The quote says it all!! Kamiki’s acting is brilliant!

I have liked Kamiki since he became Seta Soujiro in Rurouni Kenshin – Kyoto Inferno (tho I actually have seen him since he was 7 years old) but Watching Gakkou no Kaidan made a fan out of me. His acting in this TV Drama is BRILLIANT!

I watched this series at the same when it aired in Japan (the magic of internet), it was from January 10 to March 14. The streaming site showed it a week later because it had to wait for someone to translate each episode. I admire the person who had subbed it because Kamiki speaks soooo fast.

To be honest, the story is very simple and in some way isn’t that interesting. There are so many flaws to the story. I have watched a lot of high school drama and most of them deliver a feeling of a whole class…Gakkou no Kaidan doesn’t have that kind of feeling. It focuses more on the two main characters and the rest of the classmates are nothing but shadow or accessories. Even when Tsubame is trying to change them little by little to be a better person, I still can’t see the emotional attach on them. I don’t blame the actors because I know the fault is on the script. Apart from the characters, there are also situation that doesn’t make normal sense at all. They make it just for the sense of dramatization.

HOWEVER,

The best of this drama keeps me wanting to see more of it.

I LOVE seeing Kamiki’s act as Tsuzukui Kei. He delivers the character flawlessly. Here’s a quote I take from Psycho Drama with the right title: Casting agents should be careful whom to cast opposite Ryunosuke Kamiki: Gakko no Kaidan serves as another acting vehicle!

As Kei Shizukui, Kamiki showed a variety of emotions – malevolent and malicious, mischievous and mysterious, revealing and secretive, powerful and helpless. I think he will definitely be enjoying playing this character.

The quote says it all!! Kamiki’s acting is brilliant! He can speak so fast without pausing (reminds me of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock). What I like the most is how easy it is for him to change emotions and face muscle. One second he acts like an annoying kid and then the next second he turns mysterious. It’s like seeing so many characters and emotion in one person. As the drama progress, we get to see more simple facial expression…simple but somehow it delivers all the feeling of annoyed, sad, tender, caring, anger, love, happy, and many more. There are many scenes where Tsubame’s word can calm the angry Tsuzukui and Kamiki does the change of his face expression so transparently without much gesture, simply relying on his face muscle. Knowing how cheerful Kamiki is in real life (I have seen quote a lot of his interviews), to be playing Tsuzukui who is totally different to the real Kamiki makes me admire this young actor.

Kamiki's Kei

The second thing that I like about this drama is the chemistry between Tsubame and Tsuzukui. Hirose and Kamiki are a great pair. It’s like they have known each other for so long. They make us believe that they really are two people who likes each other. Rather than paying attention to what will happen to the school and the students, I am more concern to know how they relationship goes…whether they admit they like each other or just simply ignore the feeling or nothing but friends.

One thing for sure, I really ship them. I kinda hope they are dating in real life 😉 I am not much of a romance lover, BUT I do like this kind of romance (the main idea of the movie/series is not in the romance, romance is just the side dish)

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Kamisama no Iutoori is definitely NOT a movie for everyone!!!

Kamisama no Iutoori is definitely NOT a movie for everyone!!!

The rating in imdb is only 6.4 out 10 but for me, it’s 4 out 5. Yup!!! I rarely have same opinion with people in imdb 😉

When it comes to crazy imagination, beyond the world and unthinkable…I have to hand it to the Japanese, they always come up with out of the box story, one that Hollywood wouldn’t even think of making it.

Kamisama no Iutoori or As God’s Will is based on a Manga under the same title, 神さまの言うとおり written by Kaneshiro Muneyaki and Fujimura Akeji. The live action version is directed by the amazing Miike Takashi (13 Assassins).

The story is centered on Takahata Shun (Fukushi Sota) who thinks that his life is really boring. The movie begins with these quotes:

Takahata: “God, My life is boring”
Amaya: “You (refers to God)…For what purpose do we live?“

DarumaSoon after that, Takahata regrets his words and wishes for his boring life to return. Out of the blue, a talking and moving Daruma Doll shows up and blowing people up with its tiny red balls. One by one, his classmates die in horrible ways.

Takahata learns that Daruma is the first of a series of brutal death game. It kinda reminds me of Battle Royale because of its survival of the fittest theme but instead of students killing each other, Kamisama no Iutoori is more to how to survive in a death again against superios creatures. The only way to beat the creature is by following the rules.

The sudden death game appears around the world, we don’t know what kind of games happen in another country as the movie only reports that the game happens around the world. In Japan, the game is very traditional. Daruma, Maneki Neko, Kokeshi and Shiroi Kuma are all Japanese toys. All the students have to pass each game to survive.

