EXTE ~Hair extensions~ (2007)

Country: Japan

Format: movie

Genre: horror
Cast: Kuriyama Chiaki, Osugi Ren, Sato Megumi, Tsugumi, Sato Miku, Machimoto Eri,
Synopsis: One day a woman's corpse is found from a port in a container full of human hair. Having defined that the victim has had her organs harvested for a black market, the corpse goes missing from the morgue as the morgue keeper takes the corpse home in order to make hair extensions as from the revenge for the world, its hair is still growing. Meanwhile, Yuko is practicing to become hairstylist in a local hair salon. Once the hair extensions are attached to a person, the corpse is ready to kill it.
Rating: 1/5
First of all, I would not say it is exactly horror movie, but it is disturbing and sick. Despite making pauses while watching it, I felt like puking most of the time. In addition, as you can see you can make a horror movie out of everything.

Algernon ni hanataba wo (2015)

Also known as: Flowers for Algernon
Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: drama
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Kuriyama Chiaki, Kubota Masataka, Kudo Asuka, Kikuchi Fuma, Tanimura Mitsuki, Oomasa Aya, Ishimaru Kanji, Kaai Gamon, Maeda Goki, Ishida Issei, Kusakari Tamiyo,
Synopsis: Shiratori Sakuto was born with mental disability, so that at age of 28 his intellectual mind is still the same as 6-year-old. He grew up at flower's delivery store after his father's death and his biggest wish is to become smart so that his mother would accept him. His wish is granted when group of scientists need voluntary person with mental disability for their research experiment. As Sakuto's intelligent is increasing, his world as he knew it is collapsing.
Rating: 5/5
"Flowers for Algernon" is based on same-titled award-winning short story by Daniel Keyes. It has made into drama once before in 2002 with Yusuke Santamaria and Kanno Miho as leads and Korean version is "Hello, God" (2006) starring Yoo Gun and Kim Ok Bin. I actually took time from my sleeping hours and read it. If you have a chance, then you definitely should read it.

KIDS (2008)

Coutry: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: friends, life&death, supernatural
Cast: Koike Teppei, Tamaki Hiroshi, Kuriyama Chiaki, Izumiya Shigeru,
Synopsis: Asato moves into a little rural city to visit his mother. He meets Takeo, who finds out Asato's supernatural power to transfer somebody else's pain and wounds to himself. There is also one friendly cafe-girl Shiho, who starts hanging out with them. But each of them have their own dark past, which continues to haunt them.
Rating: 2

I watched the trailer and I wanted to see it sooo badly, but.. a disappointment.
To start with Asato. Actually there is nothing wrong with his character. It was really promising, but something was wrong. He was too otherworldly and the most usual line from him was "Eh?!" Koike Teppei looks like junior high kid, but in movie he was attending evening high school. I did not like the kissing-scene at all! It is so going down as one of the worst kissing scenes (I have to make it someday now).  Asato was very emotional.
Takeo  did not think much, was rough, said anything he wanted no matter to who and in what situation. He thought that revenge and violence is the right answer to everything. I enjoyed Tamaki Hiroshi in this role, because he was very masculine and pulled his role off.
Last character was Shiho. She ended up to be a bit bitch (so some Takeo's words were true) Her scar was horrible. I do not understand how there can be such people as her former classmates, but at the same time her lack of friends and personality did not match at all. The lack of courage was not shown at all.

But what actually ruined the movie were next points. The sound of the movie was incredibly BORING and wrong. They used slow music even at places it did not suit at all and there were approximately 3-4 songs used. It made the whole movie lingering. In addition, they used music way too much and too loud. There was not much action or deeper meaning in the story and in the end they were totally exaggerating with the chain traffic accident. The slow motion in this scene was more than unnecessary. Real chain traffic accident can be seen in "Code Blue"
I hope that the original novel by Otsuichi is better than the movie, because it was ruined by technical issues and you cannot write a novel with that compacted action as it was in the movie. The main idea of it has so much potential to become something great - kind of wanting a new version of it =D

At the same time, most of watchers have loved it and said it was amazing - well, decide yourself!

