Noriko goes to Seoul (2011)

Country: Japan/ South-Korea
Format: movie
Genre:drama, music
Cast: Takashima Reiko, Lee Hong Ki, Katsumura Masanobu, Ikura Manami, Kim Ji Young, Han Jung Won, Oh Yong, Im Jong In, MayBee, Kim Sun Hwa,
Synopsis: Mori Noriko is a Japanese housewife, with workaholic husband and complicated teenage daughter. Noriko is starstruck with Hallyu star Kim Hyun Jae and studies Korean because of him. After finding out that she has lung cancer she makes a decision to go to Korea to take part of music audition in order to proudly stand on the stage in front of world, family and Hyun-chan. On the first day of audition she meets Kim Min Ha, a young Korean man, who is aiming to debut as a singer. They become each other mental support and coaches through music and life.
Rating: 4/5
It is a must see movie for Lee Hong Ki's admirers and to be honest he was the reason why I wanted to watch it in the first place. As usually I have freaking weird thoughts before watching it and I was kind of sure that there will develop something love-like thing and then it is put on test by their age, nationality and the fact that Noriko is married for 17 years and has a 16 years old daughter. Thank Kimchi that most of my thoughts are not right. I do feel a bit silly at times..

Kimi ni Todoke (2010)

Also known as: From me to you, Reaching for you
Country: Japan
Genre: youth, school, romance, comedy
Format: movie
Cast: Miura Haruma, Tabe Mikako, Kiritani Mirei, Renbutsu Misako, Watanabe Natsuna, Aoyama Haru, Kanai Yuta, Arata, Tomita Yasuko, Katsumura Masanobu, Haruyama Rena
Synopsis: Kuronuma Sawako, with a nickname Sadako as she reminds Sadako from "The Ring", is always misunderstood by other people. Actually she is a normal girl whose motto is "One good deed everyday" and who wants to live up to other's expectations. Until the day when the school's most popular guy starts to speak to her, she has been alone and left out. Since that day everything changes.
Rating: 5/5

It was made after same named manga. It is amazing how similar are manga characters and real actors!! There actually was  a popularity guess who should play in the live-action and Miura Haruma was like 100% winner, but Tabe Mikako was not even listed (she was not so famous actress, I think).
I wish I would have seen it as first Miura Haruma role (not "Koizora the movie"), because in this movie, I understood why he is so talented and loved actor! I agree that he is great! He just was Kazehaya! It did not seem acting at all! It was a copy-paste of the actual Kazehaya from manga!!! 

There is a great friendship between Sawako, Chizuru and Yano. Like every friendship, their friendship suffers from false rumors and it is so sad how Sawako tried to clear them away. But I liked Chizuru's and Yano's thought that only thing that matters is what they think of each others (Not sure if that thought was brought up in movie..). Shizuru and Yano are so cool! They are totally different, but they truly are best-friends. Also what is great is Shizuru's and Ryu's story - it is a small side story, but cute.

I love Sawako's character!! She was a late-bloomer - knew nothing about friendship and love. She saw many things through pink glasses, but she was so cute at the same time. Usually I get annoyed by too naive people, but I found Sawako just a sweet person. All this unknowing and shyness explains many her actions too. She definitely is the cutest character in the story. Maybe one thing that is different than in manga is that in movie you cannot see much her feelings so much. As it is a shoujo manga, then there are all those *too much emotions* thing xD

Kazehaya at the same time did everything that makes a girl heart beat fast and he showed his emotions much, but on the other hand, he seemed to be like it with others too. There are sooooo cute scenes between Kazehaya and Sawako. It looked like he did not want to lose a sight of Sawako no matter what the situation was xD (OMG! Miura Haruma's smile is irresistible!)
It is one of those cute high-school love-movies, which everyone wants to have during their school-years but few have. (Mind went blank again.. I should not write reviews, when I am sick and have to write poetry-essay of Jessenin, Blok and Brjussov (Russian poerty writers).. I definitely would change my studies with high-school love ^o^).

There is much action and really different story lines in it. (Like you know, I am not the slow-movie type xD) I first watched the movie and then fell in love with manga too. Like I have heard, then it is a pretty popular stuff =P I actually cannot recall any annoying aspect of the movie!! O.o Now I would like to watch it again ^^ (Please, do not tell me that I have not finished my homework and tomorrow is a school day!) 

