Shining Boy and Little Randy (Hoshi ni natta shonen/ 星になった少年 -2005)

Starring:
Yuya Yagira ... Tetsumu Ogawa
Takako Tokiwa ... Sario Ogawa
Katsumi Takahashi ... Kosuke Ogawa
Yu Aoi ... Emi Murakami
Mitsuko Baisho ... Asako Fujisawa
Sayoko Oho
Kazuyuki Aijima
Tetsuya Takeda
Brother Tom
Takehiko Ono

Tetsumu, an introverted youth, realizes he has a natural ability of communicating with elephants. This prompts him to leave for Chiang Mai in Thailand to become Japan¡¯s first elephant trainer. Having found his place in the world, Tetsumu develops into a strong, confident young man. He returns to Japan with the dream of building a green ¡°paradise¡± for his ivory-tusked friends. Meanwhile, he starts a career as an elephant trainer for touring shows. He meets Emi, a woman seven years his senior and falls in love.

I write this with tear stains on my face. This movie is so touching. The love of animals and family and the role they play together.....this is that movie. Yagira Yuya, again, has picked a beautiful masterpiece that totally takes the heart and turns it inside out and outside in, in one motion.

You don't have to love elephants or animals in general to understand the mentality of youth growing up. The separation of child with its mother. The bullying and what gains and losses it brings.

Take everything.....the good and the bad of growing up.....

This will bring you heartaches and smiles....not at once....

Be prepared for the onslaught of mixed emotions at the end......bring the Kleenex.

Yagira Yuya

Tiger and Dragon (タイガー＆ドラゴン -2005)

Starring:
Nagase Tomoya as Yamazaki Kotora / Hayashiyatei Kotora / Tora / Toraji / Toravolta
Okada Junichi as Yanaka Ryuji / Hayashiyatei Kotatsu
Ito Misaki as Megumi
Nishida Toshiyuki as Yanaka Shoukichi / Hayashiatei Donbei / Shishou / Don-chan
Shoufukutei Tsurube as Nakatani Ken / Ken-chan (Shinjuku RyuseIkai Kumicho)
Tsukamoto Takashi as Nakatani Ginjiro / Gin-gin
Takuma Takayuki as Hyuuga Jun
Gin Pun Chou as Yanaka Sayuri
Abe Sadao as Yanaka Ryuhei / Hayashiyatei Donta
Nekoze Tsubaki as Yanaka Tsuruko
Shunputei Shota as Hayashiyatei Donkichi
Hoshino Gen as Hayashiyatei Dontsuku
Fukami Motoki as Hayashiyatei Donburi
Asari Yosuke as Murata Susumu / Hayashiyatei Udon
Aoi Yu as Risa
Kiritani Kenta as Chibi T / Takeshi-kun
Arakawa Yoshiyoshi as Awashima Yukio / "Jumptei Jump"
Omi Toshinori as Ta-chan (Soba Shop owner / Rakugo Fanatic)
Hankai Kazuaki as Hanzou (Oden Stand Owner / Rakugo Fanatic)
Matsumoto Jun as Yoshiko
Itou Shuuko (伊藤修子) as Nakatani Shizuka
Emoto Karin (江本花琳) as Yanaka Saya
Horaguchi Shinya (洞口信也) as Manabu
Hiroishi Keiichi (廣石恵一) as Kariya
Koumoto Junichi as Liu-san
Fukazawa Atsushi

Guests
Hiroshi (ヒロシ) as Death Kiyoshi (Sp&ep7)
Sugawara Daikichi (菅原大吉) as Tamotsu (Sp&10)
Oomori Nao as BOSS Kataoka (ep3)
Takada Fumio (高田文夫) as Takadatei Babahiko (ep3,7,10&11)
Morishita Aiko as Mizukoshi Koharu (ep4&11)
Furuta Arata as Maruo (ep5)
Shimizu Michiko as Marimo (ep5)
Yakushimaru Hiroko as Shiraishi Katsuko (ep6)
Kohinata Fumiyo as Yanagitei Koshin (ep7)
Takaoka Sousuke as Kaneko (ep8)
Kitamura Kazuki as Tanabe Yasuo (ep8,9,11)
Ino Manabu (猪野学) as Tetsuya (ep9)
Shoji Yusuke (少路勇介) as Yasuji (ep9)
Hashimoto Jun as Kaji Rikio (ep9-11)

The tale of Tiger & Dragon revolves around Rakugo, a traditional form of Japanese comedy that can look back on an impressive 400 year long history. Nagase portrays the Yakuza follower Toraji who goes to a Rakugo performer to collect debts, while Okada plays Ryuji a talented Rakugo player who wants to leave behind the old fashioned world of Rakugo for good. Shortly afterwards these two very different characters happen to cross paths through a girl named Megumi and that's when all the real trouble starts igniting.

