Long Love Letter (2002)

Tagline: Drifting classroom
Country: Japan
Genre: surreal, sci-fi, romance, school
Format: drama, 11 episodes
Cast: Kubozuka Yousuke, Tokiwa Takako, Yamada Takayuki, Yamashita Tomohisa, Suzuki Emi, Karina, Osugi Ren, Misukawa Asami, Tsumabuki Satoshi,
Synopsis: Misaki Yuka and Asami Akio meet by chance at a bookstore. Even though they feel connection between each other, they are unable to meet again. One year later, Yuka is working in her dad's flower shop and Asami as a math teacher in Motokura high school. They meet again when Yuka goes to the school to collect money from a client there - re-encounter does not go as well as they hoped. Yuka receives a call from her former student to meet with her day after that. Next day Yuka goes back to the school (she did not get the money day before) - Asami wishes to clear the misunderstanding between them when suddenly an earthquake occurs. When they open their eyes again, they find that everything but school has turned into sand - or is it the school that has disappeared from its place?
Rating: 4/5
Really highly rated drama! It would have been a total killer if it would not have had one tooo annoying point in it, but more about it later. You can read about the end of the drama from SPOILER-review.

The main main character is more actually Asami, but I know that it does not seem to be so according to the synopsis. Asami is played by Kubozuka Yousuke. He is really amazing actor (well, it is his first drama I have seen) - all emotions are well played. As Asami is one character who goes through all kind of different scenes - he is being jealous, angry, sad, in love etc. Really cute - especially "Let's go on a date under the desert moon" *romance level 100* He tells most of the truths in the drama like "As long as you live, you have hope!". His and Yuka's love story in it is really cute form the start. When in Code blue operation with drill (construction drill) was sick, then prepare yourself to ultimate sickness as they perform an operation with paper knifes and spoons.

It is weird how things start to happen first with Yuka - that's why in the synopsis she is most mentioned. She gives the feminine aura to drama as she really starts to act as a mother by protecting the students. Her background is later explained, but it is difficult to understand her feelings towards Fujisawa, the former student of her.
Takamatsu is the main character among the students. He is really insensitive and stupid when it comes to Kaoru, his girlfriend, but he is only character whose mental growth is clearly shown. As well he is the one who wants to go back to the so-called reality the most as he starts to regret his foolness in the real world. What I did not know was that Yamada Takayuki is the same actor who played in The Seaside Motel as Asakura Yousuke (room 202). AMAZING! Kaoru stays in the real world, that's why they start to think about their relationship more - it is sweet how much Kaoru loves him.

Otomo Tadashi, played by Yamashita Tomohisa, is smart yet lazy best-friend of Takamatsu. He is popular, but does not have a girlfriend and he is regularly (mentally and almost sexually) abused by his teacher Sekiya. Tadashi is a little bit scary character by his talk - he mentions the most about killing and suicides, but at the same time he also talks the most about girls and sex. High point of him is when Takamatsu tells him "Don't jump on her!" when Nishi is unconscious in next bed and he answers "I am not that desperate!".

Others - Sekiya is way tooo crazy - even in the real world she has mental issues, which deepens with shock. Kamo is the genius of the drama - her IQ is 230 and she really finds out everything with out leaving the place (okey, GPS scene is an exceptition), but in the end, she comes to the same result with out leaving school as others are spending outside researching. Nishi is a girl whose leg is injured - she sets many things into motion like some happenings, Tadashi's heart etc, but she is really scary when she is having a revelation - I have never liked it when people start talking nonsense without remembering it later.
(Question!! - Is Ikegaki played by Kanjani8's Murakami Shingo? I have not seen videos of him from that age, but Ikegaki is pretty similar to him - there is no information of Ikegaki's actor on the Internet, so I would be happy if some Kanjani8's fan would tell it to me! ^o^)

