ANNOUNCEMENTS

I am sorry to announce that I have made a decision to officially close Cypsis' Blog.

All the reviews stay up as they are, but I will not write more reviews. Cypsis' Blog had many ups-and-downs during those 7 years and I have tried to give the best I could, but unfortunately my life has moved on so much that finding time for reviewing has become more and more difficult. Closing the blog is breaking my heart, but I have thought a lot about it and understood that it is for the best. I am very thankful to everybody who have enjoyed reading my reviews.
(PS. I am still continuing to watch Asian dramas and you can always find me on Mydramalist.com)

Thank you for all these 7 years. I hope that those 240 reviews made you happy. I truly had unforgettable time writing them!

Sincerely, Cypsis
01.01.2018
Showing posts with label Natsuki Mari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Natsuki Mari. Show all posts

Friday, September 19, 2014

Hidamari no kanojo (2013)


Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: romance, supernatural
Cast: Matsumoto Jun, Ueno Juri, Tamayama Tetsuji, Suda Masaki, Ookura Koji, Tanimura Mitsuki, Kitamura Takumi, Aoi Wakana, Koyabu, Kazutoyo, Nishida Naomi, Kiuchi Midori, Shiomi Sansei, Toyota Maho, Natsuki Mari, Ishibashi Anna, Nomaguchi Toru,
Synopsis: One day at work Okuda Kosuke meets with school friend Watarai Mao who he has not seen for 10 years after he had transferred to another city. They fall in love and decide to marry, but there are some mysteries around Mao and her past. Sometimes true love grants wishes of fairy tales.
Rating: 5/5
Definitely one surprise movie that I had no idea what to expect. I thought it is going to be just another sweet love-story that is nothing special, but they sure were able to surprise me.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Sugar and Spice: Fumi Zekka (2006)


Also Known as: Sugar and Spice ~ what little girls are made of~
                            Sugar and Spice ~ Fumi zekka~ (Sublime in flavour)
Country: Japan
Genre: Romance
Format: movie
Cast: Yagira Yuya, Sawajiri Erika, Natsuki Mari, Oizumi Yu, Chen Bo-Lin, Hamada Gaku,   Mitsuishi Ken, Kimura Ryo,
Synopsis: Shiro (Yagira Yuya) is a young man just finished high school, who lives in Fussa and starts working at the gas station. His best friends are fighting over the same girl, one of them tries to commit suicide. In addition, he sees a break-up between a man and college girl Noriko (Sawajiri Erika), who starts working at the gas station too. Shiro finds himself in a point, where he is stuck with life and love.
Rating: 2/5
I must say under cover that I wanted to put much higher rating to it than just 2 stars, but I admit that those ratings are not actually based on only mine opinion.
When I saw it for the first time, I did not like it at all - it seemed boring and pointless (as many might have read from former review) I did not understood a thing back then, but this time - I absolutely loved it! Maybe it is because I have gone trough more stuff and grown up more, because now I find it one of the best love stories ever!
It gives you the perfect view of a real kind of relationship. But at first you must live trough some weird scenes.... as the guys are ... being guys? Yeah, this porn-stuff is weird.
(Actually I am making a review of Ichitaro's concert for school at the moment.... working on two reviews is hard O.O....... continueing with that review after 7 hours xD)
Well.. The two hours have many long scenes, but actually they are not so annoying - when you consentrate on the story. I cannot recall any annoying thing beside it O.o Weird...
All characters are nice and real. Naoki (a friend who tries to attemp a suicide at first) is sweet how  much he loves Yoko, but at the same time he is a sex-maniac. The other friend just should have been more honest with everybody.
Grandma was amazing! Being 70 and act like you are only 27! xD I like people who stay young forever. Her lost love story was so sad. Heart can recover from many heartbreaks, but there is only one deep cut to a heart and it will give you a wound, which can never be healed. She has many smart ideas and living-ways, so it is a good thing to actually listen and learn from her. In addition, the make-up artists have done amazing work with her! Natsuki Mari was at that time 55 years old.
Shiro was like a .... perfect man? (at least for me) but it is true that "man must know when to be soft and when though"  - "Softies get dumped". You can see how much impact her grandma had on him. I did not see a thing he did wrong. In one scene when he leaves Noriko alone and Noriko gets sad, I totally understood Shiro. The situation is so hard, when you are not a boyfriend and girlfriend, so you do not know what rigths do you have (like.. you cannot get very jealous if you are not together; Is it okey for you to ask about some stuff or not, etc). Been there, thought about that -.- still ended up with no results. Yagira Yuya actually has nice look =P
Sawajiri Erika looked cute! Noriko knew she looked pretty and that made her more selfconfident. I liked that she explained the thing about girls "No means yes! - It most of the time "NO MEANS NOOOO!" , "But only for one person they can mean the same thing" (Guys, just learn how to read the mood - I cannot really tell you the situations when they are the same, but like.. when girl really likes you, but her self discipline does not let her to say that she wants to stay. Was it too hard? still... just learn to read it well - cannot say anything helpful xD) I hate her ex-boyfriend, he is a bastard, but I do not say anything bad about Noriko yet (read spoiler review for that).
Mostly the movie concentrates on "What really is love?"  "Having special feelings for someone?", "Wanting to see someone more than once a day?" These are good questions.. by those questions I have been in love only once and even that was only onesided...  Remember, "If love is over, then it is over - you cannot force her/him to love you again".  The thing that love comes and goes is exactly the same kind of nature law as that seasons changes and after today comes tomorrow.
It is based on the same named novel and Oasis is really great band =P


