Eternal First Love (2010)

Also known as: Koi suru naporitan
Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: romance, life&death, drama
Cast: Aibu Saki, Maki Daisuke, Tsukamoto Takashi, Ichikawa Tomohiro, Ichikawa Kamejiro, Tsubasa Makoto, Kitaoji Kinya,  
Synopsis: Takeshi is an Italian chef who has been best friends with Ruri since elementary school. Despite the fact that they have feelings for each other, they have never crossed the friendship line. On Ruri's engagement night she calls Takeshi to ask for his final thoughts, but Takeshi hears the message too late. He runs to Ruri just to find out that Ruri has accept the proposal. At the same moment a fateful accident happens which takes away Takeshi's life, but fate gives him another chance giving Takeshi's soul his killer Makihara Yuki's body. 
Rating: 3/5
Well, I watched it being influenced by my twin-sister. She madly wanted to see it, but in the end the movie turned out be something she was not expecting. As she said: "Come on! Tsukamoto Takashi and Aibu Saki playing best friends in love - you have to see that!".

Taiyou no Uta (2006)

Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: life&death, romance
Cast: YUI, Tsukamoto Takashi, Asagi Kuniko, Kishitani Goro, Toyama Airi, Fuse Eri, 
Synopsis: Amane Kaoru is 16 year old girl who lives a different life from others - she sleeps on daytime and wakes up after the sun has gone down just to go out to play her guitar on streets. Actually she suffers from a rare disease called XP (xeroderma pigmentosum), which makes Sun her fatal enemy. At the same time there is a guy named Kouji who lives a care-free life, passing Kaoru's window at every dawn to go to surf. Despite having different lifestyles, the fate brings them together to give them time to change something in them.
Rating: 5/5
Belive me or not, but this movie did not make me cry and in some way it is not bad thing at all.

Kaoru is a really sweet girl who can be straightforward about her feelings, but also decent and hold back. YUI is a perfect choice for this role, because of her beautiful voice and cute appearance. I have always liked YUI's songs and they were enjoyable as a OST, but about acting - like usually singers should sing and actors act. She was not bad or anything, but just amateur. Of course, there were things that were a bit creepy - I mean, stalking a guy with a camera is not a thing that normal girls should do. I was impressed by Kaoru's strength to face her illness - she knew that her illness has no cure, but she decided to live the fullest as long as she can.

Kouji is a "baka"-guy. He is not talented nor smart, but he has a big heart and he does not think weird about people who give a sudden confession attack. I think he was actually flattered and amused by Kaoru's actions. I saw Tsukamoto Takashi in "Hungry" for the first time, but as he was a supporting actor, then he did not receive so much attention from me, but this time I was really looking at him and Gyoza! I need to see him more in dramas/movies (especially, because he has acted a lot).
I also enjoyed watching the parents, because they were the perfect example of how parents try to

make everything to protect their child, while blaming themselves for child's misfortune (I actually do not think that "misfortune is the right word in this context, but I do not find better words) . I do think that Kishitani Goro might have been the best actor in this movie for his role as father, because he was really great.
Now to the reason why it did not make me cry. It was very predictable - I knew everything that was going to happen, so things did not come as a surprise. More than that, the start was really slow. It took too much time showing the surrounding before getting into the real story, which made the story a little bit shallow and short. It is a bittersweet love story, that leaves the taste of sadness into you.

Hungry! (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 11 episodes
Genre: food, romance
Cast: Mukai Osamu,Takimoto Miori, Inagaki Goro, Kuninaka Ryoko, Tsukamoto Takashi, Miura Shohei, Kawabata Kaname, Katagiri Hairi, Ishiguro Hideo, Osugi Ren,
Synopsis: Yamate Eisuke (Mukai Osamu) is the son of famous French chef in Japan. Even though Eisuke is born with cooking talent, he decided to succeed in rock world with his friends. But after turning 30 without musical debut, his life is turned up-side-down by mother's sudden death and loss of family's French restaurant. He decides to pick up cooking again by opening his own French restaurant with his former band mates in a old warehouse.  
Rating: 4/5
Easiest  way to finish this drama fast, is to eat when you are watching it. From my experience, it is difficult to watch as a poor uni student, but I was able to make myself something delicious to enjoy while watching.

Eisuke is rude and selfish man, but at the same time he can be really caring too and no matter what

the topic is, he is always having long wires. Despite the fact that he is super hot, he does not understand anything about women which makes love-triangles super difficult for him. He also is really bad with remembering people's names. Yeah, Mukai is veery hot, but for me he was outnumbered by Miura Shohei. But for your information, Mukai has been cooking since middle school and thought of becoming a chef in high school, do not know how great chef he would have been, but I think we all agree that we are happy that he became actor instead. He even took extra French cooking lessons, because he was not so familiar to French cuisine before, so in reality he REALLY cooked those foods himself.

During the drama he also gave out French cuisine recipe book to give Japanese people the possibility to enjoy French foods at home. I liked the t-shirts he was wearing, because they had great texts on, like "Heaven", "Girlfriend is better.." and especially the one "Trust me  - I am asshole"Priceless! Only thing that turned me off was when Mukai was wearing crocs . No matter how hot Mukai is, even he cannot make crocs seem normal.. For me, I do not think it was Mukai's best performances, but I think that might be because Eisuke is a difficult character too.

