Hyoten (2006)

Also known as: Freezing point
Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: drama, life&death
Cast: Ishihara Satomi, Morisaka Ei, Iijima Naoko, Nakamura Toru, Tegoshi Yuya, Togawa Fumiya, Kitamura Kazuki, Honjo Manami, Kubozuka Shunsuke, Nakao Akiyoshi, Kaku Chikaku, Yasuda Misako, Kanjiya Shihori, Jinnai Takanori, 
Part One Synopsis: The Tsujiguchi family tragedy starts when their 3-years old daughter Rumiko is found murdered. Keizo, a respected doctor who runs his own hospital, blames his wife Natsue as he thinks she was having an affair with his colleague. To make her suffer more he decides to adopt a baby Youko without telling Natsue that the girl is the daughter of the man who killed Rumiko and later hang himself. He plans to reveal the truth once Natsue has given her heart to the child. It is difficult to forgive the ones you hate.
Part Two Synopsis: SPOILER!!! Youko survives and Takagi confesses that he lied - Youko is not Shaichi's daughter. Youko decides to go to college, but her real mother and younger brother appear on screen. In addition, both Toru and Kitahara are still in love with her and Saichi's real daughter is closer to them than they thought.
Rating: 3/5
It is based on same named novel by Miura Ayako. It was a mindf***. I cannot understand how can somebody have so much hatred in himself/herself. I had very diverse emotions while watching it - on one hand it was interesting and beautiful, but then again it got boring and slooooooooowww..

Youko was the most pitiful one in the movie. She got hurt so much, but she still loved Tsujiguchi family. For a little child it is painful to look for her parents from the crowd, but not to find them. It is amazing how she was able to cope with her mother's hatred. I give extra points for Ishihara Satomi acting, her shock scene was brilliant, on other scenes she did not need much acting skills, because Youko's character was always one and the same or amazed by Mother's pride.

Father Keizo was the first one to think about the plan to use Youko as revenge. It was horrible of him! It was cruel of him to hate little innocent girl for 9 years! It was a bit unfair of him to blame his wife too - but there is a saying that people in grief want to have somebody alive, who will suffer because of the blame. But after he started to love Youko as his own daughter, he turned into a wonderful father. 
Natsue has mental issues from the start, but sometimes it gets worse and she ends up as lunatic.

 I agreed that it was partly her fault that Ruriko was murdered - which mother lets under 3 years old girl go out on her own?! She was sinful woman, even though she actually did not cheat on Keizo, but that manipulating and flirting was O.o. Also, she was very royal, arrogant and lady-like. In the second part there is one very weird scene, which was the most difficult to understand, when two mothers talk and their talking turned into competition of who was the worst mother and the conclusion is "You have made great job raising her up.." and I was WTRamen?!

Tooru has a big sister-complex as he knows that Youko is not his real sister. Ever since Youko was little Tooru has protected her and I think that he cared the most about her. His feelings brought different thoughts to me - because they were not blood related, it was okey, but then again they were brother and sister who have grown up together (but would not that be still more like childhood friends who grow into lovers?)  He always says what is on his mind and is very honest - the most honest character in the movie that is full of lies. It is interesting to see jealousy from Tegoshi Yuya's face xD About his acting... same as all his that time movies/dramas.

Shortly about other characters. Murai was a playboy, bitch and total bastard - he had no feeling of responsibility, though in the end he might have felt some guilt in front of Matsuzaki Yukako. Yukako was Keizo's secretary, who was madly in love with Keizo - she was rather naive and thoughtless in her actions. Her feelings were pure and beautiful, but a bit over-exaggerated. My favourite character was Tatsuko - she said smart things and loved Youko as her own daughter. Tatsuya - Youko's real brother was a bit weird at first. It more looked like he tried to flirt with her, but later it was understandable that he just wanted to get to know his sister. Lastly, Junko was very outgoing and honest about her background, but later she disappeared from the scene. 
It is about forgiveness and how small the world actually is. The coolest thing in this movie is to see the improvements in society. As the story goes through 1946 to 1967 (in later 2006 too), then we can see how women's fashion changes and how the mechanics, as phones, TV-s and cars, improve.

