ZDorama
USA
I’ve always loved movies where a team of eccentric people who are aces at “what they do” join together and execute perfectly planned heists, like that team at the beginning of that first Tom Cruise MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE movie, the HUDSON HAWK museum thieves, heck, even OCEAN’S ELEVEN had that spirit I’m talking about…well, CHEERFUL GANG just exudes the same stuff! Dressed in loud, flamboyant clothes, the look of the gang resembled a Sentai Group that even Ishinomori Shotaro would be proud of!
Okay, I’m off to go search for Kyoka Suzuki pics.
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The story of Kaibutsu concerns a Police Detective named Kosai (Koichi Sato) who is determined to arrest an up-and-coming politician (Jun Kaname) suspected of a crime committed 15 years ago involving the murder of a little girl is intriguing enough, add in a surreal extra-sensory power Kosai has of being able to perceive a murder scene by scent alone, and you've got a slightly X-Files-ish tale on your hands. Going further and adding in another case he's working on concurrently with his new partner Ishikawa (Chiaki Kuriyama) involving a worker named Masaki (Osamu Mukai) working at a Sewage -Treatment Center who's suspected of liquidating bodies with the city's new high-pressure waste disposal unit, and we're reaching DAVID LYNCH creepiness!
"There are people who want to disappear, and then there are those whom people want to disappear", Masaki tells Kosai one day, and this seems inarguably true in a world where cruel criminals callously murder innocent victims and those slighted burn with taking revenge into their own hands, and as people begin disappearing left and right, the question of just who the "good" people are in this movie and who the "monsters" are begin to blur.
By the movie's conclusion, we are left with that thought to ponder, and as the movie ended and the characters departed, I for one wanted to see where the events set up in this movie would lead! In fact, the ending left me on SUCH a "What Happens Next...?" kind of feel, I even rushed to AsianMediaWiki to see if this was the pilot to a new TV series or another movie (like the two-movie chaptered Double Face, for example), but so far nothing yet....
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Yeah, the film was just about as silly as it sounds, but there was one BIG perk of watching it- throughout the show, they kept introducing new government assassins posing as transfer teachers and students, and among them was an extremely hot and sexy bombshell named “ Irina Jelavic”, played by pretty Jiyoung, she late of K-pop group KARA!
Damn, gotta say, when I first began watching Assassination Classroom, I didn’t even recognize her- the blonde wig was an obvious throw-off, but additionally Jiyoung was probably the last actress I expected to see here…
I guess I shouldn’t have been TOO surprised, though, since she played another little hottie in the equally crazy monster-in-the-classroom drama JIGOKU SENSEI NUBE! Mmmm, She’s been lookin’ HELLA fine!!!
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Ah, but despite coming in so late to the game, I enjoyed the flick, and WOW- one thing I was amazed to note was that though I’ve known actress RYO since her debut in Long Vacation way back in 1996, this was the FIRST TIME I’d EVER thought she was SEXY and PRETTY, man she was so HOT in this show!
Maybe it was that this was the first time I’d seen her playing a rich, socialite woman, or maybe it was that she’d gained some weight since those early days (she was always so thin) or maybe it was just those lush false eyelashes, and heavy mascara, but WOW, her portrayal of Oshima Mariko, a woman who is constantly threatening to sue the matchmaking Company because her dates always dump her had me all turned on throughout the movie!
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Yui and Abe’s acting skills are impeccable and the way they play off each other is captivating! Actually, everyone was really great, such natural and organic scenes which were composed mostly of dialog, GREAT dialog which grew and simmered like real conversations… so realistic, at times if seemed like I was watching a hidden camera video recording of some family’s life!
Watching this has really reinforced my Yui Natsukawa love, man…she was so doggone pretty and delicate in this one, not at all like the tough realist Natsumi Hayakawa (her character in Kekkon Dekinai Otoko), but both really great characters. And of course, no matter who she plays, her characters always have those signature dimples, and in fact, there's a scene where Mother (played excellently by the awesome Kiki Kirin) even comments, "Oh, you have cute dimples!" LOLOL
PS. Was really cool to realize the line “Aruitemo, Aruitemo” used as the title of this movie came from none other than the immensely gorgeous Japan chanteuse Ayumi Ishida’s song “Blue Light Yokohama”, how cool is THAT!!!
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Somehow though, once Kiira (Mirei) hooks up with the boy as a teenager, the show turned into a drama about a girl who uses all her love to convince the boy that his singing and guitar playing is awesome and he can win a talent show, if only he'd believe in himself. Yeah, they managed to stick a generic, clichéd storyline into this movie, just like they did with The Girl Who Leapt Thru Time. I mean, they DID eventually get around to the whole “vampire” thing at the end, but by then I almost didn’t care, LOL.
Plus Points for Mirei’s super-cuteness, but I gotta tell you, for a vampire movie, a good 80% of this could have been just a regular teen romance flick! I guess that was the demographic they were going for? OK.
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I have to say that I pretty much guessed the plot of Letters from Kanai Nirai right away- a few years ago, there was a essay on NPR’s “This American Life” that told the true story of a correspondence between Mother and Daughter that was almost exactly what transpired in the movie...though that ended on a more bitter note than the Aoi Yu film which was filled with warmth and love.
Aoi Yu, she’s still amazing me as always!
