Dahlia
An Okay story
If you like horror genre, just watch the trailer and if you like it, then watch it. There are many scare worthy scenes in the movie which might scare you if you watch it at night alone in a dark room, but I watched it during day time with my 6 cats, so, it didn't scare me at all. ( I might get a bit scared if I recall the scenes at night, who knows?)The scary scenes are not very boring. A group of 6 students conduct a test of courage event by visiting a University's infamous female ghost bridge which is haunted. How they are doing it are streamed live. Later all of them die and a TV anchor revisits the place and what happened to them. I liked Ji De Quan - Shu Yu couple and how their love is testified(in the sense how he is protective of his love) here.
There are many scenes especially when they visit the bridge and the events after it which are scary, so horror genre loving people can give this a try, you won't be totally disappointed.
Was this review helpful to you?
Disturbing psychological events
When I saw the first episode, I was like, this is not scary at all. I read the plot summary and it went like " the real events are scarier than the drama " . After reading that I thought I would watch it during the day. The drama itself isn't that scary but many scenes are psychologically disturbing.Drama starts with a famous celebrity Haruka's paranormal experience and then goes on to show how this experience affects her and her boyfriend's life. A writer interested in paranormal stories, interviews Haruka and comes to know that all of the bad events started when her boyfriend turned fiance visited a cursed house. Then the writer connects with a number of other families who had lived in that house for a period of time . The writer discovers that all of them had experienced severe personal losses in their life after staying in that house. I liked how the writer tries to connect the dots between the events happened to the families who lived in that house once and the bad things that followed their life even after leaving the house.
The events each family goes through is shown in detail - there are many gore scenes - flesh and blood etc.. So if you are triggered by those type of scenes, then this drama may not be for you. More than your typical horror movies, in this drama, people who visit the house or who stays there experiences severe psychological disturbances.
If you like psychological, disturbing gore kind of drama for a change, then you could give this a try.
Was this review helpful to you?
A very lighthearted romance drama
If you want to watch a sweet light hearted romance drama, then this movie is it. The movie gives a glimpse into the dating hazzles of an idol.An actor idol Ayase Kaede falls in love with an ordinary high school student when he comes to her school for a shoot and how their sweet romance story progresses is portrayed here. Not much of a story but how the idol actor manages to date his high school sweetheart among his busy schedule and the consequences the couple face when reality hits is shown here. I liked the amusement park date night.
Ayase Kaede San played by Ryota is cool and his smile stole my heart. The characters I liked most were Ayase's Manager(played by Endo Kenichi) and Hinana's best friend Aachan played by Maeda Gordon. Aa chan was kind of cute and supportive. I didn't mind if Hinana ended up with Ryota or Aa chan because both couple are cute(just my opinion).
It is good to watch it once. They should have included a passionate kiss between the lead actors, even though kiss scene is there, not very passionate, so a bit disappointed there.
If you are looking for a light hearted sweet high school romance drama, then watch it already!
Was this review helpful to you?
A beautiful love story
Watched this for Sakurada Dori, I had always liked the bold characters he played on dramas. In this movie, you get to see the playful side of Sakurada Dori ( a big plus for me, as I had watched him only in serious roles) as well as his usual serious role..Taketo (played by Sakurada Dori) crosses path with a famous singer named Rin (played by Shirasu Jin). During a drunken night, Taketo tries to save Rin but ends up being a victim of a car accident alongside Rin.
Rin has some unsaid words to his love, hence he borrows Taketo's body to let his girl know how much he loves her. While doing this, he also helps Taketo's band by writing a song and performing it on a show under the band label EVEN.
The separation, the regret, the unsaid words etc, that many have experienced in life - you can get a glimpse of all that in this movie.
Will Rin in Taketo's body be able to convince the one he loves and Taketo's band members - that he is Rin?How will Rin's girlfriend react when Taketo tells her that he is Rin?If Rin is in Taketo's body, then what happened to the actual Taketo? Watch the movie to find out.
I liked the Character Kai - Taketo's friend played by Bando Ryota. Ryota expressed the sincere friend's emotions nicely. Mami, Rin's girlfriend (played by Okano Maya) also expressed the emotions required of her nicely.
Music was good, loved the lyrics.But I thought the music lacked the soul of the story of this movie. The music was good, lyrics was good but for me it didn't have the effect the story had. Songs could have been better.
A beautifully presented love story - that is what this movie is for me. Do give this movie a try if you love romance movies. You won't regret it.
Was this review helpful to you?
The 8 friends in the drama met during a cultural festival during school days stay together through college and work. But then because of an unknown twitter account, their friendship and life starts falling apart.
Okada plays Mr Good Guy(Sotaro) but is he really the Mr Good one or is he the wolf in sheep's clothing? Coming to Kaji as a manipulative SNS personality - Nakao Masaki portrayed it very well.
Meanwhile Yuma(Ogawa Sara) who is in love with Sotaro is also a good forgiving friend just like Sotaro. They both acted well, but for me they didn't have the striking chemistry as a couple. But still the story is very interesting that it keeps you glued to the screen till the end.
