Hanamizuki (2010)

Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: romance, life
Cast: Ikuta Toma, Aragaki Yui, Mukai Osamu,Yakushimaru Hiroko, Renbutsu Misako, Arata, Kimura Yuichi, Matsushige Yutaka, Tokunaga Eri, Kanai Yuta, Koyanagi Yu, Takahashi Tsutomu, Hayashi Mamatsu, Mizushima Kaori,  
Synopsis: Story is set from 1996 to 2006 - ten years of Sae and Kohei's life. Sae is an ambitious girl from small village in Hokkaido, who wants to go to Waseda University in Tokyo and Kohei is a young boy who wants to become a fisherman in order to continue his father's and grandfather's work. To be together they must face the world because destiny seems to play a cruel joke with them.
Rating: 5/5

The first cool thing about the movie is that it is not made after a novel, manga or just taken from air - 
 it is originally taken after Yo Hitoto song "Hanamizuki" which was released in 2004 (Youtube has many different versions and covers of it).
“Hanamizuki” is one of the best romance movies I have lately seen. It is a classical love story, but it is so damn cute that you cannot to anything else but love it. Okey, I know people who say that it is actually rather boring as you can predict most of it and the story stays very simple, but there is also a possibility that people have gotten their expectations to high at first place. So let’s start with characters.

Aragaki Yui plays Sae – young ambitious girl from a small Hokkaido village who wants to go to Waseda University and play a big role in human existence.  She does not see all the difficulties that other people (especially Kohei) have. Well, I must say that I am sorry to all Gakki fans, because she did not  shine in her role much, at least Ikuta Toma was definitely the star of the movie. Many copare Aragaki’s acting to “Koizora” and easily said – she acts most of her high school roles the same and Gyoza – How long can one actress play an high schooler? But I must say that these roles suit her. 

It is said that it is her first adult role as the movie goes through ten years of their lives, so that in the end Sae is 28, but actually “Code Blue” aired before and there she definitely was an adult, of course this is her first adult role in a movie and definitely the oldest role she has ever played. I must say that Aragaki Yui has very decent English – I was afraid that there comes some horrible accent, but thankfully she took English lessons for this role.

Ikuta Toma , he is sooooooo amazing actor! Really great role. Kohei is a small village boy with small dreams. He must face educational and social circumstances to walk his own path and he is the character with who you start to think that life is unfair to the best people. It seems like all his dreams get crushed and there is nothing he can do about it. In their relationship he is hopelessly in love and gives his best to make relationship work even when Sae goes to uni. 

Compared to Sae, he must grow up fast against his will. He is very rational and always puts others before himself. You may think that at many times he is too short-tempered, but actually he is just jealous and hurt, because in Tokyo Sae is spending her time with other guys and they start to grow distant. And why no one has said to me before that TOMA IS THAT ******* GREAT KISSER?! Those kiss-scenes are fabulous and as soon as I am home again, I will add them to top 10 .Btw. Kohei broke The Guys Rule – “Bros before Ho*s” - twice.

Actually they lasted for very long – 4 years! Most of the couples are not able to last for that long, especially to think that most of it was long distance relationship. No matter what they are just perfect for each other. Many say that in some scene the script is rather silly and unrealistic, but I think that everything is possible and there are things like destiny.

Who was that smart ass and put Toma and Mukai Osamu into the same movie? IS she/he really trying to kill mass of girls with Ikemen overdose? Mukai Osamu plays a very important role in the movie, but sadly he does not have much screen time.  Junichi Kitani is like Sae’s mentor and dad who she did not have. He shows her the things that she could have if she just tries. He is very mature and always walks his own path.

What I liked about the movie is that it is very international – they had shootings in USA and Canada and they brought in many things from all over the country – lesser fishes, September the 11. and war in Iraq etc. The shootings and locations are already so beautiful that it definitely adds the enjoyment of watching. Also, it has really cute soundtracks, but “Hanamizuki” is performed by Aragaki Yui, so if you do not like her singing so much then search for other versions of this song (English version by Eric Martin is beautiful).
Definitely must-see love-story :)

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.