Tokyo Boy (Tokyo Shonen/東京少年 -2008)

Starring:
Maki Horikita
Takuya Ishida
Reiko Kusamura
Mitsuru Hirata

Minato is a young girl who was traumatized at a young age by being abandoned by her parents and left with her senile grandmother. She frequently corresponds with a pen-pal named Night, a boy about the same age as her that she's never actually seen in person. Although Minato and Night are very different - Minato is upbeat while Night is brooding, they get along anyway and she regularly updates him on the happenings in her daily life. Minato is even willing to confide in Night that she's falling in love with a boy she's recently met named Shu. One day she wakes up and finds Shu acting extremely distant and tentative around her. She suspects Night may have something to do with this....



This was a very interesting movie. I wasn't sure how this was going to play out. I've read that Horikata Maki was awesome in this. Well, I guess I was expecting more. She was a great actress in this movie but it wasn't anything exceptional. So she played a "male" and female in the movie. The "male" role was okay. I think any good actress would have came across well. So I guess I help my hopes up higher than what was expected.

I'm not saying this movie was a bomb. NO!!!! It was an excellent movie. Something interesting and a little different. I thought the story was great and flowed well to keep me interested.

A very sad tale about dissassociative disorder. Well, not too sad. The ending was sweet and endearing.

I won't give this movie a Rupert and Ebert "two thumbs up". But it was worth my time and effort to watch and is such a good movie that most fans of Maki will enjoy. B+, yes. Definitely.

Teppan Shojo Akane!! (鉄板少女アカネ!! -2006)

AKA: Teppan Girl


Starring:
Horikita Maki as Kagura Akane
Miyoshi Ai as Young Akane
Tsukamoto Takashi as Ichijo Shinta
Izumisawa Yuuki as Young Shinta
Jinnai Takanori as Kurogane Ginzo
Katase Nana as Saigoji Erena
David Ito as Kitamura Shugo
Ootomo Minami as Narumi Eiko
Natsuko as Katsura Yuzu
Akiko as Katsura Mikan
Ryu Raita as Akashi Mitsujiro
Iida Kisuke as Tomobe
Tamura Saburo (田村三郎) as Kinoshita
Suwa Taro as Ninomiya
Neko Hiroshi (猫ひろし)
Guests
Miyazaki Masumi as Hamada Toyoko (ep2)
Yanagisawa Nana as Yayoi (ep2)
Hamada Gaku as Hamada Shingo (ep2)
Fuse Hiroshi as Shirai Bunpei (ep3)
Mizuhashi Takami as Shirai Fumino (ep3)
Mizutani Yuri as Himeno Momoka (ep4)
Hasebe Hitomi (長谷部瞳) as Shiina Ranko (ep4)
Sakaguchi Eri (坂口エリー) as Saotome Yuri (ep4)
Toyama Kyoko as Irie Fukumi (ep5)
Asaka Mitsuyo as Yamakawa Yasuko (ep6)
Miyashita Naoki (宮下直紀) as Yamakawa Kenji (ep6)
Sato Jiro as Yamakawa Hideki (ep6)
Toyota Maho as Ou Etsuko (ep7-9)

Kagura Akane (Horikita Maki) is the only daughter of a family who runs a teppanyaki place in downtown Tokyo. Akane had always been proud of her father Tetsuma, who was called the “No.1 teppanyaki chef in Japan.” Growing up in such an environment, she naturally acquired “teppanyaki skills.” However, when her mother died of illness, her father lost his energy to work and disappeared. Since then, Akane has managed and protected the restaurant all by herself. One day, out of the blue, she is visited by Erena (Katase Nana), the rich daughter of a major food company, who orders Akane to move out at once because her father had borrowed money against his restaurant. Though feeling disappointed, Akane makes up her mind to close the store. But when her father’s friend, Kurogane (Jinnai Takanori), shows her “Ittetsu,” a grilling plate that Akane’s father cherished, it reignites her passion towards teppanyaki.

In order to protect the restaurant, she embarks on a journey with Shinta (Tsukamoto Takashi) to search for her father, but wherever she goes, she ends up getting involved in culinary battles. "--TBS"

This started off really well but eventually got overly repetetive. I couldn't take it any longer. Thankfully this series was only 9 episodes long.

The only reason I hung out as long as I did with this series was the love story underneath the teppanyaki competitions. I found myself fast forwarding through the boring cook-offs to the storyline that held my attention. Then "boom"......