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Lots of great action scenes in this one and so many intriguing characters, and it becomes a madhouse of murder as each killer becomes either hunted or hunter, switching back and forth in an intricate game of cat-and-mouse til you aren't sure WHO to root for!
All this, Nanao, adorably cutesy Aimi Satsukawa as a ditsy former-student of Suzuki’s who gets accidentally involved with the whole brouhaha herself, and even a cameo with Kumiko Aso as the wife of one of the assassins!
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Besides Keiko and Ryo Nishikido, Dakishimetai featured an all-star ensemble cast, including Eriko Sato and Aya Hirayama, albeit in minor roles.
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“Judge!” is clearly Satoshi Tsumabuki’s movie and Keiko has an admittedly lesser role in it, but every scene she’s in, she just lights up with that sassy energy of hers! Whenever a scene would play, I’d find myself delightfully rewinding her parts over and over- Man, I do love this girl so much! A good, fun movie to watch over the weekend!
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Just finished watching the movie The Snow White Murder Case (Shirayuki hime Satsujin Jiken), and what an awesome film it was! A true Murder Mystery proper, this movie tells the tale of two women, one shy and homely and the other beautiful and dazzling. They’ve worked together for the company that manufactures a popular “Snow White” Beauty Soap, and when the beautiful girl, Miki Noriko (played by pretty Nanao) is discovered dead, having been stabbed multiple times, killed and set ablaze, the case is dubbed the “Snow White” Murder by the press.
I was thoroughly entertained throughout this whole movie, and my GOSH was it stylishly directed! Every shot was done with a very artistic point of view, and the opening overhead scene of the beautiful Miki Noriko laying dying on the forest floor as her slowing pulse sends spurts of blood out of her gaping wounds is an artistic masterpiece worthy of Hitchcock himself!
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how chock-full of beautiful girls there are in this movie! Besides the aforementioned Inoue Mao, Renbutsu Misako, and Nanao, we’ve also got appearances by other fetching actresses, including Tanimura Mitsuki, Ono Erena, and the always scene-stealing Shihori Kanjiya! Ah yes, a flick DEFINITELY worth watching!!!
BTW, it always amazes me how much personality Mao Inoue exudes in her roles. No matter what she does, you always tend to find yourself liking her character, even it that character is the main subject of a brutal murder! What an actress!
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Man, I have just finished watching the most awesomest movie! Years ago I saw a super fun episode of Kuwazu Girai featuring Okada Masaki and one of my very, very favorite actresses, Aoi Yu, who were at the time promoting a movie called Raiou (The Lightning Tree) and the couple was so much fun and seemed to get along so well that when I found the movie up for grabs, I downloaded it right away!
First thing I gotta say is MAN, this movie is NOTHING like what the synopses I’d been reading had indicated- far from a typical romance separation by class, Raiou took that basic premise and took a MAJOR left turn with it, turning the movie into one featuring not only romance but Action, Adventure, and Human Drama- Beyond the tale of a high class young nobleman falling in love with a peasant girl, we’ve got the male lead Narimichi (Okada Masaki) as a prince plagued by illnesses that not only make his sickly but prone to bouts of delirium as well, meeting Rai (Aoi Yu), a gruff wild-child raised in the mountains by the assassins who stole her away from her family when she was just a baby. Put these two together and you’ve got a whole new tale on an old tale!
And the second and probably most important thing about Raiou is the awesome acting, ESPECIALLY on the part of Aoi Yu, my GOSH can this chick ACT!!!! MAN, her scenes were always so gripping, emotional and intense- I have to say that by the end of the movie, I was just DRAINED! Man, NOBODY sells a character better than her, NOBODY! What will this girl do NEXT?!
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I’ve just seen a J-movie that is such a mish-mash of genres that it's end result must be one of the most unusual amalgams ever! This movie has it all: Romance, Roughnecking, Triumph and Tragedy, and it’s all set to campily enthusiastic SONG AND DANCE!
For reals, when I sat down to watch AI TO MAKOTO (For Love's Sake), I was only in it for the sweet babe-ness of its main star Emi Takei, but as soon as I saw the opening scene where delinquent bad boy Makoto (played by Satoshi Tsumabuki) beats up a rival gang all the while singing and DANCING, I knew I was in for SOME movie! Seriously, this was the Jets fighting the Sharks all over again!
I have to say that this a pretty innovative flick, and though the songs seem to break out at the most inopportune times, some of them are in fact pretty catchy, it was a thrill to hear Emi Takei singing her sweet proclamation of love to Makoto, and I have special fondness for the dark, drawling, song “Dreams Bloom at Night” which rival-love-interest Yuki (Ono Ito) hypnotically purrs to Makoto to take him away from innocent Ai’s arms…
Ai To Makoto is really like a Manga brought to life, and with waltzing Gang Members, Angry Singing Parents and enemy students brawling at the drop of a hat, it’s sometimes hard to take things seriously! But just like Romeo and Juliet (which West Side Story was based on , of course), this story has the shadow of TRAGEDY looming all over it, and you just KNOW that our heroes and heroines will not come out of it unscathed…
Ah, but let us not bring the zany vibes down! The Verdict for Ai To Makoto: Highly Original movie with an insane amount of nuttiness. Camp Factor: High, Emi Takei Cuteness factor: Maximum! Cautiously Recommended Viewing!!!
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