Nihonjin no shiranai nihongo (2010)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 12 episodes
Genre: school, language
Cast: Naka Risa, Ikeda Narushi, Aoki Munetaka, Harada Natsuki, Asaka Mayumi, Blake Crawford, Sethna Cyrus Nozomu, Olga Alex, Sebastiano Serafini, Camilla, ZOE, Zhang Mo, Dasha, Mayor Akintoye,
Synopsis: Kano Haruko used to work as a charismatic shop assistant, but she has a dream of becoming a high school teacher. Her former teacher asks Haruko to stand-in teacher position for 3 months, but for Haruko's surprise this job is not in high school. She becomes teacher at Japanese language school for 9 foreigners, who have rather wild thoughts and dreams. 
Rating: 2/5
I will be honest and say that this drama needs a lot of tolerance (sister gave me word "script-supervisor"). As foreigner perspective it can be reaaaaaaallly annoying and rude as those foreign students are not portrayed as the most intelligent people.I have not read the original manga, so I am not sure whose fault it was - mangaka or scriptwriters?

Boku no hatsukoi wo kimi ni sasagu (2010)

Also known as: I give my first love to you
Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: romance, life&death, school
Cast: Inoue Mao, Okada Masaki, Sugimoto Tetta, Moriguchi Yoko, Harada Natsuki, Hosoda Yoshihiko, Nakamura Toru, Kumada Sea, Kobayashi Kaito
Synopsis: Takuma, a boy diagnosed with serious heart disease, and Mayu, the daughter of Takuma's cardiologist, are childhood friends. When they are 8-years old, they over hear that Takuma is not going to live over the age of 20. Takuma and Mayu become each other's first loves, but the clock is ticking and Takuma starts to understand that the best thing for Mayu would be not caring of him..
Rating: 5/5
It is a beautiful love story. I like that it is not a usual love story as the main characters are only 16 - it is more like a puppy love under very difficult circumstances. It is made after same named manga by Aoki Kotomi.

Takuma thinks about Mayu more than about himself. I cannot decide if his break-up plan was right or wrong, but it was well thought through. He had bigger aims and I liked that he did not give up on life, enjoyed each minute til the end. At many times, he is being ordinary teenage guy, who is excited by women's body, but on the other hand he seems much more mature than other guys at school.

His mother is 100% annoying - I know that mother whose child is going to die before herself wants to protect the kid as much as they can, but I hated her actions toward Mayu. I got the feeling that she thought Mayu to be in fault in very Takuma action, which she did not like. And in the end acting as she has always loved Mayu too.

Mayu gets jealous, she might be way too direct, which makes some of her actions very embarrassing for others. At the same time, she is very fragile and cute. She knows what she wants and knows how to get it. She has been michievous since childhood, also very clingy, because she is afraid of losing Takuma. I liked the fact she started to think more about herself too. Cannot leave unsaid the fact that Inoue Mao looks soooooo pretty in this archer clothing and with this mega-anime-hair.

Suzuya Kou is total playboy, school idol and at many times a bastard, but in reality he has some kind of "heart". I understand why everybody loved him. Mayu gets to be his "princess", which makes Kou Takuma's biggest rival. He also brings other great changes into Mayu and Takuma's life.

Teru-chan has the same heart disease as Takuma. She has hard time understanding TakumaXMayu relationship, even though they played together in past, but the same goes for Mayu as she is constantly jealous over Teru. Teru-chan kinda has young girl mind - if guy does not hate you then he must love you. Sorry, but WHERE THE HECK IS LOGIC??!

It is veeeery beautiful love story, which makes you cry your eyes out. In addition, those kiss-scenes are absolute love!

SPOILER review: The real end might be a bit too much / too crazy, but if we think that in reality people get married to dead ones for officially (recently in France and Malaysia or Indonesia), then her situation is not that bad. A little bit weird, but she looks so pretty that I forgive her in this scene. I must say that it is horrible what happens to Kou. I got extreme shock from that! Also, it reminded that I have an donor card, but I have not fulfilled it - I know I could save somebody's life with becoming a donor, but won't it be some kind of bad omen? I should not believe so much superstition...sad thing is that Mayu had two possible boyfriend candidates, but she was left bare handed.

Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari: Kino Koen (2006)

Also known as: The Yesterday park
Country: Japan
Genre: surreal, life, friendship, time travel
Format: part of Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari series
Cast: Domoto Koichi, Yamazaki Shigenori, Harada Natsuki
Synopsis:Yosuke (Domoto Koichi) loses his best friend in an accident. Some hours before they played ball in a park and talked. Next day Yosuke is again at the park, recalling last day, suddenly a baseball rolls to his feet. Picking up that ball sends him back to last day, giving him the chance to change the death of a friend.
Rating: 5/5

 Absolutely marvelous work! It is so interesting and surreal that it nails you to the screen. It kind a reminds me USA's movie "Butterfly effect" (2004) - actually there are more movies about this kind of time travel, but I believe "Butterfly effect" is the most known  - , but "Kino Koen" has way better solution to it. It makes you think that these things cannot be happening or you start to overthink all the things in your life. In addition, it might make you wonder about the possibilities of your own actions when you are placed in this kind of situation.
Yosuke did what I think anyone of us would do as a friend. Domoto Koichi's acting is great. You can see how he plays his character changes off. Yosuke is guy, who cares much of his friends, but does not show that much emotions. He is trying to give his best in his life, but seems to fail in university and relationships. At the same time Takao is working at family liqueur shop and knows what is the most important in life and is a man of actions, which all makes Yosuke feel that Takao is much better man than he will ever be. Their friend Noriko is a shy girl, who is in love-triangle with the guys. In a way she is more like a messenger in the movie -updating with all bad news.
The end definitely added the final star to rating so be sure to watch it all. It really makes you want to live your life fullest, because you never know when you will die and you must always care for others, because you might loose them even today. It also shows that sometimes you have to accept the fate as it is.
This story is (at the moment) my favorite from all of the "Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari's". Every single thing is perfect in it. You can see the things that are always repeating - the balloon, children, car, water - and it might drive you totally insane. I am really prone to deja-vu's and sometimes while having a deja-vu, I get scared that what if deja-vu's are just these "returning points" from were we have a chance to do something differently. With my imagination I also end up thinking about all the possibilities how I might have died for me the have the returning point. Of course, I am actually aware that scientifically the "deja-vu" is explained by nerve-system mistake by making connection with long-memory rather than short-memory and making us think that we have had this situation before even though it is the first time happening. Still it is scary to have one repeating deja-vu going over and over again as most of the time I end up having a deja-vu of having the same deja-vu once or twice before.
What is also good about this movie, is that it is only 25 minutes long, so you can watch it any time like when you have free half hour between your lessons and you have your laptop with you.