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.

Sweet Rain (死神の精度-2008)

Starring:
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Manami Konishi
Supporting Cast
Takuya Ishida
Ken Mitsuishi
Junko Fuji
Jun Murakami
Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Erika Okuda

Chiba (Takeshi Kaneshiro) appears seven days before a person dies an unexpected death. His job is to observe the person for seven days, and then decide either to ‘execute’ or ‘pass over’. Getting his work quickly out of the way, he goes to the listening booth of a CD shop and indulges in his favorite pastime, listening to ‘humanity’s greatest invention’: music. He is...a Grim Reaper. Today, again, in the rain, he waits. His subject, her death due in seven days, is Kazue Fujiki (Manami Konishi), 27. She works for a manufacturing company, in the complaints department. Exhausted after her day, she emerges from her office. It’s time for the Reaper to go to work.



Okay this movie had me crying at the very beginning. Well, not crying, teary-eyed...yes! The little girl reminded me of my daughter and I couldn't stop comparing the two.

I've read reviews of this movie where it's too slow and didn't make sense. I don't understand that. Okay, yes it was a bit slow but it wasn't boring at all. In actuality, this movie had 3 separate stories that correlated with each other. It's not until the last story that you are like "OMG!"

This movie, at first, has a depressing feel. The rain will get to you. Its really is a mirror image of Chibas emotions. Never having lived a human life, he never really understood what living was like. So not being able to live, he didn't understand what it really meant to die either.

This is a beautiful story of life and death. I think the story was meant to give hope to those that believe hope is lost.

This might be a story for everyone. Only because I think it takes a lot of thought and having lived a life to understand how to appreciate this movie. I think all should sit and think about what the author truly meant.

Out of the Wind (Kaze no sotogawa/風の外側-2008)

Starring:
Takao Sasaki - Son-mun Cho
Sakura Ando - Mariko Iwata
Kazu Ando
Yasuhiro Arai
Megumi Araki
Chie Ayado
Hiroyuki Ehara
Maiko Fujita
Yuya Fujita
Koichiro Hama
Mutsumi Hatano
Kazumi Hiraishi
Rie Hirata
Takuya Ishida
Shizue Kanashige
Fumitoshi Kano
Rino Katase
Ayako Kawano
Yuko Kawatsuma
Sayoko Kawatsu
Kazuki Kitamura
Yuki Kobarai
Saori Komatsuya
Kyoko Kubo
Kozue Matsumura
Hanako Minota
Masaki Miura
Koshiro Mori
Masaru Nagatani
Mari Natsuki
Ayano Nonomura
Natsuki Okamoto
Chinatsu Oku
Eiji Okuda
Kohei otomo
Masahiko Shimada
Tetsuya Shin
Eita Sorita
Ayaka Takahara
Maya Tanaka
Rika Ueda
Yuki Ueno
Miyuki Yamamoto

Mariko Iwata (Sakura Ando), a high school student who dreams to become an opera singer. Son-mun Cho (Takao Sasaki), a zainichi, loses an important music score for Mariko. In return she asks him to become her bodyguard on her way back home from school. A relation will emerge between them not without difficulties and disappointments.

This was an amazing story and movie. I happened upon from crunchyroll.com. (I'm an avid seeker of movies and they usually have the latest....)

This movie sort of reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. Mariko is a rich girl with an amazing voice who dreams of being an opera singer. Seung-mun is a Korean born in Japan. His family is traditional but yet being of Korean descent their lives are hard and cruel. We later on learn that Mariko is half Korean/Japanese, her father being full-blooded but naturalized in Japan.

As the story goes on, as Seung-mun follows her through the streets of the town, he slowly without knowing it himself has fallen for Mariko. There is a varied age difference. Mariko in her last year of high school and Seung-mun, I'm assuming, is in his early 20's.

Again as the story goes on, we come to find out that Seung-mun works for the yakuza. He is a loan shark with two of his friends who are his underlings. Mariko doesn't learn this until the very end of the story. But again we learn something of Mariko's father, as well, that we later learn unfurls the fates that decide if this will be a happy ending or not.