What I like the most about the plot is the unpredictable chain of event…although it’s a benefit that belongs to people who haven’t read the manga yet. It probably has different effect to people who had read the manga as they tend to lost the element of surprise. I know that the plot is something that will never happen and unbelievable, so I highly advice you to watch this with open mind and ready for everything 😉

kamisama-no-iutoori

The movie is quite gory but it still has its level of fun as it keeps us wondering what is the next game and who will join the party. In some way, you can easily guess who will advance to next level but I am glad the ending is NOT how I think it would be. Throughout the movie I keep thinking how it’s going to end BUT I am soooo happy I was wrong!! I just love a good twist 🙂

As for the characters, I am a bit bias here because I don’t know (since I haven’t read the book) whether the characters are being properly acted or not. Takahata as the main character (acted by Fukushi Sota) is not really interesting, I can’t really understand his true-self. He looks like a confused boy who doesn’t know whether to be bored, naughty or nice…he is like a person who lost his identity, then again that’s how teenagers are. The most interesting characters are Amaya Takeru (Kamiki Ryunosuke) and Satake (Sometani Shota). Those two have great confident and being acted by two Japanese best young actors.

Since we are talking about actors, it’s really hard not to point out that Sometani with his short performance and Kamiki as the co-star totally outshine Fukushi as the leading actor. Fukushi isn’t that bad but to act with such talent as Kamiki and Sometani, he really has to improve his acting skill.

I am not the only one thinking that way. Jdorama Confession mentioned:

It’s amazing how Sometani with such short performance really stood out and very memorable. Somehow I wish he has more time. As for Kamiki…wow!! I love him even more now. For someone who is so nice (Satoh Takeru even mentioned that Kamiki has such pure heart and no evil in him) Kamiki is really evil here. He really reminds me of Cillian Murphy, someone who can act out of his real personality and does it perfectly.

Kamiki as Amaya

As for Fukushi…I am sure he can improve more as time goes 🙂

Overall, I really like this movie and recommend it to people who like gore and unusual death game. There are still some flaws but still enjoyable. Not everyone’s cup of tea…that’s for sure, but even in such gore you can still find good morale and value (that’s the best part of Japanese cinema, IMO)…and the ending is open for a sequel. It’s from manga so I am sure the story is still far longer than the live action movie.

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Kogure Shashinkan is my favorite family drama

Kogure Shashinkan is my favorite family drama done by Kamiki Ryunosuke, a very talented young Japanese actor. This is the third time he played as the oldest son in a family, the other two were 11 Nin Mo Iru and Kazoku Game (I haven’t finished this one because the story lingers too much). In each drama, he showed different acting skill even though in all three he became the oldest son. One as a gentle brother, one as a cold brother and one as panicky brother. I just love seeing him acts.

Anyway, I have mentioned it before that I always like stories in a happy family rather than in a dysfunctional family (I guess that’s why I haven’t finished Kazoku Game even though Kamiki’s acting was brilliant there). Kogure Shashinkan is a warm story revolving around a happy family. The mysteries surrounding the photo studio makes the story more interesting.

Hanabishi Family decided to buy an old photo studio. However, they didn’t plan on using it as a studio only as a house. In honor of the previous owner, they kept the sign despite not using it as a photo studio. The place was said to be haunted by the old owner, Mr.Kogure. The Hanabishi were Hanabishi Hideo (Ishiguro Ken), Hanabishi Kyoko (Matsushita Yuki), Hanabishi Eiichi (Kamiki Ryunosuke) and Hanabihi Hikaru (Kabe Amon)…and an extended family, Tenko (Eiichi’s best friend) (Horii Arata). The family had a peculiar way of calling their sons, Eiichi was called Hana-chan even though Hana is usually a girl’s name and Hikaru was called Pika-chan (Hikaru means light and Pika means sparkle). The Hanabishi actually had a daughter but she had passed away due to a sudden illness. Her death had caused this small family to break away from their relatives because when Fuko passed away, everyone was blaming Kyoko for her death.

Not long after living in the photo studio, Hana-chan was given a ghost photo. The girl who gave him the photo found it in a book she bought. A face of a sad woman was seen in the background of a family photo. With some help from his family, his best friend and the real estate agents, Hana-chan began investigating the photo.

His success in solving the mystery on that photo led him to other unusual photos and somehow he got a nick name as Ghost Photo Detective.

You might think that this mini series (there were only 4 episodes) was about ghost and mystery…but it really wasn’t like that!! The story was pure about family problem.

All the ghost photos acted as stories that connect to Hanabishi’s family problems. The family loved each other…they were a true happy family. Their problems was with their relatives. Every mystery solved by Hana-chan helped him to understand his family’s problems and how to help his family.

Kogure Shashinkan was a warm family story…there were no exaggerated cry, no exaggerated shout and definitely no exaggerated family fight. It looked so normal that you could easily relates it to your own family. It was a simple story and yet very fun.

I really like Hana-chan and Tenko’s friendship. It reminds me of my own friendship with my best friend (we’ve been friends for 20 years now).

Hanachan n Tenko

I really like their brothership (I don’t think this is even a word 😉 ) Hana-chan took good care of his little brother. Both of them showed how 2 brothers from a warm family would act.

I also like Hana-chan’s unclear relationship with Kakimoto, an older girl who worked in the real estate agency with suicidal issues.

Eiichi and Junko

Basically…Kogure Shashinkan was about relationship between one person to another. Although we could clearly see that it centered mostly on Hana-Chan.

And I love everyone’s acting…every actor act so normally here, it’s like every one was destined to be the character they were chosen to play. Kamiki, once again delivered a great performance, he managed to deliver all the perfect emotion for his role.

Overall, I really enjoyed Kogure Shashinkan. I have watched it twice and would love to watch it again one day.

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