Dragon Zakura (2005)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 11 episodes
Genre: school, youth
Cast: Abe Hiroshi, Yamashita Tomohisa, Nagasawa Masami, Teppei Koike, Aragaki Yui, Saeko, Nakao Akiyoshi, Hasegawa Kyoko, Yasawa Shin, David Ito, Hori Akari,
Synopsis: Ryuuzan high school is Tokyo's lowest rated school with average score 36. Sakuragi Kenji, a former race-gang member, is a poor lawyer who’s put in charge of Ryuuzan high school bankruptcy, but then he decides to save the school. He creates special advanced class for students to get them into Tokyo University.
Rating: 5/5

Sakuragi Kenji does not seem to be much, but he is so damn smart! At first I thought that he might have some kind of teacher degree too XD I would have wanted them to give the reasons why and 

how he came up with all those plans and ideas and a little bit more about his background, but I guess I must read the manga :/ I wish someone had made this kind of program for me too so that I could have had better results, but then again.. I did not need great results to get into university. Abe Hiroshi's acting was rather good. As Sakuragi did not show out any emotions and he always had on the same serious face, then I say that Abe Hiroshi acted this part really well, but the fact that he won the best actor's award for this, then he was brilliant. I wish to see his acting more and I really like that he kinda looks like half-Japanese (need to do background check on him XD) 

Ino-sensei only understands everything literary and gets caught up by sentence “for my precious students”. Even though she is rather naive, she is the only teacher who tries to think at least a bit about students. There is something cute about her, but I cannot believe how she hardly understands anything. Believe me or not, but this drama gave me the feeling that I would like to study high school subjects like maths, physics and chemistry again.. I so hope that I do not have any maths exercise near me, because I might start to solve them. Then again seeing them taking the exams reminded me the stress of them and I praise the sweet Gyoza for the fact that I do not have to take them again. Beside I put the “need of learning” into Russian as it is the only subject that needs more memorizing.. I hope I was able to memorize at least something.. ahhh.. now I think I should concentrate on learning it more..

Yuusuke was bought into the “Todai plan”. Yes – “BOUGHT” not “brought” (as for “buy-bought-bought” and not “bring-brought-brought”). He has a huge pride that does not let him accept help from others even in critical situations, that’s why he is pushed into corner to surrender. Young Yamashita Tomohisa is young. I love his hairstyle in it – bad boy with a nice smile (Actually remembered some song lyrics...). I do not know if Yamashita Tomohisa actually played the trumpet himself, because I have not heard of him playing it later.
Naomi is Yuusuke’s childhood friend, who has feelings for him. Yuusuke calls her “Nao-Boo” for unexplained reasons, so I hope that they have explained the “boo” part in manga. I like seeing 

Nagasawa Masami in good girl role that is left at background, because compared to Aragaki Yui in it, she looks way too average. She is the one who goes to special class, because she has realistic views about how her life would be after graduating Ryuuzan and that view is something that she does not want to accept. Sakuragi’s sentence “Your life will take 180 degrees turn” makes her understand that actually there is nothing wrong with trying. I think that she is the one who has the most obstacles on her way.  About Masami’s acting.. well, it is the same even now, which is sad, because I think that every actress/actor should improve with time. I give you a hint and tell you that Naomi and Yuusuke will share some cute “friendship” moments which might struck into your hearts. I almost start to hope that someone has made a fan-vid about them, but as most of the fan-videos have been torn down from Youtube, then I find it difficult to believe.. 
Aragaki Yui plays the bad girl. She looks so damn beautiful this way and I think that she suits more into this role than into “good girl” roles. At least here she is interesting and not plain. 

She is Yuusuke’s girlfriend, but their relationship seems to be more like only the title, because they do not show out that they actually are in relationship, especially Yuusuke who rather talks to Nao-Boo about important things in his life than with his actual girlfriend. She enters into special class because of Yuusuke, so until the end even Sakuragi does not understand her motives. As I told you around the corner, she is not 100% explained and that’s why Aragaki does not get as much screen time to criticize her acting, but it was more interesting than her other usual student-dramas.
Hideki, played by Koike Teppei – the funny cute dude. I adore how he gets really familiar with everybody and adds “-chan”  after their names, but I find it difficult to say anything more about him. 

I do not consider Koike Teppei as a great actor and Hideki was not so remarkable either. For me he was just a character who made the drama a bit cuter. Maki-chan is soooooo cute :D She wants to enter Todai because she thought that it is easier way to become an idol. Her friend recently became a talent (idol) and most of the time is annoying her with messages from other countries. She gave me again the “gyaru-mode”.. thank you, gyoza, that I do not have enough cute gyaru-stuff.. (ahh, doushite??! I want to be a cute girl too for a moment! Well.. must accept the fact that I am pretty and not cute :/ *egocentric-mode*) She suited together with Hideki, who was shown on the screen as much as she - aka mostly left out.

Ichiro is the character I feel most sorry for. As he has a twin brother in Shuumenkan, he is totally left beside by his family and to think that his younger twin brother almost hates him.. I do not know. I hate Jirou so much for what he does to Ichiro, even though Ichiro has sacrificed most of his life so that Jirou would succeed. As a twin, I find Jirou’s actions unacceptable. Most of the time, I wanted to kill Jirou, because even though Ichiro looked like real baka, Ichiro was so cute and sincere.  

Beside Jirou there are many annoying characters in this drama, like other teachers and parents. I think that because of people like them the education system and children studying results are bad. I remember from my school time that there were teachers who made their lessons more interesting and students had better results in them, than in lessons that were only taught by textbooks word by word. And as it is said in drama, teachers must have passion for their subject.  There is a lot to study from this drama, starting from great studying-strategies and hints on exams.  But I admit, that I do not agree to 24/7 studying and you might call me naive like Ino-sensei was, but you must enjoy your youth too, then again in Japanese society these exams and school system are very different from the ones in my country.
 

  
SPOILER-review:  I saw it coming that all of them won’t get in and that Yuusuke will decide not to go to Todai. For me it was sad to see them not getting into uni, because I know damn well how it feels when you do not see your number/name on the list. At moments like this, it is important not to give up, that’s why I liked the ending. But one thing made me think *ero-mode in brain*, if Ichiro got into Todai.. did Maki slept with him as Ichiro was also part of the “sleeping-agreement” or was the agreement valid only when Maki would have gotten into Todai too? It is just something that made me think :P  

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.

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.