Loss Time Life (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre:  mystery, life&death, human, surreal
Format: drama, but all 9 episodes have different stories and so do Specials too
Synopsis: The main idea - there are people who take life for granted, thinking they have time and do unnecessary-pointless things. What if when you die you are given extra time - additional time as they do in soccer? How would you spend the last hours of your life when there are 4 man always reminding you that the clock is ticking...
Rating: 2/5
I am going to make each drama detail-review separately with casts, it is a little bit easier to understand then - But I will put only one rating to all of it.. sorry for possible spoilers too!
I liked that they made it like sport overcasting - I do not know much about football nor footballers, but it was fun in drama. I bet those who know a bit about football and "its legendary players/moment", will have more interesting time watching it. I like those weird comments they make and referees are funny - I consider them as one of the highlights =D Especially during the commercial break. Drama also has a documentary-touch in it, which makes watching it really awesome.  

Episode 1. "Cameraman"
Cast: Eita, Fukiishi Kazue, Koichi Mantaro, Oshima Yoko,
Eita plays an cameraman, who takes photos of disasters, for example fires and hostage dramas,  for newspapers (which I find really disturbing and sick). Being an awarded photographer he wishes to dye on the scene of crime while taking a great photo. After his first-page-photo gets changed with heartwarming amateur photo,  he decides to take an even better photo for photo contest, but situation gets complicated with him being the foresight of the gun.
- Nice and interesting episode to start drama. It explained very much about the whole drama. It had the most documentary look - some moments it seemed that Eita did not know they where filming xD  He gets yellow card for saying "I was killed/ I died". Ends with a big twist so you start to wish that he will stay alive. 

Episode 2. "Detective"
Cast: Koyama Keiichiro, Hiraizumi Sei, Waki Tomohiro, Yamaguchi Miyako, Tanaka Tetsushi
Tsunami Kouta is young fresh detective whose dream is to catch villians and resolve crimes. His dream gets crushed when he finds out that his supervisor is old detective Gomi, who spends time on drinking tea. Finally, they are one step from arresting a criminal, but the criminal is fast and does not use gun for the first time in his life.
- So Kouta gets "loss time". It is very interesting to see how he tries to see some threads in this mess, which takes him back to armed bank rob years ago. The main sentence is "Only the dog who chases tirelessly gets feed", sadly it comes with big losses. the saddest moment is Kouta's phone call to mother. He gets red card for wanting to refuse from loss time.

Episode 3. "Sukiyaki"
Cast: Tomochika, Matsuzawa Kazuyuki, Tajima Yumika, Nagashima Shugo,
A mother who sacrifices everything for her family and also saves from everything. She must pay hard to make her family the best sukiyaki in the world. - It is sad episode, because I think she is the only one who really becomes discouraged and feels helpless - and that is not because of the dying, but because she is afraid how the family will survive without her. She literally saves from everything - all things you know in the world, she will make an cheaper alternative for it. You can see a race of the crazy housewives and how mean they can be.  

Episode 4. "Nurse"
Cast: Ueno Juri, Shitara Osamu, Rokkaku Seji, Nukumizu Youichi
I think it was the funniest episode. Matsunaga Yukiko is a nurse, whose boyfriend has dumped her and she finds the suicide to be the only possibility. At first she wants to re-kill herself, but she gets yellow card, like that would stop someone who knows nothing about football. She meets with Omoto who also wants to jump from the same roof as she did. Main sentence is "Even one loss is not the end of the world". The end is rather unexpected. - I do not understand suicides, because I do not see any reason to be enough to end one's life.

Episode 5. "Childhood friend"
Cast: Ito Atsushi, Minami, Iketani Nobue, Yabe Kenji,
This is the most cliched episode. It is cute, but usual story that guy, Hajime, has promised to become mangaka in childhood. Life roads have gone apart and girl, Yukari is going to be married - right when she hears that Hajime has debuted as mangaka. By chance they meet again, but time is limited.

Episode 6. "Hero Show"
Cast: Tanaka Naoki, Tanaka Kei, Yasuda Misako, Takagiri Hairi, Harada Atsushi, Hatano Hiroko, Okuda Tatsuhito, Hayakawa Ryo
It was the weirdest episode.. Koichi is very egocentric and he cannot fulfill any of his dreams. He wants to be world-famous actor, but non of his dreams include his wife Yoko. - Koichi was the woooooooooorst actor ever! and whoever played the part of SunVisorX was amazing =D There are really cute animations included to episode and in the end you want him to have extra time, but surprise-surprise - I did not understand a thing what happened to him in the end - did he die? did he got extra time? what it was?? 