Other characters portrayed their roles well but I liked Gocchin(Goto Koichi played by Koya) who always comforted his friends with his food. Shinnobu, Miyuki, Mizuki and Taiyou - all performed well.
Episodes are just 15 minutes, no dragging, only relevant scenes. Music is ok. The plus point of this drama is the interesting story line. The writer has left scope for season 2. No the ending is not inconclusive, but ending is the end, still there is a scope for season 2. Ending is not how I wanted it to be, let us just say hey that's how the writer wanted it to be. The theme of this drama is very relevant to today's SNS culture.
A good Japanese Drama with an interesting plot to watch if you want to take a break from the usual highschool romcom.
Was this review helpful to you?
The plot keeps you on your toes. The murderswap game of apartment residents and the resulting murders, are they really related? Ono Chan becomes more creepier in part 2 . Sao who works at meat processing facility also gives more creepy vibes. Kuroshima's smiling stalker Uchiyama definitely tops the creepers list. Doyan - Is he really helping Tezuka in solving Nana chan's murder or does he have any hidden motive? Tamiya - is he really learning acting or venting his frustrations of feeling guilty? The Nurse and the creepy grandma - are they related to these murders??? The writer has done a great job in making us suspect many people, eventhough towards the end it becomes more or less clear who the culprit is.
Nishino Nanase(Kuroshima Sawa), Nao(Ono Chan), Kakei Miwako(Nurse), Uchiyama( Kuroshima chan's ever smiling high-school mate - could not find his real name), Ryusei(Nikaido, Doyan), Nanase Katsuhisa(Tamiya), Katagari Jin(The doc), Ando(Sao), Creepy grandma etc all did their roles well.. I mentioned only creepy people because to successfully portray creepiness it takes certain effort. Of course our favorite mystery loving couple Shouta( Tanaka Kei) and Nana(Harada Tomoyo) did a great job as well.
I would have wanted improvement on the music, though the music was creepy enough when showing Ono chan, other creepy acts and pre murder attempts deserved a chilling mood setting music to build up the suspense.
The end is just another beginning (nowadays for many dramas, it seems so). Ending seems like, part 2 was forced to end there to create a part 3 for the coming episodes. So we certainly have to wait for part 3. We got a glimpse of part3 in the last episode and it seems interesting enough for me to wait for it. This is the beauty of J Drama mysteries - the plot never disappoints.
Was this review helpful to you?
Zu yi long and Johnny bai gave life to the characters Shen Wei/Envoy/Yezun and Zhaoyunlan/Kunlun. The understanding, friendship and the love between these two characters is what made me glued to this drama.
Loved the music and story. Do give this a try, you will end up shedding a tear or two or you might end up crying all the time especially in the last few episodes.
Do give the original author's ending a try. I hear that ending is on wattpad.
Was this review helpful to you?
The newly transferred designer from New York office gets involved with his planner in Tokyo office. It isn't as simple as it appears to be.
Loved the narration, how the story was presented. That made the first few episodes very passionate. It is a mature themed romance story.
Sakurada dori who handles such mature roles with ease, handled his role very well. 10 episodes are just enough.
The beauty of japanese dramas are, they don't drag the story to fit to a 1 hour length or a 16 episodes one.
Just writing what I need to write. Loved the music too.
If you are into mature romance dramas, give this a try!
Was this review helpful to you?
Yukimura takes admission on an all boys private academy which just started admitting girls. She did this as per the suggestion of her neighbour boy who attends the same school. Bits and pieces of her life in an all boys' school is shown here.
The past shown and the present time - the events that happen have a connection. Even though it builds up your curiosity, ending was predictable and that curiosity build up didn't reach anywhere. Still I found it light hearted and not boring, because it is just 6 episodes.
I am not going to mention anything about acting, music or cinematography. For cinematography, I am not a professional. For acting and music, nothing was worth mentioning ( in a good way - nothing was extra ordinary, still the actors didn't do a bad job). Infact I found Yukimura's character pretty mature, as she didn't have to overact to present her character. For some characters, the writer portray them as extremely cute or extremely stupid. Yukimura didn't have to do either of this. So that made this watchable for me. Even though one of the teachers had such a role, and even though the plot was very weak, it was still bearable for me.
My review is my perspective, so it may or may not suit you. Give one or two episodes a try and see if you are up for it. I liked it.
Was this review helpful to you?
3 Nen A Gumi: Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu
1 people found this review helpful
Was it really a suicide or was it a murder? Our homeroom teacher Hiragi managed to keep us on our toes from start to finish. Suda Masaki portrayed Hiragi Ibuki very realistically. Not a boring moment in this drama. This drama also shows the importance of social media and addresses the issue of cyber bullying which is very relevant in today's society.
The characters I liked the best are - The some what narcissistic Takechi Sensei, detectives Gunji, Miyagi, Igarashi, Students Hayato(played by Ryota of Generations from Exile tribe), Usami, Ishikura, Hana, Satomi, Sakura etc... Ryota deserves a special mention because even though he is from JPop industry, he was not self conscious and played Hayato pretty naturally and beautifully.