SPOILER review: Noriko situation - many might think she was a bitch for leaving Shiro, but I must say my friend's words "Every girl has someone who they are helpless toward". If that special guy hugs or begs to go back to him, girl cannot to anything. Those guys give easily promises, but never keep them and the worst thing is that girls know it! And girls know that they will never get happy with those guys, but there is something unbelievably strong that keeps girls with them. (If you have seen "Porgy and Bess" opera, then the other guy is the same for Bess) Like it has nothing to do with real love and it is difficult to explain, but I think that every girl, who has had someone like that in their lives, knows what I mean. I think the best thing is to stay as far as you can and avoid any contact with them, but believe me - it is so hard. But what you can say bad about Noriko is that YOU just cannot let your ex into your new boyfriend's house!!!! and then almost get caugth! -.-
Shiro and Noriko looked much cuter together than with that ex -.-
If you want to know the "Daimond Fuji" place without watching the movie, then it is Lake Yamanaka at dust!
 And little girls are made of sugar and spice =P

Friday, September 30, 2011

Nobuta wo Produce (2005)


Country: Japan
Genre: school life, comedy
Format: drama 10 episodes
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Kamenashi Kazuya, Horikita Maki, Toda Erika, Nakajima Yuto, Wakaba Ryuya, Okada Yoshinori, Natsuki Mari, Daito Shunsuke,
Synopsis: Kiritani Shuuji (played by Kamenashi Kazuya) is a popular guy, who wants to appeal to everybody, except Kusano Akira (Yamashita Tomohisa), who Shuuji finds REALLY annoying. There comes a new student into their class - Kotani Nobuko - a girl without selfconfidence. Shuuji and Akira find that they may use their youth to make Nobuko into school´s most popular girl.  
Rating: 5/5
AMAZING!!!! XD THE BEST SCHOOL DRAMA and one of the most famous dramas of all. Many now-addicts have started their drama-addiction exactly with this amazing piece of art! And I consider myself as one of them. I remember clearly how I found it and I must admit that I just read the synopsis and saw Yamashita Tomohisa's and Kamenashi Kazuya's pictures and I was already in love with it. Also this drama led me to Johnny's, who now are a big part of my life (do not say I should get a life! I have totally normal social life!!!).
 Yamashita Tomohisa´s acting is soooooo great - his face expressions and the way he plays Akira are over the top. I know many, who say that he is annoying, but please, people, make a distinction between the actor and the character!Akira is childish, eccentric and has a weird accent, but he is also strong (veery strong - no wonder Yamashita Tomohisa got role as Joe in "Ashita to Joe"), competitive and cuuuuute!
I loved the scenes where Akira showed his manly side, it was like "WOOOOW" O.o (hot!)  Many Yamashita Tomohisa's fans' call the "Nobuta wo Produce" time as "The Akira-period" in Yamashita Tomohisa's life xD For me Akira is definitely the best characther he has ever played. (I think I said the same thing in "Buzzer beat" review about Naoki, but Naoki is like the hottest characther, but Akira is the best in every way) .
Disturbing was that Kamenashi Kazuya was so skinny (Thank god, he has some meat on the bones now.  Otherwise his acting was great too, but I was kinds annoyed by Shuuji's characther. He was faking and cared about his popularity, but not about the people around him. His popularity really shrunk down in the end xD Beside Kamenashi Kazuya talked the same way as in "Tatta hitotsu no koi" and it was really tiring as it is so monotone and sleepy. And Shuuji was put in the place of God, who is superior -.- But I loved him after his popularity had plummeted xD he was much more human then.
Horikita Maki did not have many lines as Nobuta, but she was the best! She gave you the real Nobuta like!! amazing! But I do not understand how Nobuta was able to get into this kind of situation for just that little thing in past. Childhood trauma? abusing, DV and stuff like these leave horrible marks in future, but not misunderstanding some things.. It looked like Nobuta is reaaaally shy, but she had so many times where she was so confident in herself that I almost fell from the chair!
