Osaka
This review may contain spoilers
Paradox. My feelings for this drama are a big and bouncy paradox.
I'm not lying, this is one of my favorite korean drama but, at the same time, it's the one I hated the most!
See? That's a paradox. The cruel irony behind the love and hate for this story.
You can actually describe this story as “The most pain in the back love story of the latest centuries.”
It breaks my heart calling this drama like this but it's the sad truth.
The drama started so well and got me hooked by the very first seconds.
Two kids with both sad stories. Fell in love, a tender love, but some complications and tragics plot twists break them apart.
Ok, let's say it clearly.
When they were kids they were two adorable cupcakes.
But right after 5 episodes, they grow up and that's when troubles starts for me.
The main actress can make you fall from your chair while trying to drink some Belladonna and kill yourself because of her awful and exaggerated acting skills.
That's probably the reason why I don't like to watch a lot of korean dramas.
The huge amount of tragic and sad scenes meant to break your heart but,in the end, just make you ask for mercy because you just can't handle those pathetic scenes anymore.
I can't write spoilers, so I'll just try to let you know what “pathetic” scenes are.
Crying, crying every single time even when it's not needed.
Why do koreans cry so much in drama? That's a mistery to me.
Trying to take revange on a man for what he did ( or not did) when they were kids.
Kids get scared, it's not a fairytale so why being such a bitch with him for something ( something really terrible) that has happenend to you when both of you were SCARED KIDS?
But that's not the most stupid point here.
If you have watched this drama or at least you might had step on some spoilers you know that both Lee Sooyeon or Hwang JungWoo kept thinking about each other for the past 10 or 15 years.
When it comes to write down a character's personality I think that korean screenwriters shouldn't put tragic past on a character's life just to make you sympathize with her or him.
I'm not saying that tragic pasts are not allow but at least try to follow the string that connect the present and the past of a person without completely change it just because she's interacting with his “prince charming” ( let's call it like this.)
The female character is those kind of girls that had to handle with a terrible sequence of goings-on that traumatized her life. When she was a kid ( she was actually a 15 years old but to me you still a kid at that age), she had a really bad mother and she was living in a really bad and cruel surrounding. But, here it comes the prince charming.
The male character is a rich boy who might be living in a golden castle but has a rotten family.
A father, that is the real bad guy here but screenwriters just made you think that Harry Borrison is the cruel boy here, who loves is son just because he's the next head of the family. A stepmother who just think about her own child.
Both characters are alone somehow so they just became friends.
But korean drama's world have to be a really tragic and sad world, so something really terrible happened and they split.
So, why am I talking about their pasts? Because their past is the only thing that I liked about the plot.
When SooYeon grew up she tries to, just for two episodes though, take revenge on Jungwoo.
And ,let me say it again, it's a stupid and childish revenge. He was a kid, a kids get scared, as I said before.
But that's not the main plot.
Let's focus on the real thing.
The plot is actually complicated and intriguing but because of those two main characters I couldn't enjoying it so much.
People call it a love story, but to me this drama just make you see how “good characters” can be ignorant about some kind of mental diseases and be portrayed as “heroes” of the story.
I think that SooYeon's mother should have been punished too.
But, it's a korean drama, so this little thing just get lost in the middle of the drama.
But now, let's talk about the main star of this story.
Harry Borisson is, in my opinion, one of the best villains on the kdrama history.
Seungho had a baby faced beauty on that time. He was just a 19 years boy but he had to play a 27 or something man.
His character was the only one who was well portrayed here.
He's evil, mean, a psychopathic killer and a kind of stalker, obsessed with the female character.
Like all characters here , he sicks revenge for what they have done to him and his mother.
He's SooYeon's saviour but, even though she thanked him in the end, I still think that all this drama characters didn't really try to understand him and his actions.
There are three main victims here : Soohyun, Jungwoo and Harry.