Drama contains several messages to people. One, which is most talked about, is "Only this moment matters! Live for the moment" - in drama they start with it, but in the end they find out that other way is possible too, as it is rather difficult thing to do. I think you should live for the moment, but think for the future - another weird thing about me. This drama definitely makes you think about the situation when some people you used to know are not anymore with you. Other thing is that we all must keep the nature - we cannot use all resources and we definitely cannot pollute our nature with all kind of chemicals! It is true that deserts have widen with recent years, so we really must take care of areas close to deserts (It is easy for me to say as I live so far from it)
But now to the reasons why it lost its 5th star. It might be a spoiler, but they show what happens with human - how they evolve into something spiderlike things. When I first saw them I was like "WTGYOZA! YOU JUST RUINED THE DRAMA!" I understand that it had to be more science fiction with it, but it more was similar to "Boogeyman" (2005, USA) when you finally see that Boogeyman is a really failure puppet. I seriously hated those spider-like-humans as much as that lamb meat in my rice. In some way it is just another sci-fi about 21st century, which were so popular before 2000 and some years after it. Also the jump in the last episode is actually impossible - and that scene was anyway bad, because you can see it how they all jump down not forward. I think the last episode is the worst episode of the drama.

You never know what happens next in this drama and that's why some things at first seem impossible - why and what really happened to that school? how can they navigate in desert? How much to the future they went? How much fuel the car has?? At first I thought they have not noticed so-called "mistakes", but actually they will give answers to all those questions above, except that Kamo's laptop must have had a serious killer-battery as she used it all the time without recharging it first...
Finally, the drama is very interesting, because they soon find out that they are not the only ones in that desert and it is cool to see how they try to survive, when one by one people go crazy, die or have a serious mood-changes. Also drama shows different sides of life - romance, friendship, protecting nature, school, different people in extreme situations etc. I recommend it to watch as another drama not as a sci-fi, because if you concentrate too much on the surreal part of it, it gets weird.

SPOILERreview: The end is a little bit difficult to understand, but from my point of view this is how it was: they actually stayed into that desert, but they were able to recover nature, so that grass started to grow again (but it is weird that there was no possibility for other animals to come out, which means that they all became total vegetarians and the children of those 21 people will be kindred in future)   About those letters and "the past" clip which was shown - it was third parallel- the past, which would have been if some things would have not happened as they did. It is rather complicated, but just think that we never know what is real in this world and what is not - maybe every time you have to make a decision, the world actually divides itself between your decision and the parallel-what-might-have-happened. Easily said, it is another level of philosophy.

Friendship (2008)

Country: Thai
Genre: romance, human, friends
Format: movie
Cast: Mario Maurer, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Jetrin Wattanasin, Chalermpon Thikumporn Teerawong, Kanawat Chantaralawan,
Synopsis: Singha receives a call from a high school friend who is organizing a high school reunion for their class. This makes Singha reminisce of his first and only love Mituna, whom he met during his last year of high school.
Rating: 3/5
Really beautiful story of two people, who just do not find their place and time. It kind of a shows high school life and how people say/do unwanted things. It shows their school time in 1980-s and their grown-up life nowadays.

I can tell more about Singha, because the whole movie is from his point of view, because it is all his memories. Singha and his friends are such jerks - Singha is like the gang's "pretty-hot-guy" who gets girls. Like it is said in the movie "Girl-picking maniacs". They are not so-called "bad-boys" in heart, but they just have big egos. They smoke weed, drink alcohol, watch porn, do nasty things, because they are teenage boys, who want to try these things (part of growing up?? I say that you may do everything, but stay away from weed and other narcotics). I certainly think that bordell is not a place to lose one's virginity, but having way-too-much "red light streets" is sadly normal in Thai. I liked that Singha and Lam chose male-bonding instead of prostitutes. It was like "Real men do not need prostitutes" (It is true too). But about Singha more - he discovers that being a jerk will not work out with Mituna and he must become the "good understandable and caring aka his true-self" to make her notice him.

After that he is like most incredible guy ever! Where are all the guys like him??! He fells in love with Mituna soon and he is like a lost puppy - sooo cute!! Mario Maurer is born to do this kind of love-movies, great acting in every situation, beside it was only his second role! Grown-up Singha is amazing too - he is a TV producer and he draws well. Jetrin Wattanasin looks hot =P
Mituna stays a little bit mysterious person - she does not speak much, which is actually understandable if you know the reason, but they leave Mituna in the "stranger" role - it makes you feel like, she was new kid in the school and even though they all became friends, in the end others still did not know much about her. The joke about their names was that Mituna means "June" and Singha is "Autumn", on the first day of school teacher jokes that "they are only missing July" and Singha shouts that "No! July is /Mituna's/ June's and Autumn's /Singha's/ child!" - just a little word-play. From the other characters I liked Lam - even though he had the most connections with underground things.