(For people who know "The Ring" girl as Samara: In American version it really is Samara, but the original, Japanese version, is Sadako. Japanese version is said to be much scarier, so Americans decided to make a less scarier version and also changed the name, because Samara is more American than Sadako)

Sunao ni Narenakute (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: life, romance, friendship, LGBT
Format: drama 11 episodes
Cast: Ueno Juri, Eita, Hero Jae Joong, Tamayama Tetsuji, Seki Megumi, Kinami Haruka, Fubuki Jun, Igawa Haruka, Nakamura Youichi, Watanabe Eri, Kikkawa Koji, (minor role: Katsumura Masanobu)
Synopsis: Nakajima/Nakaji is a photographer, but gets job only from bravura magazines. Mizuno/Haru is a provisional high school teacher, but dreams to be a full time teacher. Nishimura/Peach is Mizuno's best friend, but she is always in boyfriend troubles, beside this time she found out that she is pregnant. Ishihara/Linda works for highly rated magazine, but is sexually harassed by chief editor. Park/Doctor works as salesman of medical equipments and does not have any friends since moving to Japan. They start being Twitter friends and one day they decide to meet as real people. New friendship of youth, love, pain and grief begins.
Rating: 4/5
This is THE BEST Kitagawa Eriko's works. At first main storyline goes really slowly, but (I think it was since 4th episode) then all kind of things start to happen really fast. Also what is Kitagawa Eriko's like, is that Haru character is a little bit cry-baby and undeceiving, but compared to Kitagawa's  other works, it is the strongest lead female, but I think that is just thanks to Ueno Juri.
It might seem like a love story at the first place, but I saw more friendship and life's obstacles in it. It really shows the everyday struggles and things in life, which we might not even notice.

Really great work has done with other characters too - they are so different and it is hard to find favourite one. I liked that Doctor used those Korean sayings and his kind personality was cool, he was understanding and caring. Hero Jae Joong acted really well. (In one episode Doctor is totally drunk and that I ended up seeing a dream about him while sleeping.. it was more than weird). Peach first seemed like she has some mental problems, but after a while she was just really cute.

At the first place  I found weird that Ishihara's twitter name was Linda as it is a woman's name, then I thought that he has just some problems with sex, but in a weird way I did not see it coming that he was gay (I understood it when he hugged Nakaji's jacket). Tamayama Tetsuji hit the favorite actor button. Just amazing how well he played the gay part - all those looks and hand movements actually showed everything. Amazing!! I really think that his personal story was the hardest and saddest of all.
This time the catch phrase was "Sore wa Ikenai!"- definitely a catchy thing.

Story itself is veeery unpredictable. Most of the thoughts I had in the begging turned to another in the end. I was not able to predict the next episode even after watching the "next episode preview". Like you get from the start then somebody is hurt by love veeeeery much. I had 4-5 different characters in thought who might be it. It is exciting.
GREAT SOUNDTRACKS - main song is "Great DJ" performed by The Ting Tings. Super great song.

SPOILER review. And then the bad side of the drama.. It was hard to understand since when Haru started to like Doctor and that made me hesitate about Haru's decision, but  that was the only bad thing I can remember. There was a high possibility for a cliche point, but IT WAS AMAZING and did not obey to cliche, so thanks to that it really got plus points. Actually there was almost no cliche's (I might lie to you xD). Also in some way it was funny that when Linda died, then only the male characters cried. There was one side story of Nakaji dad and Haru's mom too, but it was not much important.