BUT, screenwriters are as dumb as a donkey so they just made you sympathize with those two characters.
Harry is the bad guy but , God, he's a freaking victim too and 'till the end no ne tried to understand it.
It's a drama so everything is fictional but I still think that dramas have to stuck to reality as much as they can.
Here, you just spit fire for Harry sad story and sad ending.
All victims should have a happy ending, here not all of them had one.
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In this case, I think that Kuragehime ( just like a lot of other live actions adaptations) shouldn't had become a movie.
I'm a huge fan of the anime so when I found that it was going to get a live action adaptation I was so exited.
Unfortunately, I found this movie boring to the core.
The only diamond here is Suda and his acting.
The crazy and beautiful thing about Kuranosuke is that he's actually a straight guy who just love to wear girl's clothes.
Even if he's wearing a dress or a wig, he's a boy. He can both talk like a boy or a girl, but he's definitely a straight guy. Just like some drag queen who just wear sparkling clothes without being gay or anything.
Kuranosuke is basically a kind of modern and young drag queen.
His character was well portrayed and , trust me, he's the only reason to watch this adaptation. But, obviously, if you didn't read the manga nor watch the anime you can find this movie enjoyable.
But, unfortunately, I have watched the anime so It was quite hard watching this movie till the end without falling asleep in the middle.
The plot it's the same, but now I'll tell you what made me dislike this movie so much.
The lead actress and her horrible acting while playing Tsukimi.
Tsukimi is a shy, innocent , nerd girl. You can not fall in love with her, because she's a ball of sunshine and her cuteness just makes you cry while cuddling a stuffed Jellyfish.
Her beautiful personality it's a great match with Kuranosuke's one, who's hype and shining.
Talking about the lead actress, she didn't make me feel any of those characteristics said before.
Her acting was plain, her voice's tone gave me chills down of my spine, but in a bad way.
Probably people would say that it's mean saying that an actress can't act. But, in my opinion, when it comes to actors, just like singers, you have to leave aside your feelings for an actor and just judge objectively its performance.
In this case, Nounen Rena did an awful job.
Why am I saying this? Because I know her from “Hot road” and she has done the same afwul performance even in that movie.
She wasn't the right choice for this role, she was totally overshadowed by Masaki Suda.
Another good thing about this movie ( The good things about this movie are just TWO single points on my list) is the group of the “Amars.”
Skilled actress, funny and adorable. They had the magical power to bring those characters to life.
Talking about the director, I knew it from the start that I shouldn't had trust him with this adaptation.
I know him from LDK, movie that I rated 4 because, leaving aside Kento's cute face, was a totally bore.
I'll just finish up this review, if I may call it like that, by saying that if you love Suda, you definitely have to watch it.
But, if you are a fan of the anime, I think you will be a little bit disappointed by it.
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Just one word to describe this drama.
A huge, shining, sparkling, lovely BROMANCE.
Just like Warrior Baek DongSoo , also know as “A drama that’s basically yaoi but it just fools you with a story of friendship that smells of YAOI), this drama is full of romantic scenes between the two main characters.
I’m not complain on this point but let’s talk about this drama.
The plot can be summarize like this.
A school where bullying is written on students uniforms, right next their name tag.
Different stories, different characters all mixed together like a milkshake to create the perfect and pretty common School drama plot.
BUT, even though it might sounds like a boring school drama, School 2013 is not the case.
Let’s talk about the “”””villain.”””””
You might hate him at first, but after some episodes you just want to pinch his cheeks and bring him home like a lost puppy.
School nowadays is cruel, it ignores student’s problems , thinking that its only job is to bring them safely to their graduation day.
His character’s story was the most touching one. The screenwriter might had think that NamSoon and Heung Soo stories were the best ones , but in my opinion, they just make up too quickly.
But it’s a drama, so everything is allowed.
Supporting characters and Teachers were well portrayed.
BUT, in my opinion, the main star was Jung Ho.
