Helter Skelter (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: ***, plastic surgery, drama
Cast: Sawajiri Erika, Terajima Shinobu, Omori Nao, Ayano Gou, Mizuhara Kiko, Arai Hirofumi, Suzuki Anne, Terajima Susumu, Momoi Kaori, Aikawa Sho, Harada Mieko, Kubozuka Yusuke,
Synopsis: Lilico has gone under full-body plastic surgery and has become the most famous model in Japan, but all that falseness has also brought misery. Nothing lasts forever and so the surgery has begun to give backlashes and the new rival in beauty industry promises to ruin her little happiness she has left.
Rating: 5/5
I have not read the manga itself, but as much as I have heard, then it is a bit shallower than manga, but I really enjoyed the movie. It contains sex, drugs, violence, bad language and it is the closest thing to porno that I have ever seen and yet it was able to captivate me because of the amount of different feelings that you will get from this movie is huge. Each second was really interesting for me. But I admit that I would not let any person under age 16 watch it.. never..

No matter how hated or scandalous Sawajiri Erika is she is a brilliant actress. Everyone still thinks that she is beautiful and great actress. I think she is one actress who might do whatever she wants and it all will be forgiven, because her acts in the past have made it possible to act in movies like this. Would you imagine Kitagawa Keiko or Aragaki Yui in a role like that? Of course not, because many have said and I think so too, that Sawajiri Erika was acting as herself in many scenes.

Lilico has done full-body plastic surgery. As there is almost everything fake about her and that has

brought her enormous fame, but it has also made her soul empty. Everybody loves her but at the same time no one really loves her. "What do they love - I even have not met them or talked to them". Even now I am not sure if she was the victim or the culprit. She is selfish, does not care of other people's feelings and wants to be the best, nr. 1 forever, but at the same time she is nothing, just trying to please everyone, the sadness and emptiness are killing her!

That's why I felt sorry for her while hating her. Beauty and fame do not bring happiness especially when everything is fake - it is just a curtain before the theater stage. Fake creates fake and that's the way it is. Lilico gave people the fake they wanted and she got the fake response to it too, but you can see how she was actually looking for something real like true love and life without lies, but these things were already impossible for her. Her falseness was explained really simply "Beautiful on the outside, but eaten by the bugs inside".

The scariest part of the movie was when I found myself a little similar to Lilico. I have seriously nothing similar to her, but in some way I understood her and what she was going through. It is so strange that even though the movie shows how fake Lilico was, it also shows how fake our society is - especially woman's beauty - fake eye-lashes, contacts, nails, make-up, push-ups, hair-extensions and simple beauty injections/surgeries - they are all really everyday-ish things.

People have become so obsessed with outer beauty, that it stops being beautiful and it is really ironic when these kind of people are criticizing how others are fake. I am not against beauty products or surgeries, but I think that each thing has it's limits and sometimes people are the prettiest when they are natural. Lilico says "Beauty makes you strong", but I do not think so - being beautiful gives you more confidence, but it does not bring you more strength.

The only people Lilico really needs to have by her side are assistant Hada Michiko  and her make-up artist Kin-chan. With out them she would not have survived. But Hada-san was really weird character. She was hopelessly in love with Lilico, but sometimes she loved to stab her back. Then again she was not a lesbian, because she had younger boyfriend Shin. Shin is acted by Ayano Go and I really did not recognize him in the movie. Hada-san is used by Lilico as personal slave, who is treated like trash and then spilled over with "presents". I think that with Hada and Shin, Lilico's worst personality traits came out and it was soooooooooo sick! I almost vomited several times because of her actions.

In the end, I think that the most horrible character in the movie was Mama. Saying that Lilico is her creation and the real girl Lilico used to be is nothing. Using someone only for money.. and then ruining the original agreements for what Lilico was able to cope with all that hard work..
I think it is one of a kind movie and it is exactly "helter skelter" aka "total chaos". Even when the time has passed, I am fascinated by everything in this movie and I seriously want to know how it is shown in Japan, but at the moment my bowl of chips got empty, so only thing to say is "WATCH IT and tell me what you thought of it" :)

SPOILER-review: The end was so scary! The moment when she killed herself was so horrible and sad at the same time. For a moment everyone stopped and watched, but then they continued to take pictures - reminds me how people are now making photos and uploading them to internet before calling help. When person makes a suicide in front of you, YOU CALL AMBULANCE! -.- And then the movie went on and I found out that "HOLY SH*T! THAT WAS ALL A PLAN!!!" O.o but I really was screaming in the end "F*** THAT B***H WON'T DIE!!" (I was so scared that I was even unable to replace the words as I usually do..)

Dance Subaru (2009)

 Country: Japan
Genre: Dance, life
Format: movie
Cast: Kuroki Meisa, Hiraoka Yuta, Maeda Ken, Sano Miko, Kakei Toshio, Go Ah Ra, Momoi Kaori, (+ DBSK, TVQX, Tohoshinki - performing in the club)
Synopsis: Twins Subaru (Kuroki Meisa) and Kazuma dream about becoming a professional ballet dancers. After Kazumas death, dance becomes Subaru´s only happiness, even though her father disapproves it.  Subaru starts to perform at one cabaret-bar, but in order to become a professional ballerina she starts hard training and takes part of the international competition.
Rating: 3/5

Dance movie... Ballet... OH GOSH HOW I LIKED IT! I adore ballet and it was a great movie because in some scenes they connected the street dance and ballet and I must admit that that movie made me fall in love with contemporary dance. As a dancer myself, I enjoyed it sooooo much. To dancer, dancing really is something to express your feelings with, if you are angry, happy, sad - there is no expression that dance cannot show. 

At the same time it was really sad movie. I was under a sugar over-doze, when I watched it for the first time, so then it was even sadder, but even now I start to cry when I see it. I think the start was the saddest, how Kazuma died. I have a twin too, so I understand their connection - someone who has lived everything trough with you, just a thought of loosing that person makes me cry... actually I start cry as soon as hear something about losing someone familiar. That´s why I really liked Subaru´s way to move on and give her best. As I have been trough many painful times in my life, I understand that you cannot stop your life - it must go on even when it is hard (It is better to move on, than lose 1 year from your memories)
The friendship side was great too. Every friendship might suffer from jealousy, but you can really see you are your real friends when you are in trouble. That is what made this story sweet, no matter how bitch Mana seemed, she was actually the cutest friend of all, I would not mind having that kind of a friend, because I think, that she did the most to help Subaru. I hated her father... I still hate... because the thing Subaru says in the start, that he cared only about Kazuma, was totally true. Even though it was a painful saying, it was true even years later. I did not get the feeling like her father cared of her, it more seemed to be that to him Subaru was only someone annoying.

 I must say that I love Kuroki Meisa appearance... she is so beautiful, she is an amazing dancer and her athletic frame is amazing. I so wish I would be like her - I think I should watch more into the mirror... -.- Today I look more like Park Bom from 2NE1.
What I did not like in this movie, was that they tried to put a love-line in it. But it must have been a successful love or not put it in at all, because as it was, it was just a fail. I understand all characters, but it just did not convince me. Mistaking with love-lines are really big mistakes in my opinion. I know it is hard to make the perfect love scene for script-writers and actors, but it is something that makes a big impact on the movie. I understand that it is a dance movie, but as I said - that kind of mistake is too annoying. In addition, it does not matter how I complimanted Kuroki Meisa, bit the truth is, that no matter what the scene was about, she always had the same expression on her face, which is baaaad.. feeling of no emotions...