Hokaben (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre: law
Format: drama 10 episodes
Cast: Ueto Aya, Ryo, Kitamura Kazuki, Kato Shigeaki, Osugi Ren, Toda Nahu, Sasai Eisuke, Nakayama Megumi, Kato Kazuko, (Quests: Katsumura Masanobu, Katase Nana, Sato Tomohito, Yamazaki Hajime)
Synopsis: Domoto Akari is a fresh lawyer just graduated from university. She starts working at a famous big law firm mZa in pro bono section - the section, which deals with social service obligations. Domoto Akari has a naive thinking that she can help the weak ones and make world a better place, but the reality is something else.
Rating: STARLESS
After watching this I seriously consider giving "Sugar and Spice" at least one star because "Hokaben" showed me what STARLESS drama really means.
It had nothing!! They had a fabulous cast, but the drama was just soo horrible and boring! The script seemed like unfinished. It had a proper start, but then there was no development in main story, did  not have an end (It was totally predictable end to finish this drama -.-). Also it did not had side story lines. It seemed like they wanted to make DomotoXKatase love line. Thanks to Kato Shigeaki's amazing acting, it was totally see-able that Katase had feelings for Domoto, but Domoto was just eeeemm plain dumb. Compared to Domoto, Katase was like a grown up and knew what it means to be a lawyer and it was so sad in the end that this liking went to unliking ("From crush to crash" like my sister said). They wanted to make SugisakiXKuramoto love line, but it sucked, because they did not show that really much. They also did not explained the situation between Sugisaki and Kudo. I thought that may be they were ex-lovers or something happened with work or something, but they gave me nothing!

But the worst thing in "Hokaben" was the main character Domoto Akari. She was always whining and complaining, she was totally unprofessional in her work, she was tactless and loud. She disobeyed the confidentiality between the client and lawyer. She said she wanted to save the weak ones, but she managed to ruin over 20 people lives in one episode (The episode of bullying). They wanted to give a big impact to her words, but actually they did mean anything, mostly she said two-way stuff, which was total crap. How was it possible for her to graduate????!!! I felt like she only dreamed in university, but did not study the law perfectly, because she was just so naive and did not know the basic laws! -.-  In addition, they all said that Domoto reminds them Sugisaki - I thought "WHAAAAT???! They are totally opposite!!!" Sugisaki was a real lawyer until the accident and after that he just stopped working properly.  I would never want to have a lawyer like Domoto, because all her appearance told me how unprofessional she was. She did not even knew what is the case when she went to interview!! A social worker or a detective work would have suited to her much more than a lawyer's. She like always forgot what her job is about.

I liked that Ryo played a total bitch, it was funny xD But  I really watched only for Kato Shigeaki (Now he seriously must love me, because those were 10 most horrible hours of my life. I hope I made up that "Gekidan Engimono - Ie ga tooi" picture),  but he only got mostly up to 2 minutes of screen time in every episode and he did not get much lines. My favorite scene was when Katase and Domoto were in a bar, but that was the only high point in this drama.
This is the drama where I really want to say "I do not recommend it to you", but in the end it is your decision. I managed to live those 10 hours, but it was real torture. I have heard of many people who have dropped this after first or second episode (It was a great decision as the first one was most promising episode).

Toki wo kakeru shoujo (2010)

Also known as: Time traveller, The Girl who leapt trough time
Country: Japan
Genre: future, drama, romance, time travel
Format: movie
Cast: Naka Riisa, Narumi Yasuda, Nakao Akiyoshi, Kanji Nishimaru, Katsumura Masanobu, (+ Matsushita Yuya)
Synopsis: It is year 2010 and Yoshiyama Kazuko works secretly on formula to time travel. She gets into car accident, which leads her to comatose, her daughter Akari hears about mom´s first love. In order to fasten mother´s recovery , Akari uses the time travel formula to go back into 1970-s. After making the mistake with year, she meets Ryouta.
Rating: 3/5
It was like a sequel to the real story. I have seen the anime-movie of it and I enjoyed it. About movie, I did not get that same feeling, but there where some scenes which I totally loved. It is like usually that first movies are a little bit better than sequels, but if look at it as a different movie or you do not know about the real story, then it is a great movie.
It has a great story and I liked that it has many side-stories and a beautiful ending. I cried like a insane, but the tears were worth it xD. Again it is a movie were everybody and everything have connections, but actually if you always try to think ahead, then it might be predictable - so don´t think, watch~! (I know I just totally remade Bruce Lee´s "Don´t think, feel~!" But after one click i discovered that it is sooooo common phrase xD just search from tvtropes.org and you´ll see where it has been used. I know, out of topic)

Naka Riisa is so great actress. No matter what she had to do she did it so well that it didn´t seemed to be acting! it was so natural! and I fell in love with her haircut. I know it is so ordinary and plain, but it is beautiful.
The are some weird characters, but they do not annoy. May be Kazuko is weirdest, because as a mom she should have worry about her daughter more, not sending her 40 years into the past.