His character was real, with a background story that everyone can actually find even in real life.
If you like bromance, you should watch this.
If you like an open ending, you should watch this.
If you are a person that can cry easily, YOU SHOULDN’T WATCH THIS.
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I’ll leave aside the plot, you all know it.
Let’s start by saying that I heard a lot of people saying that this movie is a little bit sloppy.
I didn’t watch the anime nor I have read the manga.
When it comes to live action based on manga otaku or just big fans of the story like to complain about the cast and the adaptation.
In this case I think it wasn't needed.
The cast, a pretty young one (not talking about Suda and Yamada) , is a good cast.
Suda, played Karma amazingly.
Talking about him, I’m always satisfied with his acting. He’s one of the best young actors in Japan ( if I had to make a list, I think he will rock the first place to be honest), and this time too He proved that he can easily play a cold and sarcastic character without being boring.
He had few scenes but He has done them all well.
Talking about Yamada, he’s amazing and it’s such a shame that he played a boring character like Nagisa.
A lot of people bashed his acting here but I think that he’s not at fault. His performance was good, extremely good, but I think that this character wasn’t meant for him.
He’s so talented, his acting skills were wasted on Nagisa.
And now, Kazunari.
I will recommend this movie just for his amazing job as a dubber.
He was the main star here, overshadowing even Yamada and Suda.
I hate seeing people calling him “ a pretty average actor” because in this movie you can feel his charisma just by hearing his voice.
He wasn’t physically there but you could tell what his facial expressions were or his moves just by hearing is warm and nasty voice.
In conclusion, I’ll give this movie 7 out of 10 because it was well made.
This doesn’t look like a review at all. Just my thoughts on this movie.
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Youth is not just that.
This movie it’s a slap in the face of the pretty rotten system called “mental health clinics”.
When you ask someone what “depression” or “mental diseases” are they just tell you “crazy people who are mad as hell.”
This movie portray all of this stereotypes and clean them up at the same time.
The two main characters are basically opposed to each other.
Lee Ming Ki play a pretty easy going boy who can be described as “eccentric” by society but, when it comes to a mental health institute, he’s portray as “a crazy arsonist”.
He was sent to a clinic just because he had some issues going on with his father’s inheritance so his brothers locked him there just to get all the money for themselves.
Jingoo character is a nice boy who suffers from a big trauma and now he can’t face a normal life. Not because he can’t but because he doesn’t want to.
The movie’s peace is really catching. You are tangled up with all the minor characters stories.
The main cast is superb.
Amazing actors with amazing acting skills, JinGoo is so young yet he’s basically the most talented young actor in Korea.
MingKi never fails to impress me.
He can act all different kind of roles and he never get boring.
Usually I think that Korean movies force you to cry even when the plot doesn’t need it.
They just make up some teary scenes just to make you sympathize with the characters and the story.
In this case it doesn’t happen.
When you cry you do it because the scenes are really touching and not exaggerated.
It might be a pretty simple plot but at the end it makes you realize that maybe we are all like JinGoo’s character.
Just young people afraid of built up something with our own straight because we fear adult life and the world itself.
Amazing movie, I would recommend it to everyone who like touching and simple stories.
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I love Tori so I thought :" It’s ok, even if this special turn out to be a shitty one I won’t care because Tori is too cute to be ignored.”
I was COMPLETELY wrong.
Tori might be famous for being a ikemen and let’s be honest, when you are known for being an ikemen people don’t take your acting too seriously ( Just like idol actors in Korea.)
But in this case Tori was amazing and really a cutie.
Let’s start with the plot, a really simple one but actually really interesting.
Tabito lost all his 5 senses after an incident ( or shock, if I might say it.)
He can only use his sight , really peculiar eyes that allow him to see emotions, words, smell, sound and so on.
Basically it’s like he’s suffering of Synesthesia . He’s a detective and with his ability he resolves simple cases. He than met a nursing teacher and the story begins.
