Runway Beat (2011)

Country: Japan
Genre: fashion, friendship, school
Format: movie
Cast: Seto Koji, Sakuraba Nanami, Kiritani Mirei, Tanaka Kei, IMALU, Michiko Kichise, Murakami Rikako, Tanabe Seiji, Kaji Masaki, Mizuno Erina 
Synopsis: While visiting her mother at hospital Mei meets a boy named Mizorogi Biito aka Beat who also has just transferred to her class and whom she quickly befriends with. Their class decides to throw a fashion show for the school's annual festival as they have in their class top model Miki and Beat, who has sewing and fashion in his blood. With big goals before their eyes they soon learn the truth about love, making dreams come true and grown-up's dirty games.
Rating: 3/5
Nowadays youngster's movie - many have compared it too American "Glee" series (even the director), but I did not see the similarity between them. May be it was that the whole class bonded and decided to make things as they want. Or may be I have not watched enough "Glee" - stopped watching it after they all started to date each other and tv-channel changed the airing time..

Seto Koji, cute as pie, plays the cool, unique guy, who has fashion design in his blood =D His grandfather taught him to sew with machine before he was going to school and his dad is a famous designer. At first he does not want to become designer as he tells that "people are more important than clothes". Beside the fact that his designs are incredible, he has amazing personality of being out-going, friendly and knowing what others want. I do not know why he likes skirts so much - it is a bit toooo much men wearing skirts, but may be they want to start a new trend (except for Johnnys - they have worn skirts on concerts since they started) He really loved stars too.

I liked his designs for girls more and I seriously want to have these dresses into my closet! (but I even do not know the real-life designer of those). Easily said, he and his dad are not on the best relationship - Beat blames him in insensitivity, because he was not there when Beat's mom passed away - and dad does not appreciate his skills. I must say that I did not recognise Tanabe Seji - his hair looks awful! Beat wore many times awesome T-shirt - it had on catch-words "Dependence, Faith, Worship, Determination, Resistance, Hope, Nature, Wanderlust, Humility, Visibility, Organisation, Light" - these are words that I think should be in everyones lives.

Mei is the narrator of the story, which tries to say "People, who believe, can change!". Mei falls in love with Beat from the first sight, but she is soooo friendzoned form the same moment. At least, she is the person who spends the most time with Beat in order to make the fashion show work. She is not so out-going and is a little bit indecisive. I loved a sentence "Rather than denying your feelings, I suggest a good cry" - this is something I am not able to do - I cannot cry when I get hurt in love - otherwise you know me - crying in every drama.  Sakuraba Nanami seems to be a great actress, so I put some hope in seeing her more in the future, since she is so young.

Kirira is the girl in hospital. I hope it is not a spoiler to say that she has leukemia. She is the closest friend of Beat - they have been friends from kindergarden. I do not know if they actually met there or not, but the point is that from that kind of time. I hoped more from her story, but they only concentrated on Beat, fashion show and Mei. I really did not understand if he loved her or not, so it was a negative thing, but I would like to think he did not do it out of pity.

Wanda is played by Tanaka Kei. He actually was my favourite character, but that for personal interest as he is interested in architecture and so am I. His changing was very impressive and he turned into amazing ikemen. It is totally wrong that people say "Looks do not matter, what is important is who you are inside!" - looks is a way to reflect your personality and if you are happy with how you look, you are happier and more self-confident! Like you can see from Wanda's change - every person can be the most handsome in the world!

Kiritani Mirei - name which I tried to recall all movie long - was Miki - famous model in the class. At many times she was a bitch, but she had a great heart. Like in all youth-movies - her mom was her manager who did not care much about her opinion.
It is amazing that almost everyone in this class can sew! Even some girls in my class cannot sew! and I think it is one of the basic things for a woman to know how to do. Sorry if I insult someone - I know that not everyone has the ability to sew and it is okey not to sew, but for both women and men it is one useful ability.

Before watching it I had hard time with movie's name - even though I knew it was "Runway Beat" and I know clearly the difference between "runway" and "runaway", I tended to write the last one -.- Isn't it easier to pronounce "runaway" than "runway"? Well, they make fun of it in the movie too. 
As I said before, there is not much plot and no clear main idea - it is just a good movie to pass time.