Episode 7. "Wife of a mob member"
Cast: Tokiwa Takako, Hamada Gaku, Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Nomaguchi Toru,
Ruiko is a yakuza-family's member. She hears that her husband has been taken by another yakuza-gang and she is going to take a revenge.  - It is a little bit sad. I say spoiler - she is fighting for  her love, but it comes out that all this time her husband wanted to have a normal life with normal family and in reality she was the real target. - Tokiwa Takako is very elegant and I looooove her kimono. I like that Ruiko has pride and she does not let herself fall, but it is too sad to see how she is trying to not express her real feelings.

Episode 8. "Director"
Cast: Maki Yoko, Iwasa Mayuko, Takeno Isao, Omiya Taro, Yajima Kenichi, Nukumizu Youichi
Actually, this was my favorite episode. Horiike is a company section director, who is real workaholic and has committed all her last years to her job - not because she wants to work so much, but she has a great sense of duty. Even so, she gets fired when she gives wrinkles what to change in the company. - This episode shows the most how irresponsible, mean and two-faced people might be. Horiike dies from heart failure, which occurred because of too much work, stress and less sleep time. This is something that most likely will happen to me if my current life-style continues O.o. I liked that she was very rational and knows what to do. She is the only character who showed the most sides of herself in the whole drama. Sentence is "Getting fired is like heartbreak in relationship". You can also meet again with Omoto - so sad that he is rather stupid.. Even though Horiike gets yellow card for changing clothes, the referees finally allow it - they are too sad. In the end, all she wanted to do, is to be happy - I liked that she sometimes thought that maybe going with her boyfriend would have been a better choice.  

Episode 9. "Hikikomori"
Cast: Oizumi Yo, Haruyama Mikisuke, Koide Saori, Tajima Reiko, Oshima Yoko, Nukumizu Youichi
Miura is a guy who has no desire to live, but also does not make a suicide - by the way, he has not gone out of the house for 12 years! New judge is Omoto and even referees are having hard time with understand the loss time as the clock seems to be broken - or is it?  - Miura is sooooo useless -.- he annoyed me so much, so I liked the end result :) 

Special/ Overtime "Omoto Yuzo Monogatari"
Cast: Kuriyama Chiaki, Kajihara Ken, Sakai Wakana, Tamura Ryo, Nukumizu Youichi, Tajima Reiko, Oshima Yoko
From the title it seems like Omoto will die, but no. The Special episode explains everything about Omoto.. and his wife, his former job etc. It is just like another episode. Nukumizu is amazing actor - he is so talented and funny! Omoto's life story is cute and the end is veeery cute. Sakai Wakana is adorable and I like that she plays stupid person this time xD All in all, it connects many previous episodes together and makes you realize what was going on.

I hope it can make you understand your life priorities - I wish I could tell it made my mind clear from this point, but with current life tempo I cannot have any other priority than school and entrance exams, BUT I know that the most important in the life still is family, love and friends ^^

Kakure Karakuri (2006)

Also known as: Hidden trick
Country: Japan
Genre: mystery, life,
Format: movie
Cast: Kato Shigeaki, Hiraoka Yuta, Hoshi Nanase, Kuriyama Chiaki, Ochiai Motoki, SUGIZO, David Ito, Erena, Sugimoto Tetta, Moro Morooka,
Synopsis: Kurimoto Yousuke wants to spend his summer vacation working in onsen with pretty girls, but he ends up with his classmate Abe Tomonari in a weird region, which is ruled by two families. They have to solve the mystery of clockwork doll to help the children of those families - Hanayama Karin and Reina and Kazami Taichi.
Rating: 3/5

Actors were great! As I understand then "Kakure karakuri" is not a famous movie, but it has such a famous cast!!! Kato Shigeaki looks hot =P (sorry unnecessary comment). His character is great. I like his point of views and it is so funny how he mistakes the names and his face of  "That's what I told right now" (even though he did not) is cuuuuuuuute. My favorite is the Kurimoto-Karin-Abe love triangle XD Over-acting made the movie even better, it was a little bit parody-likeish xD All characters are different and not annoying, beside Taichi, because I did not understand why he walked so weirdly... There are times when the scene might be like "EEEEHHH??". especially bath-scenes.

The storyline was spooky time to time and made me really think what is the secret, but actually the real secret was a little bit disappointment. The doll was totally scary.. I am afraid of this kind of old dolls. 
It was said that the mystery was only 120 years old... actually for me it is too short period as there are only 2-3 generations of those families, so in the end it seemed weiiiird. I think that NOT hiding the secret would have worked out better than hiding it.
Movie was actually made for Coca Cola anniversary. That explains the coca cola advertisements in the movie.