One really important person was the vice-president. She said the things that have a deeper meaning and make people think again about things. I found all other teachers weak and stupid. They must give students the security in school. The school-bullying is a serious problem and teachers should do more about it! It is horrible when you are bullied while there are so many people around you and still no-body helps. (Let's make a world a better place and stand for each other!).
And lastly Toda Erika in role of Mariko. She is soo pretty and her obentos seemed sooo tasteful :P. other stuff under the spoiler review. Sorry
The little things of drama. After watching this you will know exactly how to make "Kon-kon", "Nobuta power", "Akira shock", "Bye-cyclie! -bye-bye-cyclie" and  Kame's kawaii-popular-mode. There are sooo many funny scenes which mostly are lip-ads. It teaches you to end your Japanese date perfectly. Girls just must say: "Kyou wa tanoshi kata desu!" ("It was great today/ I had a great time/ etc. you get the point of it, ne?). I loved the reason why Shuuji's dad married with Shuuji's mom, even though she was mostly abroad. To marry just because then you will have the chance to meet her at least once a year, but otherwise he would not had seen her even for that one time. Sooo cute!!! (all those people who are in this kind of situation and are thinking about a divorce and people who whine that their lovers are not spending enough time with them, should put that by ear!). Further more, Shuuji's mother's name was Kiritani Nobuko, what (dadadaaa)is the same as Nobuta's! The reason why Shuuji's dad screams "NOBU-DA!", was that it was a shortening of "Nobuko darling". Kawaii desu ne? Also you see that one Nobuta gym t-shirt ends up in Africa. Hint-hint Shuuji's mother was social worker in Africa for some time :P (It actually was not mentioned in drama, but I just made my own conclusions)
In the episode of school festival watch for the second, when Shuuji screams "I AM NOT KAMENASHI KAZUYA!". It made me like, "yeah, right you're not!" xD It is tooo funny xD Many of you might not get the November 4th thing in episode 4 - you must know some things about Japanese languaege. If you write 114 (11 = November, 4= the date), then 11 looks like ii-s (same way pronounced "ii") and 4 in Japanese is "yo", which gives you "ii yo" (means something like "great", that's why it is called a great day). Watch out for the ending piggy song "Seishun amigo" by Shuuji to Akira (At first I did not get the point, but it is so adorable and stupid xD) aaa! the song Yamashita Tomohisa is singing in episode 7 is "Oyome ni oide" by Fukuyama Masaharu (Only that Yamashita Tomohisa sings it in slow-version). Also my friend said that in some episodes you can see people dancing far Shuuji&Akira "Seishun Amigo" dance, but I have not seen it myself (so going to look at it xD)
The cute side-characters were James and Shiitaka. I liked James, because he was only half-Japanese and made drama more international-level xD and Shiitaka.. he was just sooo stylish, cute and hot. I so want that Wakaba Ryuya could get his big time! (He actually has acted in many famous things like "GANTZ", "Gokusen 3" and he also acted in "My boss, my hero" and "Sensei wa Erai", which both I have seen, but I cannot remember him at all! :S I think he has not have any lead-roles at all. Okey, he was a lead in "4TEEN", but year then was 2004)
I saw a dream of "Nobuta wo produce" after rewatching it and I woke up with nose-bleed O.o....

SPOILER review: I thought for a long time that Mariko is the bitchest person of all, but she turned out to be the best one. But it was so horrible what Shuuji made to her!!! :S Girl's heart is very fragile and it hurts much, when a guy you like says it is all a lie. I liked her especially in the end, I loved that she became Nobuta's friend,but the real end... that was just O.o weird.. Shuuji and Akira just left her, I know it was her wish and blablablaa, but still! It was a bit... gay-ish (btw. I love gays, so I am not so homofob!) Two guys playing in the sea..?
I cannot understand how people always fell in love with wrong people??!! Nobuta broke even my heart when she choose Shuuji over Akira. Akira was always by her side, but still she started to love the "popular guy who everyone likes" -.- NANDE?? :S it is too sad... I wonder if they were going to ever meet again. I so hope they were xD
I still believe that it might have worked out between Nobuta and Shiitaka.. I would have not mind that in this way xD
and a special thing... AOI IS A CRAZY BITCH!!!!