, Sudo Risa, Arakawa Yoshiyoshi, Minakawa Sarutoki, Terajima Susumu, Furuta Arata, Ozama Yukiyoshi, Chiba Yudai,
Synopsis: Five interns become part of a medical team to but their skills into practice. They do not have to save only lives of their patients, but their mind must grow as doctors to be able to continue saving lives in future. Each of them faces the challenge of their past that keeps interfering their work.
Rating: 3/5
Seriously, I have never waited after subtitles for so long as for "Resident", but I am so grateful that they still decided to finish it even if it took around 1,5 years.

Ranma 1/2 (2011)

Country: Japan
Genre: comedy, martial arts, romance
Format: Live-action movie
Cast: Aragaki Yui, Kaku Kento, Natsuna, Furuta Arata, Namase Katsuhisa, Hasegawa Kyoko, Nishiyama Maki, Tanihara Shosuke, Nagayama Kento, Kanai Yuta, Tayama Ryosei, 
Synopsis: Made after Takahashi Rumiko same-named manga/anime. Tendo family's dojo is in danger as their last follower quits. Right at that time the family head Tendo Soun receives a postcard from his old friend Saotome Genma, which says that he is bringing his son Ranma to Tokyo. Years ago Soun and Genma made a promise that their children will marry each other in order to inherit the dojo's. However there is a big "BUT" - while training in China, Ranma and Genma fell into Jusenkyo's springs, which now make then transform when their head get wet. Genma turns into Panda with cold water and Ranma into girl. Even though they turn back with hot water, Ranma wants to find a secret spring, which will make him 100% man again for ever and that spring is said to be in Tendo's hold.
Rating: 4/5
I am not a big fan of live-actions as usually they tend to fail at making them and I "Ranma 1/2" my favorite anime ever. I did not hold my expectations high, so the movie actually surprised me. Once again, if someone is to make live-action, please let Japanese do it (because USA live-action of "Dragon Ball" is the worst thing ever!!!!!).

Ranma was played by Kaku Kento. After seeing his martial art skills I understand why he was picked. He made all the moves himself. He was a little bit too skinny from face, but it is not the actor's fault that I imagine Ranma a little bit chubbier from face. I love how Kaku Kento nailed Ranma's attitude and personality. Ranma has rude speaking and uses rude expressions, many times he is full of himself and his so-called "pride" loses its meaning in certain circumstances.

Natsuna in Ranko (Female Ranma) role was on the top. It was enjoying to see how there were similarities to Kaku Kento's face-expressions. Natsuna acting was great. She looked exactly how she supposed to be and she was able to give right attitude to Ranko. I do not think she did her fighting for her, but it seemed that they used a stunt (just be the way the shootings were made).

Most doubts I had for Aragaki Yui. I have seen many dramas by her, so I did not believe that she could pull it off, but she took me by surprise. She was perfect for the role, maybe she had a little bit too feminine and less tom-boyish attitude, but it is forgivable as most of the scenes needed her to be more emotional. I did not liked that they made her to do kendo, Tendo's dojo was just for "anything goes with" martial arts (cannot explain it) with kicks, blocking, jumps etc, not for kendo. I liked that they portrayed AkanaxRanma relationship really well. It was cute and exactly as in manga/anime.

From other characters I most enjoyed Nabiki, because with her attitude it was a great idea to put her into host club and that made seducing Ranma for her own good more funnier. Easily said Nabiki is the daughter who will sell even her own family for certain amount of money. Also believable were Soun and Genma. I did not like the fact that they had made Kasumi's cooking skills to fun - as every time the it took hours for her to finish cooking. Actually she was a great cook, but it was good that they showed how naive Kasumi was.

I understand why they put Kuno's character in it, but I do not understand Gosunkugi role, because he is one of the most unimportant characters! They changed Sasuke's role with Gosunkugi, those fail spying were Sasuke's thing, not Gosunkugi's. Well, Kanai Yuta made a great work as Gosunkugi, especially by appearance. Same goes to Nagayama Kento who made Kuno look hot - in manga/anime he more is just masculine.

The authors of the movie (director, scriptwriter etc) have said that they wanted to make the movie like it is another OVA of anime, so that is the reason why they put in the new villain. I did not like the new villain as he was.. fail? I have nothing against drag queens, but it was a little over the board for me. It was amazing how much drag queens there were! On the other hand, Ranma 1/2 has always had weird, extra-ordinary characters, who have weird reasons for their actions. As they made it as a OVA it does not disturb that they do not have some reaaaaalllly important characters as Ryoga, Shampoo and Ukyo. They do mention Happosai, but in the girls locker room it would have been fun to see him. 