There’s nothing much to say about this special but it’s really well written and the story is cute.
The ending leaves you with the feeling of wanting more, in fact I really HOPE this is going to be turned into a drama because I’ll definitely watch it.
The cast had a cute chemistry ( why am I using the word cute this much on this review???) and Tabito’s friend and “daughter” were amazing.
I recommended this special if you want to watch something cute ( here we go with cute again) and with a really handsome dad played by Tori.
I will finish this review by saying that I want now Tori’s kids.
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I loved both movies and L change the world was actually a cool movie to watch.
So if someone may ask me to describe this drama with a single word I would probably choose to use the adjective “Disappointing”.
Let me explain myself.
It’s actually a pretty good version of the anime. The story is crazily different form the original one BUT it was actually good to watch Yagami Light character portrayed as a extremely good boy who wants to clear up the world.
Let’s go on with the review:
GOOD POINTS
- L character.
I might describe myself as a “conservative” type when it comes to L character. He’s a pretty complex personality, basically a genius who’s also a weirdo.
This version of L is amazing. He’s a brat at first, a handsome young genius who just wants to play a game with an extremely “dumb” version of Light Yagami.
I loved his personality and during the drama you can see that it slightly changed to a serious one, putting aside jokes when police members start to get killed by Kira.
I always say that Kento still needs to improve as an actor but damn, here he was a shining diamond. He should accept those kind of roles more often, a villain would be a really great challenge for him.
Anyway he did an amazing job and he made me fall in love with L even more.
- Cinematography and Photography.
It was a low budget drama, Ryuk was awful BUT I love the cinematography. It’s not as perfect as “PIECE” one but damn, it was well directed.
- Police Team .
I loved the chemistry between them.
BAD POINTS
- The plot.
I would gave this drama a higher score if the plot didn’t fucked up on its last episode. Death Note screenwriters were amateurs, you can’t deny it.
L death was useless and although it was pretty dramatic I found it useless. Why recording videos of yourself in which you explain exactly how Kira will be caught but get yourself killed because of a stupid mistake?
L’s death was really unnecessary for this plot, plot full of odd points and unexplained choices.
- Light character.
Let’s be honest, I loved how they portrayed Light as a good boy who just got himself caught up with something really evil that has made his mind gone crazy.
BUT Some points were missing. He turned into a psycho really quickly and at some point I was like “What's happening? It was a good guy just a sec ago and now he’s as mad as an hatter.”
I love Kubota’s acting skills but he just got too hype during some scenes, making Light looking like an…. Overexcited idiot?
THE ENDING
Worst ending ever! On my point of view this drama started to get awful right after L death. The plot was getting boring and the main star, L, just disappeared too soon, making the audience a little bit confused and disappointed.
Honestly speaking, I would watch this drama over and over again just for Kento’s character.
I would recommend this drama if you are a big fan of Kento (just like me) but if you are a huge HUGE fan of the manga I guess this drama will piss you off.
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He’s basically one of the most talented young actors in Japan so when I watched this drama I wanted to slam the screenwriter head against a wall.
The plot is ok, I’m not saying I didn’t like it.
But all the characters, except for Kamiki’s one ( but sometimes his character too were a little bit awful) , were so bad portrayed that I almost drop this drama.
Let’s talk about the plot. It’s basically the common high school story about a girl who was bullied by evil and rich classmates and now she take a stand and try to change her rotten school.
The main idea is actually cool, the first episode left me so speechless. But after some episodes, I noticed that the story started to become a little bit boring because of the characters.
The “evil boys” weren’t actually evil at all. It took just one episode to completely make them become good puppies.
Same thing happened to the “bitches squad”.
This plot had a good meaning behind it. Education is an evil creature and basically school and teachers don’t gice a damn about their students.
Kei monologues were AMAZING! He’s so clever and I liked to see that he was actually pretty old compared to other characters age.