Koizora (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre: romance, school, family,drama
Format: drama 6 episodes
Cast: Mizusawa Elena, Seto Koji, Abe Tsuyoshi, Aoi, Miura Shohei, Haru, Nagayama Kento,
Synopsis: Drama version of "Koizora". Mika´s life is pretty normal, until she is suddenly kissed by Sakurai Hiro, a boy from her school with a abnormal appearance. At the same time, there is Mika´s classmate Tatsuya, who is in love with Mika, but with Hiro´s persevere, surprising and sudden character leaves a big impact into girl´s heart. 
Rating: 5/5
I like the drama version much more than movie version - there are just too many things going on to but it into 1,5 hour, even though in the end drama got a bit too lingering. 
I liked Seto Koji´s acting more. Furthermore, I loved Hiro´s character - he is totally the guy whom

girls might fell for. His surprising and sudden acts were the things which make girl´s heart race. (But there are also some things I do not approve to remake in real life). Hiro acted like a bad guy, but actually was really caring and loving. The head patting is one of the cutest things of all and girls actually like that (at least I do) ^^ At first, Hiro seems really persistent and kinda delusional, but it was more caused by the fact that he was used to "easy" girls and that's something that Mika definitely is not. I felt that thanks to Mika Hiro grew up. You can hear Seto Koji singing and playing the guitar too!! (if you do not know, then Seto Koji is in a j-rock band called Tetra-Fang and in a actors group D-BOYS)

The storyline was beautiful and really sad. How is it possible, that when somebody finds her/his true love, then something sad and terrible will happen? Oke, it is not so all the time, but Hiro´s and

Mika´s love story is based on true-life-events. It was originally a keitai-novel written by Mika. To me the story was really unpredictable and every new thing surprised me. From the start you can understand that something is going to happen, but you do not know what! (It is like "Nana" anime, where I started to cry in the end of every episode, because I knew something will happen, but did not knew what) Mika is played by Mizusawa Elena. Her acting is not the best in it, but it was her first time acting too, so let's forgive her. Mika is used to be protected and her horizon is actually really narrow at first. She is shy, plain and she does not have an outstanding beauty, but there is something really cute and natural in her. That's what makes men fall for her and their exes' hate her. Dealing with jealous ex and her friends can be really frightening and I know the fear she was going through. Being afraid to walk alone on the streets and changing route just because you see one of them - even though when you say that it did not shake you at all and you will not give up on a guy just for that, there will be the fear for long time. Especially, when you have been seriously threaten.

The friend-relationship between Mika-Aya and Hiro-Nozumu is really great. True friendship is when you do not betray your friend. Mika made everything she could to get Aya and Nozumu together and Aya was always by her side. Like the time when news about Mika´s and Hiro´s relationship spreed out, then Aya told Mika to keep chin up and smile as she usually does ^^ And Nozumu kept his promise to Hiro, even though he did not approve it, because he saw how much Hiro is actually hurt.

There are two sentence more, which I like and both of them are from Mika:
"Do I need a reason to like something?" - actually, you really don´t! It just happens and you cannot tell the reasons. It might be someone or something - it does not matter. Do you can give reasons to

everything you like? I know that I cannot, because I like really weird stuff too. Another sentence was "Walking shoulder by shoulder at the same pace" - in fact in this scene Hiro and Mika did not walk in the same pace, but you get the idea. I never knew what is so great about it, but I think that until you have not walked with somebody like it, you will never knew. Even if you are not in a relationship or if it is only the person you like (might be one-sided crush), when you notice that you are walking down the stairs with that person step by step in the same pace, even though you see that he could walk faster (because you are in shock and are walking really slowly), it is something that you will always remember. As you might understand, it has happened to me - he was my first love. He always took me by surprise, but at that time.. well, I was not the person I am today. I think that it is with all first loves in the world ( not accurate about people who marry their first love), that first love is something that is bittersweet, it hurts like hell, but feels like heaven at the same time and you know that no matter what you will always remember him/her.
I think that "Koizora" is definitely a MUST-WATCH drama, real classic that you will remember after watching. When I re-watched it, I started to cry after first 3 minutes of first episode, so cry-baby's (like me) need a tissue-box near you!

SPOILER-review: I do understand why Hiro broke up with Mika and did not say the truth about the cancer. I think that in these kind of decisions there actually is not right way, because I too would not want to make my partner suffer, but at the same time.. he should have the right to know. As I said, it is really difficult to find any easy way.
There was one thing that I did not understood - why they did not use protection? If you have sex, then use protection - it is a really easy knowledge and I would not say that they are terrible expensive or difficult to find from stores (first part might depend on countries, but it is cheaper than bring up a child). On the other hand, I am extremely happy that they decided to keep the baby, even though things went other way, because I agree with Mika on this question - I would never forgive myself if I get pregnant and would not give birth to this child. I know so many acquaintances, who have made abortion and I do not judge them for their decisions, but I am just saying that it is something that I would not do.