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.

The Seaside Motel (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: romance, comedy, surreal, yakuza, (contains sex and violence)
Format: movie
Cast: Ikuta Toma, Aso Kumiko, Narumi Riko, Yamada Takayuki, Tamayama Tetsuji, Emoto Tokio, Furuta Arata, Nukumizu Yoichi, Kojima Hijiri, Ikeda Tetsuhiro, Yamasaki Mami
Synopsis: There is a motel named The Seaside Motel between a rural mountain area, where no water is found near to it or in it. A lousy swindler Kameda Masayuki (Ikuta Toma) is sent there to sell 50 fake body creams. A call girl Candy (Aso Kumiko) enters his room by mistake. As they try to swindle each others money, they find more things in life. A businessman Ishizuka Tatsuya wants to spend the first night with his cabaret girlfriend Marine in the room next to Kameda's. In the other room a former yakuza Asakura Yosuke is staying with his cat-crazy girlfriend Rui, but is interrupted by a childhood friend, yakuza Aida and his younger follower Chi-bo. The last room is occupied by Ota and his wife, who tends to be jealous. Night is full of lies and everyone lives will be changed, but no-one really meets others. What will happen when the sun rises?
Rating: 5/5
It looks like 4 different stories and they really are different, except that one's story is totally connected with others. It makes the feeling that "If he/she was not there or would not have said this, then it would not have happened!". There is impossible to say that the movie is love movie or a tearjerker - there is love, sadness, fright, mystery, friendship, it is totally surreal, but all logical at the same time. Really important is to check time when watching, because the time is always different - another scene might show the time which happened before the last one. Stories are very unexpected and everything really is related! One thing leads to another and you can see that everything has at least two sides of it. What seems good at first can end up being bad.
I liked the sounds in it and amazing shooting. There is not used a usual technicals, which makes even more interesting to watch it. now to the 4 stories...

Room 102. Kameda and Candy. I think that everyone agrees if I say that they are most likely to stars of the movie. I liked that it gave another view of Candy's work, because I have thought several times, why some women have this kind of work. It was so fun to see how they totally lied to each other, but finally were lost in their own lies too, but at the same time it showed that if a person plays around to much, then in the end others won't know if he/she speaks the truth or not. It reminds one lamb story, but I am seriously not going to write it here.

I loved some quotes by them. "A fake thing can turn into something genuine" and "Woman look into the future, but men worry about the past". I find those quotes true. It was the first movie I have seen by them, but I find Ikuta Toma an excellent actor. He has great face expressions, he seems to be able to act any character and he looks so true.

Room 103. Ishizuka and Marine. I do not know what to say about them. Ishizuka was total a*****, so he totally deserved what happened to him. Marine was really cute, but she was soooooooo stupid. Yamasaki Mami really is flexible! It is sooo amazing!!
Room 202. Yakuza stuff. In this room the most sickest things happened. The torturing part is the worst. If other rooms had just 2 people, then it had 5 people.

Riu (Narumi Riko) really asked too much. I was just watching and even I felt my head exploding. She is too freaking naive and there are to much cats.
Room 203. Ota and his wife. I think that they had the smallest screen time, but they changed much in the storyline, but not as much as others. I  liked that their story showed how to go trough grief, which made it really sad.
I think that's all.. (I am really tired as it is almost 2 am in the morning). Almost all the characters act in it, not just actors, but characters too, which I think makes it harder for actors. There are so much lies, but in the end the truth reveals as "A lie has a short legs".

Also the movie shows that your life can be changed by a total stranger who just passes by. Just because you see this person, he/she already is part of your life. Just that second might change something. While staying in hotel or riding a train/bus, think about the person in the other room or sitting next to you. His/her life and problems - we do know nothing about them, ne? ^^

Sunao ni Narenakute (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: life, romance, friendship, LGBT
Format: drama 11 episodes
Cast: Ueno Juri, Eita, Hero Jae Joong, Tamayama Tetsuji, Seki Megumi, Kinami Haruka, Fubuki Jun, Igawa Haruka, Nakamura Youichi, Watanabe Eri, Kikkawa Koji, (minor role: Katsumura Masanobu)
Synopsis: Nakajima/Nakaji is a photographer, but gets job only from bravura magazines. Mizuno/Haru is a provisional high school teacher, but dreams to be a full time teacher. Nishimura/Peach is Mizuno's best friend, but she is always in boyfriend troubles, beside this time she found out that she is pregnant. Ishihara/Linda works for highly rated magazine, but is sexually harassed by chief editor. Park/Doctor works as salesman of medical equipments and does not have any friends since moving to Japan. They start being Twitter friends and one day they decide to meet as real people. New friendship of youth, love, pain and grief begins.
Rating: 4/5
This is THE BEST Kitagawa Eriko's works. At first main storyline goes really slowly, but (I think it was since 4th episode) then all kind of things start to happen really fast. Also what is Kitagawa Eriko's like, is that Haru character is a little bit cry-baby and undeceiving, but compared to Kitagawa's  other works, it is the strongest lead female, but I think that is just thanks to Ueno Juri.
It might seem like a love story at the first place, but I saw more friendship and life's obstacles in it. It really shows the everyday struggles and things in life, which we might not even notice.

Really great work has done with other characters too - they are so different and it is hard to find favourite one. I liked that Doctor used those Korean sayings and his kind personality was cool, he was understanding and caring. Hero Jae Joong acted really well. (In one episode Doctor is totally drunk and that I ended up seeing a dream about him while sleeping.. it was more than weird). Peach first seemed like she has some mental problems, but after a while she was just really cute.

At the first place  I found weird that Ishihara's twitter name was Linda as it is a woman's name, then I thought that he has just some problems with sex, but in a weird way I did not see it coming that he was gay (I understood it when he hugged Nakaji's jacket). Tamayama Tetsuji hit the favorite actor button. Just amazing how well he played the gay part - all those looks and hand movements actually showed everything. Amazing!! I really think that his personal story was the hardest and saddest of all.
This time the catch phrase was "Sore wa Ikenai!"- definitely a catchy thing.

Story itself is veeery unpredictable. Most of the thoughts I had in the begging turned to another in the end. I was not able to predict the next episode even after watching the "next episode preview". Like you get from the start then somebody is hurt by love veeeeery much. I had 4-5 different characters in thought who might be it. It is exciting.
GREAT SOUNDTRACKS - main song is "Great DJ" performed by The Ting Tings. Super great song.

SPOILER review. And then the bad side of the drama.. It was hard to understand since when Haru started to like Doctor and that made me hesitate about Haru's decision, but  that was the only bad thing I can remember. There was a high possibility for a cliche point, but IT WAS AMAZING and did not obey to cliche, so thanks to that it really got plus points. Actually there was almost no cliche's (I might lie to you xD). Also in some way it was funny that when Linda died, then only the male characters cried. There was one side story of Nakaji dad and Haru's mom too, but it was not much important.