Zenkai Girl (2011)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 11 episodes
Genre: romance, life
Cast: Aragaki Yui, Nishikido Ryo, Hirayama Hiroyuki, Yakushimaru Hiroko, Rebutsu Misako, Tani Kanon, Takagi Seira, Reina Asami, Takeushi Riki, Kaito Aiko, Suzuki Ryohei, Arakawa Yoshiyoshi, Minagawa Sarutoki, Aoyama Noriko, Sato Jiro,
Synopsis: Ayukawa Wakaba dreams of becoming an international lawyer. After getting into Samezima Sakuragawa law firm she gets her first assignment: babysitting boss's 5-years old daughter Hinata until the real nanny returns. In Hinata's preschool Wakaba meets a group of solo-dads who are the opposite of her ideal man, especially Yamada Shota, ex-chef who gave up his dreams in order to raise his ex-wife's son (from first marriage).
Rating: 4/5
I was surprised by "Zenkai Girl" as it was on my watch-list for 2 years already and my first opinion on it was not the best. After watching it, as you see, it got 4 stars and I admit that there was only a little missing from the last star.

Surely Someday (2010)

Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: drama, life&death, friendship, yakuza
Cast: Koide Keisuke, Katsuji Ryo, Ayano Gou, Suzuki Ryohei, Muro Tsuyoshi, Konishi Manami, Yokota Eiji, Yoshida Kotaru, Endo Kenichi, small roles: Inoue Mao, Otake Shinobu, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Ueto Aya (cameo), Oguri Shun
Synopsis: Five childhood friends (Takumi, Kyohei, Kazuo, Shuto, Yuki) form a rock band to perform in the upcoming cultural festival. Once the festival is cancelled, they threaten to  blow up the school. Even though the adults agree with their terms, they are unable to stop the homemade bomb. Three years later fate brings them together in order to help Kazuo, who had joined the yakuza, search for the prostitute they used to know and the 300 million yen she stole from him.
Rating: 4/5
It is Oguri Shun´s first directed movie. I had my prejudice because of Oguri Shun, but believe me -

 I think I have never misunderstood someone as much I have him and his talent. This is a different style of movie - I think that it has many great things put together - music, fun and serious underground. Mostly I like it because it is another movie where absolutely everything is related to  each other.
I do not have much to say about each character, so I will mention them later. The movie shows their life 3 years after the bomb incident and also there are scenes from their memories of the school time and from childhood. All they really wanted to do was to perform at cultural festival, well in the childhood Takumi just wanted to meet Misa and know more about her. I know that their way of handling things was wrong, but even more I think that many things just ran together.

The main person who made things to flow, was Takumi - he had a difficult relationship with his father due to ruining his career. Also Takumi was the one who came up with the bomb idea, but of course he did not want anything to do with gun powder in it. Koide Keisuke is amazing in this role. I feel like he gets hotter with years and I love his singing in the movie. Kyohei is the virgin, who makes Yuki put some gunpowder into the bomb - that gives him scruples for the three years as no one has spoken to Yuki since then.  There was only one minus of the story, which was connected to Kyohei´s character. The scene where he was made to "suck it", was filmed in a wrong way and actually Kyohei should have had horrible remorse and feeling of dieing (he a little bit had, but not enough). I have seen one film where the same kind scene is and it is filmed so well that it makes you very sick - besides in that movie the character decides to kill himself and the one who made him do it, because his remorse did not allow to live anymore.

 Like you understood, Yuki was the one who made the bomb - he is the least shown in the movie. Nothing more to say about Kazuo than he did not thought enough and really made excuse out of his sister. Shuto was aiming to become a real musician and all women fell for him by having a eye contact with him for 5 seconds - it happened to me through computer screen too, because Ayano Gou has sooooo beautiful eyes!!! One really important character is Misa who is connected to guys for years. Her story is so sad, because all she wanted was happiness and that someone could love her. Stupid Ijima (crazy yakuza boss) ruined her life.
At some points I was screaming that it cannot just happen so (A bit similar to "Troubleman), it is horrible when someone does not have luck at all and at the same time he is very lucky to survive everything.

The OST of the movie is great and you can see that Oguri Shun had thought through every single thing in it and that made it really good. You can feel that it was not something that was made for fun, but that it was serious work after long time thinking and organizing. I like the fact that the filming and the whole movie was kept in secret until it was finished and ready to show to viewers - that shows that Oguri Shun did not want to fail with it. It was a smart move to take widely-known actors like Inoue Mao, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Otake Shinobu, Ueto Aya into minor roles and even Oguri Shun himself acted for 30 seconds as a policeman.
I recommend to watch this movie when the possibility arises, because it is great.

