I am sorry to announce that I have made a decision to officially close Cypsis' Blog.
All the reviews stay up as they are, but I will not write more reviews. Cypsis' Blog had many ups-and-downs during those 7 years and I have tried to give the best I could, but unfortunately my life has moved on so much that finding time for reviewing has become more and more difficult. Closing the blog is breaking my heart, but I have thought a lot about it and understood that it is for the best. I am very thankful to everybody who have enjoyed reading my reviews.
(PS. I am still continuing to watch Asian dramas and you can always find me on Mydramalist.com)
Thank you for all these 7 years. I hope that those 240 reviews made you happy. I truly had unforgettable time writing them!
Country: Japan Format: movie Genre: history, drama, Cast: 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, Synopsis: 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. Rating: 5/5
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.
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.
Country: Japan Format: drama in 9 episodes Genre: veterinary, friendship Cast: Oguri Shun, Narimiya Hiroki, Inoue Mao, Fujisawa Ema, Kasahara Hideyuki, Suda Masaki, Ishizaka Koji, Kunimura Jun, guests: Masuda Takahisa, Kuninaka Ryoko, Saotame Taichi, Kaho etc Synopsis: Tottori Kenichi (Oguri Shun) is not the friendliest person, but he is the best veterinarian in Japan. He keeps saying that veterinary is business and makes people understand the true meaning of being pet's owner. After operating Tajima Asuka's (Inoue Mao) horse, she is made to help out at the clinic to pay back for surgery. There is also a great friend, charismatic veterinarian Hanabishi Masaru (Narimiya Hiroki) who is unable to carry out an operation. Rating: 3/5
I was surprised by "Juui Dolittle" - I do not know why, but I thought that it will be totally different, so it is really great that it was able to overcome my expectations. It has been in my "watch-list" ever since it aired on TBS, which is almost 2,5 years, so it was about time to finally watch it. I even remember how I kept watching their updates on official page, because they had so cute animals on the set all the time. (I am a big animal lover - I actually grew up in a farm with many animals)
Oguri Shun was really cool in it, because I think that he suits into those "tsundere" character rolls with his big growth and suitable face. Tottori Kenichi is most of the time really cold and his fees are reaaaaaalllly high, but at the same time you can see his hidden love towards animals. I also felt that his coldness is caused by other people ignorance toward their pets, because there are so many people abandoning their pets or not taking good care of them. He also has many secrets, because he is a man of few words, but I also felt that they gave us too less information about him to understand him 100%.
Tajima Asuka is a novice in veterinary. She is really cute character, because she is not annoying or useless and she gives her best to help animals at clinic. Of course there are mistakes, but it is understandable because she has never done anything like that before. They have put in some hints on love-line between her and Tottori, but the biggest impact goes on animals. As you might think already, then you can see more Asuka's emotions than Tottori's. Another thing I thought before watching it was that she will have some kind of love-line with Hanabishi, which would have caused much jealousy, but it did not happen. But I was most surprised by the fact that Hanabishi Masaru and Tottori were friends.. :D
I do not know why I thought they are rivals - as you can see I do not read others reviews or all synopsis' before watching. I really liked Hanabishi because he was willing to do everything in order to save animals, even though he did not perform operations himself. He was really appealing and wanted the best, but for me it all made his over-priced car funnier. He has the biggest problems and difficulties in the drama, all due to the lie about operating. He is the only veterinarian who officially acknowledges Tottori's outstanding skills and because they were university buddies he is the one person who understands Tottori, which is really cute.
From other characters I really liked Domon Junpei at first, but Domon family is the most annoying part of the drama. No matter how they all make really selfish things and manipulate with others, so they just got on my nerves. I do not like veterinarians who are out for fame and money or do not bother to make extra researches to find out pet's illness. Of course there are some annoying ones more within "costumers" and their selfish thoughts. Another thing that I did not enjoy in this drama was those fake animal capes! Some of them were tooooo fake and that was not pretty. I understand that making a drama with animals is difficult and especially in those scenes it would have been inconceivable to use living animals, but they could have done a better job with capes.
If we leave out the annoying family and fake capes, then it is a really sweet drama that makes you treasure your pets, there could have been more constant action between three main characters, because, it is said that this drama should be about main characters friendship, which I got to know after I had searched for real synopsis after watching it. Do not know how much it was about friendship and how much it was about owner-pet relationships, but I will leave it up to you to decide.
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.
Country: Japan Format: movie Genre: drama, life&death, friendship, yakuza Cast: Koide Keisuke, Katsuji Ryo, Ayano Gou, Suzuki Ryohei, Muro Tsuyoshi, Konishi Manami, Yokota Eiji, Yoshida Kotaru, Endo Kenichi, small roles: Inoue Mao, Otake Shinobu, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Ueto Aya (cameo), Oguri Shun
Synopsis: Five childhood friends (Takumi, Kyohei, Kazuo, Shuto, Yuki) form a rock band to perform in the upcoming cultural festival. Once the festival is cancelled, they threaten to blow up the school. Even though the adults agree with their terms, they are unable to stop the homemade bomb. Three years later fate brings them together in order to help Kazuo, who had joined the yakuza, search for the prostitute they used to know and the 300 million yen she stole from him. Rating: 4/5
It is Oguri Shun´s first directed movie. I had my prejudice because of Oguri Shun, but believe me -
I think I have never misunderstood someone as much I have him and his talent. This is a different style of movie - I think that it has many great things put together - music, fun and serious underground. Mostly I like it because it is another movie where absolutely everything is related to each other.