Wow! This drama was so confusing. It's overly fast-paced. The first episode should have clued me in right there because it took me a couple of tries to watch this.

I'm not saying this show was bad but hard to keep up with. It would throw you into the Rakugo stories and then the "reality" stories and you would have to fend for yourself to figure out the show.

The show's actors were superb! Why I haven't fallen in love with Okada Junichi until now....I don't know. And Nagase Tomoya must love the "yakuza" characters he plays because he fits into those parts so well. LOL! And let's not forget the cute Tsukamoto Takashi. So I stuck in there with this drama because the eye candy was delectable.

I don't recommend this show for everyone even though there were some moments that were so funny. Again, its fact paced and the dialogue can be quick. So some jokes it took a while to catch on too. Some of the Rakugo was even lame...or maybe it's because the story was lost in translation. Literally. I know sometimes it's hard for translaters to do. So I'm not "beefing" on them. Just some words can't be translated to or from the Japanese language.

Well, it was entertaining in its own right, if you could get past the Rakugo, but that's hard since the show revolved around that entirely. Ahh well. To each his own. I'm posting pics of more eye candy any way................................................

Okada Junichi


Nagase Tomoya

All About Lily Chou-Chou (Riri Shushu no subete, リリイ・シュシュのすべて-2001)

Starring:
Hayato Ichihara - Yûichi Hasumi
Shugo Oshinari - Shusuke Hoshino
Ayumi Ito - Yôko Kuno
Takao Osawa - Tabito Takao
Miwako Ichikawa - Shimabukuro
Izumi Inamori - Izumi Hoshino
Yu Aoi - Shiori Tsuda
Kazusa Matsuda - Sumika Kanzaki
Ryo Katsuji - Terawaki Shioske
Takako Baba - School girl
Yuki Ito - Kamino
Tomohiro Kaku - Yuichi's friend
Hideyuki Kasahara - Kyota Shimizu
Yoji Tanaka - Teacher

All About Lily Chou-Chou follows two childhood friends, Shusuke Hoshino and Yuichi Hasumi, from the end of their junior high school run until the beginning of high school. The film has a discontinuous storyline, starting midway through the story, just after high school begins, then flashes back to junior high and summer vacation, and then skips back to the present.
In junior high, Hoshino was the best student in school, but was picked on by his classmates. He was skilled at kendo, and had a good-looking young mom. Yuichi, on the other hand, was a quieter boy who fell in love with the music of the odd musician Lily Chou-Chou. During a group trip to Okinawa, Hoshino had a traumatic near-death experience and his personality changed from good-natured to dangerous and manipulative. In high school, he takes his place as class bully and shows his newfound power by ruining the lives of his classmates. An alternative voice, that of the character Shiori Tsuda, attributes Hoshino's personality change to divorce and family ruin; this matches several scenes connecting the decline of Yuichi - who has had to change his name - to divorce.

Yuichi, the confused and shy former friend of Hoshino, finds himself sucked into his now-tormentor's gang. He is ridiculed and coerced into doing Hoshino's dirty work, and finds solace only in the ethereal music Lily Chou-Chou makes. Things become far worse for everyone when Yuichi is assigned to supervising Shiori Tsuda, whom Hoshino has blackmailed into enjo kōsai, and another girl is raped by Hoshino's lackeys after unwittingly offending the school's girl gang. The whole quagmire comes to a head when Yuichi heads to Tokyo to see a Lily Chou-Chou concert, and encounters the last person he thought would be there.

The story of Hoshino and Yuichi is paralleled by messages posted to a Lily Chou-Chou Internet message board. It is left up to the viewer to figure out which characters in the story are posting under what names.