His background story was touching but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when he stood up just like Clara from Haidi anime.
And last but not least, Hirose Suzu.
Let’s be honest, I really hate her. I can’t understand why she’s so freaking famous as an actress when her voice is so annoying but that’s just my opinion.
Her character was cute but at the same time I found her so freaking childish. But it was a good match to Kei’s cold and sassy personality.
This wasn’t a drama meant for a love story so when Haruna kissed Kei I was like “NOOOOO WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING????”
Romance isn’t always the right choice.
Anyway, I would recommend this drama but just for Kamiki’s acting skills.
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I’m a big fan of the manga and when I heard that it was going to get a live action adaptation I was a little bit confused.
I wanted Kento Yamazaki as the main actor here and when I read that Masahiro Higashide got the main role I was like “Oh, hell no.”
But I was totally wrong and Higashide didn’t Disappoint me.
Let’s start with the plot, a pretty common one when it comes to shojo manga.
Futaba felt in love with Kou during middle school. After a while, Kou moved to another city and Futaba is left alone. She tried her best to not get hated by her classmates so she acts a little bit like a tomboy to not get noticed by boys. She has fake friends too.
But one day she noticed that Kou came back and he has changed, becoming a cold teenage boy.
The plot is actually well written and Kou personality really makes girls heart melt down like ice creams.
Talking about the characters, they are all perfect. Maybe there are some little differences between the manga and this live action but to be honest, I didn’t dislike them so much.
Honda Tsubasa wasn’t the best choice as the main character, according to my opinion. I don’t really like her acting skills but in Enoshima Prism she was quite good so I thought she would do a good job with Futuba.
Sad truth, she didn’t.
Higashide was the main star here. His acting skills are always on point with the character he is playing. It’s like he isn’t acting at all and when it comes to him it’s a good thing. I still think that Kou character was meant for Kento Yamazaki but Higashide did an amazing job. Some fans said that he was too old to play an high school boy but who cares, I saw 26 years boys playing high school boys perfectly even if they age didn’t match with the character.
In the end, I might say that this live action was well done.
The only thing I didn’t like about the plot is how they left Toma behind. He was a sweetheart , he didn’t deserved to be treat like shit by Futaba ( yes, I’m a big fan of Toma and a big fan of Chiba Yudai).
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I wasn’t expecting much, you know.
The main plot is a little bit boring. The main heroine is a girl who doesn’t want to accept that her best friend can actually find himself a good girlfriend.
Talking about Hatori, I really hates her character ( But Kiritani Mirei is always amazing when it comes to make the audience have a good laugh XD).
She’s possessive and, let me say it clearly, a little bit a pain in the back.
What I hated about this movie is how all characters try to scold Adachi attitude. Sure, maybe during the end she acted a little bit as a wannabe victim but please, let’s be honest: She wasn’t the villain at all, why calling her “ a victim” during the first half of the movie? She was basically a good girl stucked between a love game of two best friends who didn’t want to admit that they were in love since childhood.
Rita character is cute but Yamazaki Kento didn’t act so well in this movie. I think he really needs to stop for a moment and try to choose better characters, he’s pretty talented but lately all his characters are plain and have the same personalities. It’s such a shame though, his L was perfect.
I think he still need to improve as an actor and here he wasn’t actually acting at all. ( his kiss scenes are the best though!).
Sakaguchi Kentaro’s character was …idk, he was ok but I guess he was pretty useless. His acting skills are pretty average but at least, he showed some emotions.
In the end, all I can say is that I didn’t like this movie. Sure, some scenes were so funny to watch and Nakajima was a total badass, I was disappointed to see that she didn't get so many scenes TT
There are better shojo manga live actions out there, guess this one didn’t get on my favourites list.
The ost was amazing though, it’s the only thing I liked about this movie ( Kento cuteness too). Kana Nishino songs are such a bliss!
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