Yankee-kun to Megane-chan (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: school, yankee, romance, comedy, violence
Format: drama 10 episodes
Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Naka Riisa, Hongo Kanata,  Koyanagi Yu, Kawaguchi Haruna, Suzuki Ryohei, Minagawa Sarutoki, Ito Shiro, Furuta Arata, Owada Miho
Synopsis: Shinagawa Daichi is referred as yankee, he gets lousy grades and is always fighting, but he attends a highly rated high school, because on the entrance examination he fell in love with one girl, who later disappeared. Adachi Hana is a former yankee, who tries to move on with her life to live like a normal girl. She sees in Daichi a person who could help her. They become classmates and with Adachi's persistent attitude, they become friends.
Rating: 3/5
It is based on a famous same-named manga, but I must say that the drama is not actually that much based on it. There were too many things left out and too much new stuff added or changed. Like actually Adachi lived with her grandmother, not grandfather; In manga, they do not show that much Shinagawa's family. They more concentrate on future choices in drama, but manga shows their time in school. But an important thing to remember is that when drama was filmed, the manga was still on-going!! That explains the different ends and all. The drama shows about 2 months since they met til the end of the drama, but in manga they meet on first high school year and the manga ends many years after the high school graduation.

But there were many great points!! First and the main thing - NARIMIYA HIROKI and NAKA RIISA! As amazing as it is Narimiya Hiroki played 10 years younger character than he in real life is. Shinagawa Daichi was 17 years old, but at that time Narimiya was 27. Sugoi, ne?? In addition, his face expressions are more than super. He has perfect yankee-voice even xD (Maybe the experience of "Bloody Monday" helped him to get a better feeling =P). Narimiya Hiroki and Naka Riisa hit in ten with their appearance and acting.(I am in Narimiya fandom at the moment... O.o he is just soo hot...). Shinagawa Daichi might be a yankee (actually he seems to be yankee against his will), but he has so kind heart and that is what gives him the hard time. I like his home clothes - sexy animal print =P He also has cat and dog printed wallpaber =D SHOO KAWAII! But I feel like story revolves too much around Shinagawa. You can see him smoking many times on screen, but in the end he smokes less and that is called Hana's charm =D

Adachi Hana seemed like three different people in one body. One is "former yankee", second is "trying-hard-to-be-normal-(geek)" and last is "real Hana". I like the third person the most xD I cannot believe how dumb she can be - it is  amazing. No matter what the thing is she is always "SHINAGAWA~!" xD She never understood the situation and got everything wrong. But this all makes her funny and it is nice to watch.
It is hilarious that Narimiya Hiroki and Naka Riisa voices sounded like weeping cats, when they were yelling at each other.

I do not understand why they did all other characters so annoying (except for Nerima, because NerimaXShinagawa friendship is one high light of the drama). Chiba pretty much is a wimp - he has so few self confidence in him and he is pretty naive. Rinka is too yankee.. she has personality crack too xD and Izumi has his own problems... which can be really weird in some scenes O.o  and actually he was not yankee - he used to be a biker in junior high. But I must say that Kanata Hongo has some amazing leg kicks  (he is the white-head dude) =P At all, the drama contains much much violence.

They try to solve student problems like working part-time at the same time, future choices and dreams. Like many of you know, working part-time while attending high school is mostly not allowed in Japan, there of course might be exceptions. I think it is because studying is hard enough, but I really think that there are some cases where it should allowed. I live in Europe (like you all have found out before, I believe) and I know that in my class about 6-7 students are working too, but it is because some of them are living alone and they must pay the bills themselves, some earn money for partying, because they are too ashamed to ask their parents and some of them are just earning money from their hobbies. About future choices, I think that every student must make the decision themselves. It is their life, not their parents! I know that parents want the best for their children, but if they make their children study something that actually makes them unhappy?? To end this paragraph, I repeat

Shinagawa's words "Everybody has a dream, but not everyone are telling it out!"
It suck in technical way - it is too fake, but "imagination points" are extra-funny and these are in every episode too =D But I must say that Shinagawa reads too much manga, because his imagination was actually shoujo-like xD
The best thing is to watch it as a totally different drama, which has little to do with manga. As a live-action it sucks more than it should.