Ashita no Joe (2011)

Country: Japan
Genre: boxing, dreams
Format: movie
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Iseya Yusuke, Karina, Kagawa Teruyuki, Katsuya, Koga Mitsuki, Moro Morooka, Nishida Naomi, Sugimoto Tetta, Baisho Mitsuko, Tsugawa Masahiko, Hulk Ren,
Synopsis: Story is set in 1960s in a city slum. Yabuki Joe is poor, but a great fighter. His fighting skills get noticed by ex-boxer Tange Danpei, who now has ruined his life with alcohol. Unfortunatelly, the fight leads Joe into prison for one year. Tange has made up his mind to make Joe into professional boxer. After losing a man-to-man match to Rikiishi Toru, Joe decides to accept Tange's offer in order to pay back to Rikiishi, who after releasing from prison continued his shining boxer-career. 
Rating: 5/5
Made after one of the most famous same-named sport-manga by Isao Bitou. Manga was published from 1968 to 1973, but is still famous nowadays.

Yabuki Joe is one badass. He tends to think he is much better than he really is, which makes him more vulnerable and naive. Most of the time he does not listen to Danpei on the match. Btw, I adore his hair =P I think that Joe's role shows how great and willing is Yamashita Tomohisa as an actor. He went on a serious boxer diet, that did not contain any red meat (!), for the role. He took down about 9 kg and 9% of body fat and went through boxer training. About the diet he said at first that it was okey, but as the time went on, he admitted that no-one should go through it and the diet was more like a nightmare. I agree - he looked too skinny in the end and there was no chubby cheeks.

One amazing fact about the movie is that all the punches were real - I think they wanted to make it very real-like... Under-cover fact, there is a rumor that he got one veeeery painful punch to one very gentle spot during filming, but he said that he is okey and continued to film until the end of the scene - after that he went to dressing room alone and kept punching the wall because of the pain - how much more can one actor put up with for the sake of the role??

Rikiishi Toru was Joe's only real rival, but I saw them more as best buddies too. They saw each other as the reason to continue with boxing and they were the only ones to truly understand each other. Iseya Yusuke also took down on weight and in the end his body fat was only 3-4%!!! In movie, I felt sick when I saw his abs - he was way to skinny! I do not find man with these kind of abs sexy..

Karina was very elegant in Yoko role. Yoko was one fateful woman. I did not understand what she felt towards Joe, but as you see, she had feelings for Rikiishi. Also, Yoko suffered from past trauma, which makes her real bitch, who cares less about pour people. That's why I enjoyed all the things Joe said to her. Brilliant!

Danpei's actor Kagawa Teruyuki actually is a big boxing fan, so in his free days he went and taught Yamashita about box.  I liked the saying "Tomorrow will never come if you do not spend today well".
I have no words left. It was very interesting and I understand why it is soooo great. There are some slow motion scenes and they look horrible! (in a good way). The shootings were amazing! but even after watching an incredible movie as "Ashita no Joe", I do not like box - it is too violent.
Definitely, WATCH IT!! You will not regret it!

SPOILER review: In the end of the manga, Joe dies too. In movie, he does not die, but Rikiishi dies after the ending match. Weird is it that I cried when Joe lost the match, but I did not cry when Rikiishi died...

Shounen wa tori ni natta (2001)

Also known as: The boy became a bird
Country: Japan
Genre: family, life&death, friendship
Format: movie
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Kazama Shunsuke, Nishimura Risa, Asano Yuko, Furuoya Masato, Asai Erina, Tsugawa Masahiko,Takaoka Saki, Taguchi Junnosuke,
Synopsis: Ken is 15 year old boy, who was born with hole in his heart. Even though doctors did not give him any hope, he was able to live that long. But there are even more troubles beside disease - his friend Kira has always played piano and now is suddenly giving up on it and another friend Koiichi avoids him. Ken believes that seeing a Inuwahi (a great mountain eagle) will give strength to everyone as they struggle in life.
Rating: 2/5

It is another sad and slow movie. It more seems to be the mother's side of the story as she is the narrator. I think that mother had the hardest time there. She was the one who gave birth to Ken and yet no matter what she did, she actually can't help him.
The best part of the movie (in my mind) is Yamashita Tomohisa's acting. I think that playing a person with a disease is really hard and easy to over-do it, but he made it realistic. Also, even back then he had a great English, a little bit too abrupt, but still good.

What I did not like, was some lines in the script. Like how can Kira and Koichi envy Ken? More than that, I do not understand how can anybody envy someone else? Just accept your life and start smiling! You may think I am naive, but I believe that if a person really wants, he/she can see a small happy thing in everything. In addition, I do not understand Japanese schools anymore. I have seen it in "1 litre of tears" that school better gets rid of the student than tries to help him/her. My high school really tries to help them and I have not heard that someone is "expelled" for that, but it seems that in Japan it is more usual to wash ones hands of it. (That all reminds me that I must attend school year opening ceremony in 1,5 hours... and I am not even ready..).
I liked the sisters and beautiful scenery's. The mountains are amazing. I am living in a place where are no mountains... -.-
In the end, It is very heartwarming and sad movie. It makes you cry (especially Yamashita Tomohisa's fans xD). It actually looked like half-documentary movie as it has amazing bird shoots.
(PS! I have no idea in which scene Taguchi Junnosuke played, but I believe that he was a member of a class)