More than everything, I liked that they had put into script some legendary must-needed things like body-comparing, Ranma's first kiss (actually it was another male character who stole his first kiss in the manga), Akane's hair, awkward moments between Akane and Ranma and there even is a hint to Ryoga's joke. ah! one fail what the filmmakers did, is that the computer tricks are horrible. Maybe they did not have enough budget for it, but I find that most live-actions suck at computer effects. The story itself was as great as it would have been written by Takahashi Rumiko herself, but I believe that Yoshihiro Izumi made a great research before writing the script.
I know that for all Ranma 1/2 fans it is a must-see movie and even if you do not know anything about it, the movie itself is so easy to understand. All actors have made a great job to bring out their characters.

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This is my last review in this year. I made some look-ups and found out that during the year 2011 I watched 14 dramas (+3 as I watched both seasons of "Code Blue" and rewatched "Yankee-kun to Megane-chan" and "Nobuta wo Produce") and 26 movies (+6 if you count rewatching) = in total 40 Asian mediaworks (49 all together). I would like to say that I try to watch more and write reviews faster next year, but I cannot. I hope you understand me when I say that I am going to have university entrance exams and high school finals in spring. Hope you all enjoyed last year and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYBODY!!!

Yankee-kun to Megane-chan (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: school, yankee, romance, comedy, violence
Format: drama 10 episodes
Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Naka Riisa, Hongo Kanata,  Koyanagi Yu, Kawaguchi Haruna, Suzuki Ryohei, Minagawa Sarutoki, Ito Shiro, Furuta Arata, Owada Miho
Synopsis: Shinagawa Daichi is referred as yankee, he gets lousy grades and is always fighting, but he attends a highly rated high school, because on the entrance examination he fell in love with one girl, who later disappeared. Adachi Hana is a former yankee, who tries to move on with her life to live like a normal girl. She sees in Daichi a person who could help her. They become classmates and with Adachi's persistent attitude, they become friends.
Rating: 3/5
It is based on a famous same-named manga, but I must say that the drama is not actually that much based on it. There were too many things left out and too much new stuff added or changed. Like actually Adachi lived with her grandmother, not grandfather; In manga, they do not show that much Shinagawa's family. They more concentrate on future choices in drama, but manga shows their time in school. But an important thing to remember is that when drama was filmed, the manga was still on-going!! That explains the different ends and all. The drama shows about 2 months since they met til the end of the drama, but in manga they meet on first high school year and the manga ends many years after the high school graduation.

But there were many great points!! First and the main thing - NARIMIYA HIROKI and NAKA RIISA! As amazing as it is Narimiya Hiroki played 10 years younger character than he in real life is. Shinagawa Daichi was 17 years old, but at that time Narimiya was 27. Sugoi, ne?? In addition, his face expressions are more than super. He has perfect yankee-voice even xD (Maybe the experience of "Bloody Monday" helped him to get a better feeling =P). Narimiya Hiroki and Naka Riisa hit in ten with their appearance and acting.(I am in Narimiya fandom at the moment... O.o he is just soo hot...). Shinagawa Daichi might be a yankee (actually he seems to be yankee against his will), but he has so kind heart and that is what gives him the hard time. I like his home clothes - sexy animal print =P He also has cat and dog printed wallpaber =D SHOO KAWAII! But I feel like story revolves too much around Shinagawa. You can see him smoking many times on screen, but in the end he smokes less and that is called Hana's charm =D

Adachi Hana seemed like three different people in one body. One is "former yankee", second is "trying-hard-to-be-normal-(geek)" and last is "real Hana". I like the third person the most xD I cannot believe how dumb she can be - it is  amazing. No matter what the thing is she is always "SHINAGAWA~!" xD She never understood the situation and got everything wrong. But this all makes her funny and it is nice to watch.
It is hilarious that Narimiya Hiroki and Naka Riisa voices sounded like weeping cats, when they were yelling at each other.

I do not understand why they did all other characters so annoying (except for Nerima, because NerimaXShinagawa friendship is one high light of the drama). Chiba pretty much is a wimp - he has so few self confidence in him and he is pretty naive. Rinka is too yankee.. she has personality crack too xD and Izumi has his own problems... which can be really weird in some scenes O.o  and actually he was not yankee - he used to be a biker in junior high. But I must say that Kanata Hongo has some amazing leg kicks  (he is the white-head dude) =P At all, the drama contains much much violence.