SPOILER review: most of them are the negative reasons. First of all, Tegoshi Yuya and Kanjiya Shihori had a horrible kiss-scene. There were possibilities to do it into that scene beautifully, but it was just quick and he hardly kissed her! Also, I was disappointed that Youko married to Kitahara, because it truly felt like she did it out of sympathy. She always said that she is irreplaceable for Kitahara, but she never thought that she was the one and only for Toru. 
It is amazing how parents still loved each other - after 20 years of hating and revenge, they still loved each other. I guess that was the reason why they never thought of a divorce.

Boku no hatsukoi wo kimi ni sasagu (2010)

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.

Grapevine / Budo no Ki (2003)

Country: Japan
Genre: Family, drama, human
Format: movie
Cast: Matsushita Yuki, Nakamura Toru, Yamashita Tomohisa, Suenaga Haruka, Nakajo Yui, Tsushida Saaya, Shofukutei Tsurubei
Synopsis: Katagiri Naoki and Kyoko are happily married when they find out that they cannot have children of them own. They decide to go with the adoption, but end up being foster parents: they will take care of children who have their own parents yet due to circumstances are unable to live as a whole family. Most of the time children have difficult childhood traumas that follow them throughout their lives. Kyoko and Naoki do everything they can to give lots of love to their foster children and prove that people do not have to be related by blood to be one united loving family.
Rating: 5/5
One of the most heartwarming movies I have recently seen.

Kyoko and Naoki are amazing people and I am happy that there are this kind of people in real life too as the movie is based on a book which is based on true life. For you to know, then actually adopting is not a usual thing in Japan nor being the foster-parents. In Western-world it is more common and I remember a period in my life when my parents wanted to become foster-parents too, but unfortunately/fortunately there where no children "available" during that time. I guess for them 5 children did not seem enough, but now my parents have grown a bit too old for it and wait for grandchildren.

I think that with Yosuke, Kyoko had the hardest time, but with Sachi had Naoki. Of course Yosuke went a little bit more into their hearts, because he was "their" first child and really problematic, but I do not think they loved Sachi less. Like I said Yosuke had many troubles - his real-mother gave him away when he was 2 and he has having a hard time with trusting and accepting people. Even though his real-mother wanted him to have better life and better possibilities in life, it is too difficult for a child to understand why his mommy "does not want him". You might even say that he has no luck in his life, except finding the best foster parents. Even thought Kyoko and Naoki love him, they must do a hard decision and give Yosuke back. I totally disapproved this move, but at the same time just by watching the movie, you cannot understand how tough that situation really was. But Yosuke still loves and treasures them and so do they. Many scenes are just for watch-long-scenes-of-Yamashita-Tomohisa-being-beautiful.

I loved that Yosuke and Sachi were like real siblings. They had a really close relationship. The movie shows Yosuke as 4, 7 and 17 years old and Sachi according to her age on these years. Sachi was 4 when she was taken in, her mother had died and his father was not able to cope with toddler alone, beside mostly he was drunk and burned Sachi's hands with cigarettes. She was basically taken by Kyoko and Naoki, because Yosuke said "Mom, Dad! I want to have a little sister!". Even when Sachi was 14, she sometimes had a nervous break-down of the childhood trauma. It took time for her to trust Naoki as father. I think she felt a little bit left-out because of Yosuke, but she still loved her family.

Prepare for major crying! I started to cry from the start when these sentences became on the screen :
"All children have the right to feel loved. All children have the right to be happy. No adult has the right to take away the light of hope from children eyes." Just to think how many children actually have unfit life-qualities all over the world. I think that the worst thing is that it is not just the third-world countries, but also in the most advanced countries. We cannot choose our parents and that's why parents acts will stay on children shoulders too and all these things make a big impact in future. Our society is making criminals out of children who have had no choices in their life. I do believe that there are some children who are so-said "born evil", but I think at least 97% of the children's future, mindset and views of life are affected by their upbringing and environment.

SPOILER: highlight for reading. Yes, Yosuke dies. It is the saddest moment in the movie, but after that you can really understand their relationships. *going to cry again*