I would have wanted a different ending but then again the ending the writer chose is also a good one. Music is cool and suits the mood of this drama.
Bookmark it and watch this on your free time, you won't regret it - especially suspense drama lovers!
Was this review helpful to you?
The horror scenes have been presented well. (Why I say it is presented well even though the story is weak is, recently, I watched some horror movies, which had better story lines than this but the effects were so poor that, it didn't actually make you feel the fear factor. So compared to those, the effects are good). Even though I scored it a 6, if there was a scoring for effects, I would have given an 8 for the horror scenes. The lighting and sound effects are perfect for those scenes. The unexpected( may be it was expected to be unexpected, but was predictable - hence mostly expected) comedy parts here and there cracked me up. I laugh easily so the comedy scenes did make me laugh. I started watching at 12 am and because of the fear factor (I was alone in my room), after 5 minutes, I stopped it and watched it during daytime.
This is a light hearted ghost movie, so watch and enjoy at your own leisure. Who knows? You might enjoy it if you don't have expectations or pre conceived notions about it.
Was this review helpful to you?
The Bureau uses psychic powers plus logic to solve the cases. The story is predictable but it still managed to keep my interest till the end. It also has the sweet love story of Atsushi and Aoba entangled in a kidnapping case.
Make sure to keep your popcorn or whatever snacks you eat while watching this as this will make you hungry. Why? Because there are plenty of scenes of Atsushi eating Aoba's tasty meals and fried chicken. So to satisfy your taste buds, it is highly recommended to prepare a snack of your choice before watching.
Actors were ok. Nothing commendable comes to my mind right now.
Music was nothing extra ordinary.
Give this movie a try on a lazy weekend if you find psychic stories amusing.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A seemingly innocent prank against bullies backfire and turn out to be a violent incident. The incidents leading to the prank and the aftermath faced by the culprits behind the incident - the 4 friends, is shown in this drama.This drama addresses many problems of high-school life - bullying, underage sex, how they relate to society etc.
This is not a sweet sugary romance high school love story. This leans more towards slice of life kind of story. This drama has violence and a bit more intimate scenes.
Some characters like maru are so convincing in their role that you hate them to the core in the beginning for their wrong doings. Our confused hero Tobio did an outstanding performance too.
I would have wanted Ichihashi to live and be with Renko(for God's sake, he deserves atleast that much happiness in his life). Sometimes life is like that, but considering this is a drama, the writers should have given Ichihashi a chance at happiness. His character was very mature in the end that he didn't deserve the ending he got. If I was the writer, I would have definitely given Ichihashi the happy life that he deserved.
All other characters' part fit well with the story. One more thing I would change other than Ichihashi is when Koyoi slept with Tobio and Isami found out about it - they should have given a scene to show Isami's reaction to Tobio. Just a confused surprise was not enough.
I wanted something to happen either between paisen and Sensei or between Sensei and angry detective.
Music was ok.
I would suggest you to give this a try if you are looking for something different other than the usual romcoms.
Was this review helpful to you?
Boogiepop wa Warawanai: Boogiepop and Others
0 people found this review helpful
You need to pay attention to the interludes to understand the whole story. That's what connects the whole story.
Eventhough it is a heavy theme for a high-school story , those who played the parts of Boogie pop, Manticore, Echoes, Nakao, Saotomekun, Nagi - all did their parts well.
Music was spooky enough but not satisfying for a spooky scene. The whistle seemed like a pleasant note which was ok - I liked the whistle tune. May be lighting adjustments also would have made some scenes more spookier.
I would have made the music a bit more spookier especially whenever the monster was about to devour its prey. It would have brought out the desired full fledged effect.
I liked the ending. You should definitely give this a try if you want to watch a bit out of the ordinary stuff.
Was this review helpful to you?
The story revolves around an AR game, it's developer and the people who are ready to buy this game. From start to finish, the story makes you glued to the screen - it was like that for me. But bugs appear on this game, people get killed and those who end up playing it at times experiences that there is only a thin line between reality and the game. Can the developer delete the bugs? Watch the drama to find out.
Park Shin hye who gave life to Emma and Hee ju was exceptional as always. Se ju played by Chanyeol - all Exols should watch this. Honestly I wasn't sure of Chanyeol justifying Seju's role but the last two episodes proved me wrong. Chanyeol did his part well. Hyun bin - we all know he is a veteran actor and can handle any role with ease. Others worth mentioning are those who played Marco, CEO Cha, Jin woo's Secretary, Su jin, CEO Park, Professor Cha, Hee Ju's sister and Go Yu Ra.
Music is excellent and suits the drama very well.
The Changes I would have made to this drama if I was in charge - I wanted Seju to have more screen time not because it is Chanyeol, but the Character himself as the game developer - deserved more screen time. Second thing is I might have wanted the ending differently but the ending of this drama is different to the one I or many of us might have imagined(in a good way) . There's a scope for season II, no there has to be a season II otherwise it is like they left us hanging midway just like that.
I will patiently wait for season II no matter how long it takes.
Was this review helpful to you?