They try to solve student problems like working part-time at the same time, future choices and dreams. Like many of you know, working part-time while attending high school is mostly not allowed in Japan, there of course might be exceptions. I think it is because studying is hard enough, but I really think that there are some cases where it should allowed. I live in Europe (like you all have found out before, I believe) and I know that in my class about 6-7 students are working too, but it is because some of them are living alone and they must pay the bills themselves, some earn money for partying, because they are too ashamed to ask their parents and some of them are just earning money from their hobbies. About future choices, I think that every student must make the decision themselves. It is their life, not their parents! I know that parents want the best for their children, but if they make their children study something that actually makes them unhappy?? To end this paragraph, I repeat

Shinagawa's words "Everybody has a dream, but not everyone are telling it out!"
It suck in technical way - it is too fake, but "imagination points" are extra-funny and these are in every episode too =D But I must say that Shinagawa reads too much manga, because his imagination was actually shoujo-like xD
The best thing is to watch it as a totally different drama, which has little to do with manga. As a live-action it sucks more than it should.

The Seaside Motel (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: romance, comedy, surreal, yakuza, (contains sex and violence)
Format: movie
Cast: Ikuta Toma, Aso Kumiko, Narumi Riko, Yamada Takayuki, Tamayama Tetsuji, Emoto Tokio, Furuta Arata, Nukumizu Yoichi, Kojima Hijiri, Ikeda Tetsuhiro, Yamasaki Mami
Synopsis: There is a motel named The Seaside Motel between a rural mountain area, where no water is found near to it or in it. A lousy swindler Kameda Masayuki (Ikuta Toma) is sent there to sell 50 fake body creams. A call girl Candy (Aso Kumiko) enters his room by mistake. As they try to swindle each others money, they find more things in life. A businessman Ishizuka Tatsuya wants to spend the first night with his cabaret girlfriend Marine in the room next to Kameda's. In the other room a former yakuza Asakura Yosuke is staying with his cat-crazy girlfriend Rui, but is interrupted by a childhood friend, yakuza Aida and his younger follower Chi-bo. The last room is occupied by Ota and his wife, who tends to be jealous. Night is full of lies and everyone lives will be changed, but no-one really meets others. What will happen when the sun rises?
Rating: 5/5
It looks like 4 different stories and they really are different, except that one's story is totally connected with others. It makes the feeling that "If he/she was not there or would not have said this, then it would not have happened!". There is impossible to say that the movie is love movie or a tearjerker - there is love, sadness, fright, mystery, friendship, it is totally surreal, but all logical at the same time. Really important is to check time when watching, because the time is always different - another scene might show the time which happened before the last one. Stories are very unexpected and everything really is related! One thing leads to another and you can see that everything has at least two sides of it. What seems good at first can end up being bad.
I liked the sounds in it and amazing shooting. There is not used a usual technicals, which makes even more interesting to watch it. now to the 4 stories...

Room 102. Kameda and Candy. I think that everyone agrees if I say that they are most likely to stars of the movie. I liked that it gave another view of Candy's work, because I have thought several times, why some women have this kind of work. It was so fun to see how they totally lied to each other, but finally were lost in their own lies too, but at the same time it showed that if a person plays around to much, then in the end others won't know if he/she speaks the truth or not. It reminds one lamb story, but I am seriously not going to write it here.

I loved some quotes by them. "A fake thing can turn into something genuine" and "Woman look into the future, but men worry about the past". I find those quotes true. It was the first movie I have seen by them, but I find Ikuta Toma an excellent actor. He has great face expressions, he seems to be able to act any character and he looks so true.

Room 103. Ishizuka and Marine. I do not know what to say about them. Ishizuka was total a*****, so he totally deserved what happened to him. Marine was really cute, but she was soooooooo stupid. Yamasaki Mami really is flexible! It is sooo amazing!!
Room 202. Yakuza stuff. In this room the most sickest things happened. The torturing part is the worst. If other rooms had just 2 people, then it had 5 people.

Riu (Narumi Riko) really asked too much. I was just watching and even I felt my head exploding. She is too freaking naive and there are to much cats.
Room 203. Ota and his wife. I think that they had the smallest screen time, but they changed much in the storyline, but not as much as others. I  liked that their story showed how to go trough grief, which made it really sad.
I think that's all.. (I am really tired as it is almost 2 am in the morning). Almost all the characters act in it, not just actors, but characters too, which I think makes it harder for actors. There are so much lies, but in the end the truth reveals as "A lie has a short legs".

Also the movie shows that your life can be changed by a total stranger who just passes by. Just because you see this person, he/she already is part of your life. Just that second might change something. While staying in hotel or riding a train/bus, think about the person in the other room or sitting next to you. His/her life and problems - we do know nothing about them, ne? ^^