The story starts to get more complicated. And I'm telling you now, I started to fear and get uncomfortable with Seung-mun. We know he is actually a good guy brought up on the wrong side of town. I ached for a happy ending. I prayed for a happy ending. But as the story unfolded, it was a fated tragedy. All you could do was hope they all came out unscathed from the schrapnel that was set off from this tragic end.

I wouldn't say this was a weeper but it had me at the ready with my hand drawing closer still to the box of tissues on my coffee table.............

*Just to note: There aren't really any published pics of Sasaki Takao yet since this is his first movie and he is in the drama Bambino. He's a hottie so keep your eyes peeled for this one.....*

Rough (Rafu/ラフ-2006)

Starring:
Masami Nagasawa ... Ami
Mokomichi Hayami ... Keisuke
Tsuyoshi Abe .. Hiroki
Takuya Ishida
Mai Takahashi
Manami Kurose
Yui Ichikawa
Norito Yashima
Maki Tamaru
Yu Tokui
Yutaka Matsushige
Eriko Watanabe

High school diver Ami (Masami Nagasawa) and swimmer Keisuke (Mokomichi Hayami) don't exactly get along. Their parents run rival sweets shops, and Ami is long-time friends, and maybe more, with Keisuke's freestyle rival Hiroki (Tsuyoshi Abe). Over time, however, hostile words give way to hesitant attraction, leaving Ami torn between Keisuke and Hiroki. With the national championship coming up, the young swimmers are competing for more than the title, but also their hearts.




What a sweet movie! Loved it. Loved Hayami-kun in some really tight, tight, tight, tight swimming trunks. *sigh....heartbeat excelerates* Whew! Is it getting hot in here? *fans self*

This movie is typical girlie fanfare. Hot guys, well-formed bodies, and coming-of-age triangle romance. What was strange....their was no kissing!!!! Agh!

Script could have been better. But....ehh. Hayami-kun made up for every bad moment of the movie which were rare. LOL!

Night Time Picnic (Yoru no pikunikku, 夜のピクニック-2006)

Starring:
Tasuku Emoto ... Koichiro Takami
Sosuke Ikematsu ... Junya Sakaki
Takuya Ishida ... You Nishiwaki
Tomohiro Kaku ... Shinobu Toda
Shihori Kanjiya ... Rika Gotou
Rosa Kato ... Anna Sakaki
Madoka Matsuda ... Chiaki Kajiya
Aki Nishihara ... Miwako Yusa
Mikako Tabe ... Takako Koda
Ai Takabe ... Ryoko Uchihori
Narumi Konno

Following last year's sensitive Way of Blue Sky, director Nagasawa Masahiko continues to deal with coming-of-age tropes in Yoru no Picnic (a.k.a. Night Time Picnic). The film follows a group of high school students on a strenuous day-long hike during which they discover new sides of themselves. The story is adapted from author Onda Rika's popular same-titled novel, which earned Onda the Yoshikawa New Literary Writer's Award and the second Honya Award. Yoru no Picnic features a talented young cast including Tabe Mikako and Nishihara Aki who previously appeared in Way of Blue Sky, Ishida Takuya (Rough), Ikematsu Sosuke (Yamato), model Kato Rosa, and Kaku Tomohiro (Hana and Alice). Takako's (Tabe Mikako) high school has a unique tradition. Every year, the school's 1000 students walk 80 kilometers in 24 hours. As this is her final year of high school, Takako decides to work up the courage to talk to her stepbrother You (Ishida Takuya), whom she has never spoken to before. Classmates who are unaware of their relationship read something more into their awkward overtures.


This movie is a relatively slow moving, timid piece of work. I don't recommend it if you were looking for that "something, something". To some this would be considered boring. I'll admit that I was "this close" to just turning it off but I held on. This about friendships, relationships, trust, and betrayal.

It's a moving piece. Very thought provoking. I can't say much without giving away the plot and then the whole thing wouldn't be worth watching.

What if there was someone who was always there but you thought hated you but was more afraid of you? Would if this person was closer to you than you ever knew but didn't know how to be with that someone? Confusing? Trust me it's hard writing this without giving away the ending.

In the end, don't give up hope. Watch it till the end. It's very sentimental. I teared up at the end. It's a happy ending..that's all that I'll say.