Episode 8 struck. No!!!!! They can't make Shinta a bad guy! Nooooo! Ah, but the Japanese didn't disappoint me...."whew!" I really did hope for a more finished ending but for these types of genre dramas....it was for the course.

I just love Takashi-kun.............*sigh*

Tsukamoto Takashi

Kurosagi

Starring:
Yamashita Tomohisa as Kurosaki (Kurosagi)
Horikita Maki as Yoshikawa Tsurara
Ichikawa Yui as Mishima Yukari
Kato Koji as Shiraishi Yoichi
Yamazaki Tsutomu as Katsuragi Toshio
Kishibe Shiro as Mikimoto
Tayama Ryosei as Momoyama Tetsuji
Reina as Osawa Yuuko
Okunuki Kaoru as Hayasa
Sugimoto Tetta as Kurosaki's Father
Aikawa Sho as Kashima Masaru

Kurosaki is a young man whose family was destroyed by swindlers. Despite that, Kurosaki grows up to become a con artist known as Kurosagi. As Kurosagi, he swindles other con artists and returns the money to the original victim. He works with the master swindler Katsuragi Toshio even though Toshio had a hand in the destruction of Kurosaki’s family. Kurosaki's life begins to change when he meets Yoshikawa Tsurara, a young law student who disapproves of his disrespect of the law. Can she persuade Kurosaki to give up swindling and his quest for revenge?

After finally watching the drama, (yes, I had to watch it because I had to redeem the movie), I was pleasantly surprised. It was worth the time and effort and realistically made the movie seem a little better. I guess not having seen either and watching the movie first was not wise. That explains the reason the movie was so confusing. But, they shouldn't have shoved so much info into the movie for those of us that had never seen Kurosagi.......*duh*

I was hoping for more of a relationship from Yoshikawa and Kurosaki. But, the show wasn't really about them, but more of an emotional rollercoaster for Kurosaki. We get to see him come out of his shell gradually.

I think there should at least be another season of Kurosagi....maybe after Yoshikawa becomes the prosecutor she was dreaming to be. A face-off between the two would be a really exciting show and/or movie. Seeing them come together for the good would be an interesting prospect. But, eh, I'm just a stay-at-home mom....what do I know? LOL!

Kurosagi (映画 クロサギ-2008)

"This is not a play. I will decide on the plot.

If, just like Shakespeare said, life is but a walking shadow, I will happily be a shadow until I die. Until I devour all the white swindlers (people who swindle for monetary gain) in this world, the curtain will not fall on my show.

My name is........Kurosaki.

I am a walking shadow."

Starring:
Tomohisa Yamashita - Kurosaki / 'Kurosagi'
Maki Horikita
Sho Aikawa
Mao Daichi
Yui Ichikawa
Naoko Iijima
Renji Ishibashi
Koji Kato
Shiro Kishibe
Yukiya Kitamura
Toru Minegishi
Kiyotaka Nishimura
Kaoru Okunuki
Tsurube Shofukutei
Kaoru Sugita
Naoto Takenaka
Ryosei Tayama
Tsutomu Yamazaki

Eiga:Kurosagi is based on a manga that sold over 300,000 sets and went on to become a popular television drama. In the movie, Tomohisa Yamashita plays a swindler who cooly decieves other swindlers who have evil intentions. The swindlers who decieve others with words are the "shirosagi". The swindlers who play with people's feelings are "akasagi". And the one who only aims to take large sums of money from shirosagi and akasagi is Kurosaki aka Kurosagi.



I was NOT impressed with this movie. It was alright but not great. I'm being told the drama series was much better. The movie made no sense. And what the heck was Horikita Maki's role in the movie. She wasn't an antagonis, a protagonist, a love, a friend. I think she was just there was name's sake since she is a popular Japanese actress. Her character made no benefit to the storyline other than she bumped into Kurosaki all the dang time. What gives? She was a waste of writer's ink, space and time. Not her herself but the character she played.

*Okay, Maki is a big deal in the drama series. They downplayed her role in the movie which was a stupid move on the producer and director's part!*

The trailer sounds all good. I just can't believe how disappointing this movie was. I'm such a Yamapi fan. Why did they screw up such a good character and drama with this disorganized piece of junk....I mean, movie?

Yamashita Tomohisa