I do not have much to say about each character, so I will mention them later. The movie shows their life 3 years after the bomb incident and also there are scenes from their memories of the school time and from childhood. All they really wanted to do was to perform at cultural festival, well in the childhood Takumi just wanted to meet Misa and know more about her. I know that their way of handling things was wrong, but even more I think that many things just ran together.
The main person who made things to flow, was Takumi - he had a difficult relationship with his father due to ruining his career. Also Takumi was the one who came up with the bomb idea, but of course he did not want anything to do with gun powder in it. Koide Keisuke is amazing in this role. I feel like he gets hotter with years and I love his singing in the movie. Kyohei is the virgin, who makes Yuki put some gunpowder into the bomb - that gives him scruples for the three years as no one has spoken to Yuki since then. There was only one minus of the story, which was connected to Kyohei´s character. The scene where he was made to "suck it", was filmed in a wrong way and actually Kyohei should have had horrible remorse and feeling of dieing (he a little bit had, but not enough). I have seen one film where the same kind scene is and it is filmed so well that it makes you very sick - besides in that movie the character decides to kill himself and the one who made him do it, because his remorse did not allow to live anymore.
Like you understood, Yuki was the one who made the bomb - he is the least shown in the movie. Nothing more to say about Kazuo than he did not thought enough and really made excuse out of his sister. Shuto was aiming to become a real musician and all women fell for him by having a eye contact with him for 5 seconds - it happened to me through computer screen too, because Ayano Gou has sooooo beautiful eyes!!! One really important character is Misa who is connected to guys for years. Her story is so sad, because all she wanted was happiness and that someone could love her. Stupid Ijima (crazy yakuza boss) ruined her life.
At some points I was screaming that it cannot just happen so (A bit similar to "Troubleman), it is horrible when someone does not have luck at all and at the same time he is very lucky to survive everything.
The OST of the movie is great and you can see that Oguri Shun had thought through every single thing in it and that made it really good. You can feel that it was not something that was made for fun, but that it was serious work after long time thinking and organizing. I like the fact that the filming and the whole movie was kept in secret until it was finished and ready to show to viewers - that shows that Oguri Shun did not want to fail with it. It was a smart move to take widely-known actors like Inoue Mao, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Otake Shinobu, Ueto Aya into minor roles and even Oguri Shun himself acted for 30 seconds as a policeman.
I recommend to watch this movie when the possibility arises, because it is great.
Also known as: Is he turning Japanese? Country: Japan Genre: romance, international, Format: movie Cast: Inoue Mao, Johathan Sherr, Kuninaka Ryoko, Toda Naho, Kunimura Jun, Otake Shinobu, Kawaoka Daijiro, Dante Carver, Irie Masato, Bando Takumi, Patrick Harlan, Synopsis: Saori, an aspiring manga artist, meets Tony, a man, who has arrived Japan after falling in love with the Japanese kanji. As the couple gets closer and closer, more questions start to arise: can their love survive their cultural differences? Can others around them acknowledge them as a couple? Rating: 4/5
I liked that it is the perfect movie for people who are worried about their so-called intercultural (future) marriage.
Saori is a Japanese woman who tries to become a mangaka. She is in love with Tony, but she does not speak much English, which puts her into many unpleasant situations. At first I found Inoue Mao's pronunciation horrible, but later it was bearable! She makes a great question "Boyfriend or just a friend - that is the question.." - just agree, we all have thought about it! She is kind of occupied with her work and crazy-thought-that-he-might-leave-her-when-she-shows-out-unpleasant-mode, but actually she is pushing Tony far away by being shut up.
Tony on the other hand is naive and sometimes childish. He is very sensitive and does not get jokes easily. I enjoyed Tony usage of Japanese phrases and he had a great Japanese pronunciation. Also he asks many "weird" questions - most Japanese even do not think about them, but they actually are quite common for foreigners =D As he was foreigner then all this acknowledging by family is easier, I find that it is for most of people who does not come from very traditional country background, but the more important is for them to be accept by their lover's family. That's why Tony wanted to stick with "known" Japanese rules. and most Japanese want their families to give their permission for marriage and stuff.
I loved that the movie showed in the end that their problems were not because they are from two different countries, but they had all "normal and usual" relationship problems, which all people have. By the way, they must have had much money, because buying this house and garden in Japan is more than expensive.
Even though, parents were kind of annoying at first, in the end they were normal. I think it is with most parents - they say one thing, but act other way and then expect us to follow by their words, even when their words might ruin our happiness xD okey, that was a bit beyond the reality, but still. All prejudges can be killed by getting to know the person.
I most liked that they had put in documentary interviews with people from the street, who are also in intercultural marriages. I was annoyed by the fact that they all were Japanese woman X foreigner man couples, because there are also otherway couples - I mean Japanese man X foreigner woman, which I hope will be my future, because I will not stay on this small cold country forever. In addition, Saori's imaginary animations were cool.
I thought it would be a little bit funnier, but at times it was rather boring. I know, it is based on true story of Soari and Tony, who are said to be still happily married =D Wish them happily ever after and hopefully I will have that great future too xD