A minus of the movie is that it has too many pointless scenes, that make no sense in it and with some characters it is impossible to grow from this to that - for example Jazz charcater will never ever look like that when she grows up - from tall, some meat on bones and feminine face you cannot have short woman with a bit macho face.. 
At one moment I thought that I had made a mistake with the movie as it was more like horror-movie XD Nice thing to see after watching real horror-movies XD
Movie has beautiful story of ever-lasting love. It is sad, but it shows the real life - everything might happen in reality too. It was sad enough to cry, but for a long time I did not cry while watching drama, but my friend, who usually doesn't, cried like a baby beside me. Guess it depends on your own character.

SPOILER-review:  In reality they just missed each other on that day with about 15-30 minutes. For those who did not understand the situation then Kong and his friends went after Mituna and raped her. Because they were usual prostitute users, Mituna got AIDS and died because of it. So sad when you now remember that Singha was just 15 to 30 minutes late...

The Cat (2011)

Also known as: The Cat: Two eyes that can see  death
Country: South-Korea
Genre: horror, (human??)
Format: movie
Cast: Park Min Young, Kim Dong Wook, Kim Ye Ron, Sin Da Eun,
Synopsis: So Yeong suffers from claustrophobia (the fear of being in closed areas like elevator, subway, small rooms) due to childhood trauma. She works as a groomer in a pet shop. One day a cat named Bidanyi (=Silky) comes into the store. The next day Silky's owner is found dead at the elevator. So Yeong, by request from her best friend's ex-boyfriend, now a local police officer Joon Suk, she takes Silky home with her. After that So Yeong starts to see a mysterious little girl with a bob-cut. Shorlty later her best friend Boo Hee, who recently adopted a cat, dies in a closet. Fearing for her own life, So Yeong with the accompany of Yoon Soo starts to investigate the mysterious case. Yet the more they try the less they come to know.
Rating: 4/5
That was like a horror movie =D It startes just like some comedy romance and then gets scary O.o

So Yeong's situation is horrible as most of the time she does not see the difference between the reality and illusion made by the illness. Also she loves the guy who is her friend's ex, even though she liked him first. Park Min Young has definitely proved how great actress she is. She does not have many dramas that I would like to see (I certainly want to see "City Hunter"), but I think that she is actress who can act in all kind of dramas and is very appealing to viewers. So Yeong had a difficult childhood and like you see in the movie - her dad has some problems.
Joon Suk was a bit naive as he joined in forces, because Bo Hee wanted it. But otherwise, Joon Suk is very caring and does not think bad of So Yeong after she tells him the possible ways. Bo Hee was bitchy and many times she did not seem to be a great friend.

My favourite character (except cats) was the little girl Hee Jin. Isn't she pretty? Really beautiful eyes. (For your knowing - I am totally serious  right now). I tried to figure out her reason and how she died for long time, but in the end it was toooo horrible way. You can figure it out some time before it comes out, but not from the half of the story. I will write about her in spoiler-review too. She harmed only those people who tortured cats, so she is not all that bad.
I think all that dressing-up and fur coloring is something that should not be done to an animal - dressing up only when it is a dog or a cat who does not have fur on its own. Bidanyi was like an vampire cat xD so cute. I am totally a cat-person and I like cats even more now XD  In titles, they have written that no cats was injured during the filming - let's believe them and those who don't - watch the movie and see how they throw stuffed toys around. 
There are not so many horrifying-sick scenes, but it is up-to horror-scale. Many watchers have considered it "one of the best Korean horror movies ever", but at the same time horror-lovers say "have seen that in that movie and that movie and in that movie too - kind of a dull and boring story". Decide yourself - I at least enjoyed it. If you want to know the reason why I watched horror movies, then it was because Friday the 13th was xD

SPOILER-review: Well, the end was total tearjerker. It was too sad to know that it all was stupid adults fault, who insisted to destroy those cats and block all entrances of the boiler room. Hee Jin just wanted to save some of the cats. Like I understand then she hit her head so that she was paralyzed actually - that is why she was not able to move anymore. The scene, which shows all this, is so sad if you replace yourself with her.