Hmm? How do I describe this movie? Let's see. This movie was an artistic film. Very moving and visually stimulating. The cinematography was eye catching with the soulfull music that added depth to one perception of pain and suffering.

This movie in no way was what I thought it would turn out. No heroine, no hero. Antagonists galore. This movie didn't bring joy. It didn't bring tears. This movie in a way was like that of Hoshino nearly drowning. You feel yourself being sucked in the undertow and you can't seem to find a way to swim to shore. This is how I felt. The movie in everyway, to me, felt like this.

I didn't feel connected to Yuichi but to Hoshino. At first, at the beginning, you despise him for being the bully but in the end, well.......I felt saddened for him and by him. I felt his despair and for some reason just wanted to wrap my arms around him and say "It's okay."

There will be some who hate this movie and some who'll relate immediately to it. I don't know why but I felt both.

Oshinari Shugo

Mushishi (蟲師-2007)

AKA: Bugmaster

Starring:
Joe Odagiri ... Ginko
Nao Omori ... Nijirou
Yu Aoi ... Tanyu
Makiko Esumi ... Nui
Hideyuki Inada ... Yoki
Makiko Kuno ... Maho's mother
Reia Moriyama ... Maho
Reisen Ri ... Tanyu's nanny
Riri ... Inn owner

Some time between the Meiji and Taisho period… A mother and son walk through heavy rain. The son, YOKI, sees strange, iridescent creatures float from the mountainside and then disappear. He does not yet know such creatures are called “Mushi” and can not be seen by ordinary men. Suddenly, there is a landslide and Yoki’s mother is swallowed by the flood. A Mushishi woman named NUI finds the child, who miraculously survived, and takes him home with her…

Some years later, we meet Yoki again as an adult. Having lost his memory in an incident he can not recall, he is now called “GINKO.” He is a “Mushishi,” one who studies the Mushi he could see as a child and protects ordinary men from the illnesses that they inflict. He travels alone through the thick mountain snow, looking for a night’s lodging. We see that his hair is white like the snow and one of his eyes is now missing...

Ginko makes his way to a house where a young woman named TANYU has fallen ill. Born to a family with a strong connection to Mushi, Tanyu records the ancient stories of the Mushi onto scrolls. She fell ill after she heard a tale from a blind Mushishi woman. The woman told her about how she had fought off a powerful Mushi called “Tokoyami,” which lived at the bottom of a pond, and about an eyeless fish which lived at the bottom of the Tokoyami called “Ginko.” Her extended exposure to the pond turned her hair white and took her eyes…

In the basement library of Tanyu’s house, Ginko reads the scroll containing the tale of the blind Mushishi woman. It sounds strangely familiar to him, as if he has heard the story before… the story of a boy named “Yoki,” the sole survivor of a landslide…



Wow! This movie isn't for everyone. To some this might be too boring. On the other hand, if you have read the manga or have seen the anime, you will come to realize how well done this movie was.

Using Joe Odagiri to play the part of Ginko, the bugmaster, was brilliant. You can never go wrong with Joe. He is such an awesome actor! He plays his parts so well that he is just too cool. He is your go-to-guy if you really need an actor. I really think it's time for him to head to Hollywood. He's beyond Japan's scope of vision.

Mushishi, to me, is really about a doctor of sorts. I'm not sure if many have heard the term, if they have ever had the flu or some virus/bacteria infection, "getting the bug". This was always used if I or my siblings had gotten sick...especially a stomach virus. Well, this movie kind of reminded me of that phrase.

The village people would encompass some kind of "mushi" that made them ill some way or the other (deaf, body change, paralysis, etc.). Ginko, the Mushishi (bugmaster), would lend his services and help these people rid their bodies of the "mushi" in the same way a doctor would.

This was a beautiful story with an engaging cinemagraphic background. And, well, Joe Odagiri was in it.....there was enough salivating to last me a lifetime. He's some hot eye-candy that is for sure!!!

Odagiri Joe

Life just sucks then you die! Eeergh! I just read that he got married! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Say it isn't so Joe, say it isn't so! How am I to go on living?
*cries buckets, heaves, sobs, sighs*