Kenta and Tsuyoshi are Eisuke's best-friends and former band mates, who start working with him at

the restaurant. Kenta is the most mature one, who is focused on getting married to his longtime girlfriend Toko - one of the cutest girls in the drama. Though he does not seem violent, fights between him and Eisuke are usual things, because he is one person who is telling the truth into Eisuke's face when he is getting annoyed. Tsuyoshi is single beer-loving man, who mostly thinks of boobs. He is one of those persons who make this drama worth naming comedy as the boob-jokes become frequent jokes. The coolest thing is that he does not have much lines, but him being on the screen fills his role. For Kawabata Kaname this was his first role and I think it was perfect.

When you know me enough, then I bet you already know that Taku was my favorite. He is cute, naive and always-go-lucky. He is the only one who did not abandon rock music, even though he did not seem to find a suitable band to be part of. Of course Taku did weird stuff at the beginning, but he had that charm to say "nothing of this really matters". If I were to say something negative about him, then Miura Shohei played him too much as Nakatsu from "Hanakimi", because Miura Shohei played the role of Nakatsu in 2011 version of "Hanazakari no kimitachi e" just before "Hungry!".    

Chie is 20 years old university student, who had her first falling in love, but I must say that she was

really childish. Chie had so many relations to their restaurant, but she was like little sister to all of them, because they all had 10 years age difference (except for Taku, who was the middle one 25). Especially for Eisuke, she was small brat who supported him. Chie was really cute when she talked nonsense that no one also understood. She was another character who made drama funnier, because Takimoto Miori has these great face impressions. But again the negative thing was that in some scenes she reminded me too much Mio/Miko from "Ikemen desu ne", which again was her last role before "Hungry!". 

Aso is the one character who pissed me off the most. I do not understand why Inagaki Goro plays the bad guys - all the roles I have watched from him, he is being complete bastard, but must agree, that he acts damn well these roles. Aso has many mental problems starting from being control freak. Also at one moment, I even got the thought that he might be gay, but watch and see that you will think it too! I did not agree with his views on French restaurants as I think that the best is when you can feel comfortable while eating delicious cheaper food. I would never pay expensive price just to get one small spoon of cream -.- I know I am a glutton like Chie who likes to eat and eat and eat, so I prefer when I can get full stomach from the price I am paying for it. While Aso was complaining about Eisuke's restaurant name, then I did not like his "Gasteria" at all - it reminds me "Gas" and "cafeteria" and when we but together food and gases, then of course it nails the top, but I would not want to go to restaurant to end up with gases....

Maria/Mariya is Eisuke's girlfriend, who liked more Eisuke-the-rocker than Eisuke-the-chef. I find her a bit annoying with all her diets and biorhythms, but she was the only one who was able to make Eisuke smile at any moment, because Eisuke was actually really bad with smiling to other people.There are a lot of more characters who make it really funny to watch, because they all have their own niche to be remembered, so I am not going to mention all of them. But I cannot help it to say that Chie's little brother Sasuke was way too cool, I totally adore him, because he was soo stupid.
It has a really tragic start, but later it gets a bit funnier, even though I would not consider that so much comedy, because mostly the "funny" happened with same characters and many of them were side-characters. Also, the OST is amazing! Theme song is "Rock me baby" by THE BAWDIES. The drama was later made into manga.

SPOILER review: I did not like the ending. Okey, they were able to get their restaurant back and continue to keep it. Eisuke and Maria stayed together, Kenta got married, Aso-san leaved them alone, but I do not like the fact that they left TakuXChieXEisuke triangle all opened. I would have preferred that she would have given up on Eisuke for once and for all and started to see only Taku, because it was so clear that for Eisuke she is only like a little sister!! It made me so angry, because there was Taku who had fallen sooo in love with her, but she was still after Eisuke who had intentions of getting married to Maria in future. I find her way of thinking so annoying and childish. Okey, she was only 20 so it is normal for her to want to date and stuff, but Eisuke and Maria were already over 30, soo I felt just angry at Chie in the end -.- Totally took 1/2 star down because of that..

Stand Up! (2003)

Country: Japan
Genre: youth, youngster, ***
Format: drama 11 episodes
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Narimiya Hiroki, Oguri Shun, Ninomiya Kazunari, Suzuki Anne, (Minor roles of Tsukamoto Takashi, Becky, Sugita Kaoru, Shaku Yumiko)
Synopsis: Shouhei (Ninomiya Kazunari), Kengo (Yamashita Tomohisa), Kouji (Oguri Shun) and Hayato (Narimiya Hiroki) find out that they are the last virgins in their high school. At the summer vacation their childhood crush Chie comes to visit them after 11 years. The summer of last youth is on with many promises, obstacles and as well as love and pain.
Rating: 5/5
It IS SOOO FUNNY!!! In some way it it really pathetic who try tried to lose their virginity in any matter, but at the same time to protect it? But those two exclude each other! It shows really well nowadays youngsters, but drama gives much notes to write down for beginners - Lesson one should be: ALWAYS use protection! I liked the fact that drama does not show only guys viewpoint, but from Chie (played by Suzuki Anne) you can hear about girls view too. At the same time, Chie´s story was so horrible and sad, but actually it might happen to lot of people (Yes, even to guys).
Parents were sooooo annoying!!! You cannot protect your child from everything and you definitely cannot control child´s life! I was so pissed off because of the parents. Only parents who were a little bit normal were Kenken´s (Kengo) and Shou-chan´s (Shouhei) moms. Even though Kenken´s mom owned a love hotel and her thoughts and sayings were.. eeem mostly the things the guys thought. I liked that they understood that their children are growing up and it is all part of it. It is like my parents have said to me: "We have been young too" (Not about that certain thing, but still).
Friendship between guys and Chie were so sweet. Even though, Chie was mostly outsider, they really worked everything out.
The cast is excellent! Just read the names from cast and you want to watch it!
I just thought about drama name... you can think about the meaning in two ways... =P